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.
