In the blink of an eye, he found himself running headlong down a hill through a lush jungle. Vines, creepers and razor edged ferns grasping and slashing at him as he pounded through the thick growth in a valiant attempt to escape.....

They were right behind him, he could hear them crashing through the undergrowth. His khaki shorts and shirt were shredded, his exposed skin, torn and bleeding, his face, unrecognizable under the thick layer of mud and soot.

Suddenly, he burst out of the jungle onto a short clearing in front of a steep drop to a raging river below. In the micro second he had to assess the situation and react, he chose to carry on running at breakneck speed and leap out into the void after four or five quick steps, hopefully, far enough to land in the water and leave the pursuing hoard of carnivorous hamsters behind!

On the way down, he kept repeating "so far, so good...so far, so good!"

As the rushing torrent rapidly approached, he spun and arched his body in mid air, executing a fine example of a reverse Gaynor and at the last moment, straightening out to plunge headfirst into the unknown........again.......

He didn't know if the water was three feet deep or twenty. If the former, he wanted to go in head first and end it quickly. Fortunately it was the latter...... "I'm getting too old for this!" he thought as the cool water enveloped him.

All along the cliffs on both sides of the gorge, the gibbons were scoring the dive and he got high marks as evidenced by the quality of bananas that were tossed in the water behind him.

The angry hamsters lined the cliff top, hurling hamster obscenities and small twigs at him as he floated peacefully away down the river along with a few choice bananas AND.....the golden statue of the lost Hamster Goddess!!

He could see the headlines now......

Intrepid Explorer Donates Latest Find,
Museum Curator Calls It Magnanimous Gesture.....