Adventure

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Julio d’™ Annunzio sat on the very edge of his bed and shuddered.’  The shiver went not only through his body but his soul as well.’  At sixteen he should have been in the streets of Naples with the gang watching young girls go by and whistling after them with his friends; this was the way of the youth of the city, not sitting in his room and moping.’  But that was just how it had been now for over a month. He was in a deep depression and unable to shake himself out of it.’  He’  remembered only too well how it began. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  He and Chiko, had been wandering through the flea market looking at odds and …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  ‘œOf course it’™s weird, Jack, and out of this world, but I assure you it’™s true. You know Peter quite well ‘“ well enough to know that he’™s a out of his mind when it comes to taking risks. His latest craze is flying what he calls his Bumble-bee, that hang-glider with a motor. And Peter would never opt for ordinary flying ‘“’˜That’™s for sissies,’™ he says. Oh no! That’™s not for Peter. When he flies he goes ground-hugging and when Peter does ground-hugging his feet have to raise a bit of dust otherwise he feels he’™s too high! I’™m telling you he’™s mad,’ and Kenneth shook his head gazing into his beer mug as if he would find …

‘ ‘ ‘  Allen Longman couldn’™t sleep. An excitement was creeping, creeping through him. He knew that this disturbance would taunt and haunt him until he overcame doubts and begin the planning of this, his next adventure. ‘ ‘ ‘  A mountain of a man, single and as tough as they come, he always traveled as a loner even though this obsession placed him in many a precarious spot. Many a time a spectacular photograph, a new untried peak or cliff would bring on this inner taunting voice. Mountains excited him as a new toy would a child.’  His blood raced and then that inner voice’  begin its goading . .’  goading. ‘ ‘ ‘  This time the source was an anomaly ‘“ an article that …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  The earth was cool and dry in the early hours of the morning, sunrise still a pink promise in the East.’  A light morning breeze played leisurely with some grains of sand in a small hollow in which two brown seeds were lying. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  “I wonder what distance we covered?”, began one, Tsa, to his brother, Shi, still somewhat out of breath. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Shi, after the flight and excitement of the last hours, wanted nothing more than to sleep. He forced himself awake and finally said, “It seems to me that that we must have flown as high and as far… as the stars. It seemed an age in time.” ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  “Do you remember the first time we saw …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Mr. Justin Langley, a retired Judge of the High Court, was a serious man.’  There were none who remember seeing a smile take the place of the ever grave expression that appeared as would a mask covering his features. Many associates and barristers jokingly knew him as Woodface Langley. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Now in his retirement, he loved nothing more than working peacefully in his front garden or reading in his well- stocked library. The Langley’™s back garden was dominated by a great maple tree except for which there was little to speak of. This tree was a friend and playmate for many young’  children who lived nearby. These very children, however, were the one bane to old Justice Langley’™s life. …

‘  ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  The sounds that came to the man’s ears were as beautiful as they were familiar. They were of the rain forests he knew so well.’  But it was in effect the silence that dominated. It seemed to be a part of the mist that hung like a veil of gossamer over all.’  Sounds seemed only to accentuate the silence; the kind of silence that could be felt.. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Occasionally the shriek of a Teeka would shatter the stillness like the shattering of a fine sheet of glass but silence would return, as always, accompanied only by the sound of rain drops from leaves as they fell onto a world as primaeval as it had been a million years …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  I was born in the Seaboard town of Portsmouth. Although both my parents were English, my grandfather, Robert, came from Nantes as a boy of eight. As far as my memory goes back, my dream was to one day own a sail like Gramps. A twenty-one footer it is, with a gleaming white deck, a brown, wood-grained hull, a cabin for two and an eighteen horse-power engine. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  The two of us would go sailing on week-ends to see, as Gramps would say with a twinkle in his eye, just to see what was over the horizon. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Of course at the age of fourteen I was already pretty expert at sailing though handling The Queen alone in heavy …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  At the very crack of dawn when the panther and the tiger slink through the jungle after prey; when the great cats of the African plain stir to make a predawn kill, that is the time that the alley and back- yard cats, too, stir and begin their wanderings.’  Their nature was formed millenniums before man cultured the smaller of the species to keep his home free of vermin and as a playmate of sorts.’  ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  Heredity pulses strong in their veins, and their nature, indelibly stamped within their indoctrinated genes from prehistoric times, is too strong a force to be denied. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  So it was that a certain nondescript black and white male, walking the council pavement …

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘  I’™m Abe – Abe Ahronson. Ben and I became friends as naturally as only kids can at five. Although we were different in build – Ben being heavier and tougher than me, we quickly became that close we might have been twins – inseparables from Ben’™s fifth birthday, fifty eight years ago. We went through the same schools and even college though not on the same subjects’  -‘  Ben opted for a PhD becoming an expert in wild plant extracts for industrial and medical usage while I took a degree in Civil Engineering ‘“ concrete structures. Raising families and the race of living did not prevent us from frequent contacts and long hikes through natural, rough country. We would …

Ohad woke to a strange feeling that he had slept long yet was still very, very tired. His head ached badly. He thought his eyes were open, yet all was dark. ‘œBlind,’ he thought and the shock shook him into a frightening reality. ‘œDear God!,’ he went on, ‘œI really don’™t know whether it’™s dark, or ‘¦’ He didn’™t want to think of the alternative. By the smells around him, he felt he must be in a hospital. ‘œBut why!? What happened’¦’ ‘“ he struggled with his brain but found nothing that helped him fathom out why he was where he was. He couldn’™t recall a thing.’ He tried to move first his hands, then head. Fear clutched at him. …