Kirjahaku

AN OMNIBUS EDITION containing the complete texts of the first three adventures of Burton the Red: IN THE NORTH, BURTON WITH THE THOUSAND and BEYOND ASPROMONTE. Jack Burton, who sailed the seas in 1848 to fight for the Italy of his dreams, who with a band of rebels caused the rising in 1860 in Palermo, who rode with the Thousand across Sicily, and then watched as Il Generale fell at Aspromonte, captivates two young boys with his yarns one night in a schoolyard. Burton is traveling now with a trained ape in a one ring circus. The boys decide to run away with the circus, and with this strange Burtoni. But is he a liar? Or are his adventures the truth? Without leaving a trace, Jack Burton disappears the next night in a long red convertible that seems to be driven by his ape, Zambutti Sam. So the two brothers find themselves for years pursuing him across the globe, in search of any trace they might find of something they don't quite understand.

THE FIRST ADVENTURE OF JACK BURTON, KNOWN AS THE RED When a one-ring circus comes to town, Robbie and Will try to climb up the side of a steel trailer to steal a peek at the great ape who is caged inside. But a gruff old man in a wheelchair chases them away. "You need to buy a ticket, if you want to meet Bhutto Sammy the Mountain Gorilla," he yells. But the boys return after dark that night, and old Jack Burton from his wheelchair invites them into his tent, where the ape roams free, like a servant. And the old man tells them a tale of how he earned his name, Il Rosso. Burton. The Red. Once when he was their age and orphaned, he was recruited by a soldier, Francesco Anzani, on the docks in Montevideo for a voyage across the Atlantic. After they set sail on a two-month voyage, Burton met Il Generale and learned of their purpose: to start a rebellion and to create a new country, to create Italy. During the crossing Anzani teaches young Burton to read and schools him in history from Aenas and Romulus to Austria and the Popes. Slowly Burton realizes Anzani is very sick. When their ship finally arrives in Nice, Il Generale leaves Burton behind to care for Anzani, while the rest of the men sail on to Genoa. A revolt has broken out in Milan, and Il Generale and his Legion of Volunteers hurry on to join the fight. When Anzani learns they have been left behind, he buys passage to Genoa for himself and Burton aboard a steam ship. But when they arrive, Anzani collapses at the docks. From his sickbed he gives Jack Burton a blood red shirt and charges him to deliver it to their Generale. At break of day, Francesco dies in his bed. "Is that Red Shirt?" the boys point to the tunic in the paws of Bhutto Sammy the Great Ape. But Jack Burton pauses to draw deeply the smoke from a sweet black paste in the tiny bowl of his long ivory pipe, before he continues his tale.

THE THIRD ADVENTURE OF JACK BURTON, KNOWN AS THE RED A small package arrives in the mail, postmarked Jesi. Inside it is a key and a deposit receipt from the post office there. Rob recognizes his brother Will's handwriting on the envelope. He contacts the University, only to learn that Will has accepted a fellowship for another year, but he has yet to register for a single class in the fall. This leads Rob on a journey around the world to find the postmaster in Jesi, a village between the Appenines and the Adriatic Sea in Le Marche . The key opens a safe deposit box at the post office, and inside it lies a red folder holding a thick sheaf of plain white papers, bound together with a black clasp. Scrawled across the front of it: 13 DAGGERS. Rob notices immediately that even though Will's handwriting grows more and more erratic, it is never grows totally confused. Will has found a trace of Jack Burton, and he is off once more on his trail. Her name is Naguine, or at least that is what she calls herself. She is in love with a stranger she calls Burtoni, though her feelings are not returned. This must be their man. Jack Burton. As she lights a long ivory pipe, she gazes at the gently rising smoke with her olive eyes, and tries to explain why her Burtoni is always moving, always on the run. Never with a home. This Burtoni must be their man. Burton the Red. "My dear Burtoni believes," Naguine says, " he is hunted. Hunted by his past, hunted by what he has done long ago." Her Burtoni has escaped the Night of the Thirteen Daggers. But Jack Burton, Burton the Red, is still not free.

A telegram arrives from Sicily. "Come quickly," is all it reads, and names the Hotel Domus Mariae on the island of Ortigia. When Will reaches there, a packet is waiting for him from his brother Rob. Inside it on a yellowed scrap of paper is a letter to "Mia Rafaella Carissima," explaining some strange orders for a firing squad. It is signed by one "Burtoni." It can't be him, Will thinks. It has been fifteen years of searching. Rob arrives the next day, bearing with him an old, leather bound journal. When Will objects that this is all too long ago to be their Jack Burton. Il Rosso. Who is this "Burtoni"? "Read it." is all Rob says. The journal begins on 27 March 1860 and tells the story of three men: Count Rosalino Pilo, Giovanni Corrao and one Gianni Burtoni, who is keeping the journal. Under cover of night they set sail from Quarto into the Tyrrenhian Sea, headed for Sicily with a hold full of old rusty muskets. Il Generale is asleep on his island dreaming of revolution, but he has lost all faith in the spirit of the people. So Pilo and his little crew intend to land near Messina and travel over the Nebrodi and across the north of Sicily, announcing in every little village that Il Generale is on his way. And at every stop, Pilo sends a letter back the North, proclaiming that the people of Sicily are rising in revolt. By lying to both sides, Rosalino Pilo believes they can start the revolution. "But if this is our Jack Burton, it means he's a hundred and fifty years old " Will complains. "And who is this Rafaella? This "Carissima Mia"? "Read it," is all Rob will say.