Westlake, Donald E - Novel 43
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Authors: High Adventure (v1.1)
High Adventure
Donald E.
Westlake
You are in the jungles of
Belize
.
You pick your way carefully along the
overgrown trail until you come to the clearing. There, above you, rest the
ruins of a Mayan pyramid. Is that a stone whistle at your feet? An idol of a
bat-god? Riches surround you and Kirby Galway will be more than happy to
smuggle your finds up to the
United
States
in a bale of marijuana.
Aren’t you glad you met Kirby?
If you are Innocent St. Michael, wily
Belizan bureaucrat, you’re not. After all, you sold Kirby the worthless land
and know that there are no treasures—not to mention pyramids— on it. If you are
Lemuel the curator, you’re not. After all, these artifacts should be protected—
by you and in your own way. If you are St. Michael’s assistant
Vernon
,
you’re not. After all, you
are
involved in a plot to overthrow the government and all the visitors Kirby is
bringing in are making your job more difficult.
Perhaps you are one of the two homosexual
antique dealers with a secret to keep hidden, or maybe you are Valerie—loved,
kidnaped, ordered to be executed and otherwise getting in the way. If you are,
meeting Kirby didn’t do anything for your disposition, either.
Now it is
your
turn to meet Kirby Galway and begin the most hilarious
adventure of your life.
High
Adventure
Donald E.
Westlake
The Mysterious Press
New York
This
rumpus is for
Emory and Elisa King, and for
Stewart and Lita Krohn, and for
Compton
Fairweather, all of whom
may recognize a tree or two in passing;
and for Abby Adams,
who walked this line.
“Hey, Dad, This Is Belize!”, by Emory King
Copyright 1977, Emory King Tropical Books,
Belize City
,
Belize
used by permission of the author
Beka
Lamb, by Zee Edgell Copyright 1982, Zee Edgell Heinemann Educational Books,
Ltd,
London
used by permission of the author and
Heinemann Educational Books
High
Adventure.
Copyright © 1985 by Donald E. Westlake. All rights reserved.
Printed in the
United States of America
.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews. For information address The Mysterious Press,
129
West 56th Street
,
New York
,
N.Y.
10019
.
The
characters in this story are fictitious, and any resemblance between them and
any living person is entirely coincidental.
Library
of Congress Catalogue Number: 84-62912 ISBN: 0-89296-123-6/Trade Edition
0-89296-124-4/Limited Edition
FIRST EDITION
Designed by Michael Stetson
Dust Jacket painting by David Tamura
TABLE OF CONTENTS
15 WARRIORS AND MERCHANTS:
A PRELUDE TO DISASTER
24 WHEN, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AIR
8 NORTH GUATEMALA: ME TAUGHT RON
13 SOME ASPECTS OF
PHARMACOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE
19 THE ROLE OF THE ANTI-HERO IN POSTWAR
AMERICAN FICTION
20 INSIDE THE JUNGLE THE LAND IS RICH
21 CHICKEN ESTELLE (SERVES FOUR)
23 HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE
26 SAILING DIRECTIONS (EN ROUTE) FOR
THE
CARIBBEAN SEA
from
HEY DAD, THIS IS
BELIZE
! by Emory King (abridged)
The
Atayde Brothers Circus visited
Belize
in the late twenties. It was around the
same time Lindbergh flew into Belize City with his famous plane. They set up
their tent near Memorial Park, and when the people of Belize saw what was
inside they rushed the place by the thousands.
Animals!
Boys, there were elephants, camels, show horses, polar bears, lions, tigers
from India, and even giraffes. On the 10th of September the circus band marched
through the streets and we almost had a riot.
And
a regular band it was too. All the members had uniforms with gold braid and
wore high hats and marched like soldiers. The leader of the band was a Mexican
Army Major named Ismael G. Amaton. He was on the wrong side in some revolution
in Mexico in those days and had been forced to run away and join the circus to
keep from being killed.
Every
weekend people came from all over to see the circus. There were clowns,
performing horses, acrobats from El Salvador, trapeze artists, beautiful German
girls dressed all in spangles and tights, who rode bicycles. It was a sight for
the people of Belize.
Well
boys, the circus stayed around Belize City for about two months, giving shows
every weekend to packed audiences. But a funny thing happened. The circus went
broke.
Nobody
knows why. Maybe someone ran off with the cash. But the circus did not have the
money to move on. Little by little, a few of the circus people left. Some went
to Honduras and Guatemala. Some went back to Mexico. A few stayed on in Belize.
When
there was only about 50 people left, with all the animals and equipment, they
decided to sell what they could and rent a boat to take them to Progresso.
A
storm came up when the boat, which looked like Noah’s Ark, got as far as Caye
Caulker’s northern point. They could not go out to sea, so they came up to San
Pedro and landed.
Well,
if you ever saw a circus it was that day. The boat got as close to shore as
possible, and they put the poor beasts into the sea to get ashore as best they
could.
It
was a downhearted bunch of people and a sad bunch of animals. Imagine giraffes
and elephants, and dancing horses on the beach.
Of
course, we villagers did everything we could to help. Water and meat and food
for the animals soon put the town in trouble, but somehow we fixed them up
alright. The circus people were nice, and put on a couple of shows for us in
the main park.
Oh
those were the days, boys. Ever since then, whenever we Belizeans hear of a big
project that is going to do great things in the country, we say: Bigger circus
than this come to Belize and broke up.