SOUTH OF PANAMA
A Treatment for an Adventure Story
LARKIN FURY had been on lookout during most of the night, but he found that daylight brought no beauty to the shores of Sotavento Bay. Behind the rocky shoreline the rugged hills lifted in a bleak and tawny mass unrelieved by any growth of tree or bush.
Through the morning mist the Caribe moved ghost-like upon the dark water, feeling its way up the channel toward the dock. Details at last began to arrange themselves. Two rocky islands, white with guano and seabirds, appeared briefly to starboard, then vanished into the mist.
At the head of the cove buildings took shape, and a long dock pointed an inquiring finger toward the incoming yacht. Along the dock was a narrow tramway ending in an ore chute. Close beside it stood the gaunt and rusting skeleton of a giant crane. Shoreward, its gray bulk dwarfed by the magnitude of the mountain behind it, was the smelter. No smoke issued from the tall chimneys.
Closer to the dock and lining a street facing the water and a second street at right angles to it were a scattering of weather-beaten, nondescript buildings. A low-roofed store, a long warehouse, and a cantina, among others. Behind them along the mountainside, a scattering of huts and houses, most of them mere shacks.
It was nothing or less than nothing, an outpost of civilization at the foot of the cordillera, a place seemingly forgotten, and located upon one of the most bleak and lonely coasts in the world. From the deserts of Chile came nitrates, from the mountains copper and sulfur, and the rest of the coast offered nothing but heat, mighty winds, and the sudden chill blasts from off the Humboldt Current, a river in the sea carrying cold water north from the Antarctic. Along this coast men live only to work. There is nothing to attract them but the mining. The climate is severe, the landscape bleak and unpromising.
The town they approached was over a half mile up the channel from the lonely sea, and seemed cut off from all that was real, familiar or normal. Even the barren sea with its threats of a coming storm were preferable to this loneliness.
Larkin Fury had thought of nothing for days but to get home and get ashore. The situation aboard the Caribe had gone from bad to worse, an ill-assorted group of people subjected to all the strain of the close confines of a yacht on a long voyage, and now that strain had reached the breaking point.
At a movement beside him Fury turns to find that WENDY FORREST has come up from below. There is no one else on deck although they are visible from the wheelhouse where there is a sailor at the wheel.
Wendy is a slender, graceful girl in a linen dress. She is poised, lovely and exciting, all of which Fury knows only too well. She is also reported to be the fiancée of BLAIR MURDOCK, who owns the Caribe…and who is Fury’s employer.
Larkin Fury had returned from the Korean war, was discharged, and shortly after was offered a job by Murdock as a bodyguard. At first this seemed unnecessary, but Fury soon discovered Murdock was a man who made enemies, and his need for a bodyguard was very real. Fury is a tall, rugged-looking young man of nearly thirty with considerable experience getting around in the rough places of the world.
Now he turns to Wendy. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” She looks around. “What is this place? A ghost town?”
“On the chart it is Sotavento Bay. Last night the starb’rd engine broke down and we’re going to put in for repairs. There should be some help, and a machine shop.”
To proceed up the coast in the face of the impending storm would have been foolhardy at best, yet Larkin Fury would have preferred it. He wanted nothing so much as to be ashore in the States.
The voyage had begun on a golf course. Murdock, Fury, DAVE BRACELIN, and KEN FARRELL had been playing. No one of them was well known to the others. They were simply a group of men who had made up a foursome after reaching the clubhouse. Murdock had drafted Fury to make the fourth man; he had been working for Murdock only a few days, scarcely enough to know his employer.
As the game developed Murdock commented on the trip down the coast he was planning and the difficulty in finding a navigator for his yacht. Bracelin replied that he held a master’s ticket and had commanded a Navy supply ship during the war. Farrell, a mining engineer by profession, had been a navigator aboard bombers during World War II. Murdock already knew Fury had once been something of an amateur sailor. All were free at the time. Bracelin was looking around for some investments and Ken Farrell, a lean, pleasant man, was between assignments.
Both Bracelin and Farrell were married so it was decided to bring their WIVES along, and Murdock would invite his “fiancée” and another girl.
The Caribe was a beautifully appointed diesel-powered craft of eighty feet over-all, and carried a cook, steward, waiter and four seamen, two of whom worked on deck and two below. Their work was supplemented by the guests themselves, who took turns standing wheel-watches. The plan had been to cruise south along the coast of Chile and Peru, fishing the Humboldt Current.
Blair Murdock was a short, heavy-set man who proved to be extremely arrogant. Given to a master-of-all-he-surveys attitude, he was determined to have all his acquaintances in some way beholden to him. He has helped Wendy out of difficulties and Larkin Fury is employed by him. The others are indebted as his guests. This attitude, not obvious until the voyage was well along, made conditions aboard increasingly difficult.
Animosity eventually developed. Bracelin, an able man when sober, rarely was. His wife was neurotic, lonely, and envious of Wendy’s youth and beauty. The Farrells were tactful and considerate. They developed a liking for Fury and for Wendy. GAIL MATTESON, the other girl, was an athletic, attractive brunette with a quick tongue, often edged with acid, but a capable, interesting person. Youth and their natural attractions drew Wendy and Larkin closer together as the voyage continued.
Until the return trip had begun all had been fairly amicable. Ashore in Valparaiso, Larkin Fury had met Wendy and they lunched together, returning to the yacht, laughing and talking. Murdock had seen them come aboard and had become angry. This Ken Farrell observed, and he warned Fury.
“Watch yourself, Lark. He’s an ugly customer.”
Realizing for the first time that Murdock was jealous, Fury began to avoid Wendy. He was not afraid of Murdock, but the small space aboard the Caribe was no place for trouble. It was better, and certainly more polite, to avoid friction.
More and more the task of handling the Caribe had fallen upon the shoulders of Farrell and Fury. Murdock made no pretense of doing anything beyond taking the wheel occasionally, and Bracelin was drunk or nearly so most of the time.
The trouble that had been impending finally broke the surface as the yacht was proceeding up the channel at Sotavento Bay. Wendy explained her situation to Fury. She was not, she insisted, engaged to Murdock. He had proposed and she had agreed to give an answer when the voyage was completed. He had been friendly and helpful when she had fallen ill, and she owed him money. He had suggested that be forgotten and that she come along on the trip to recuperate. When they returned would be time enough to discuss repayment…or marriage.
Murdock had dated her several times. She had found him good company and genial. It had taken the close confines of life aboard the Caribe to convince her that living with him would be impossible. She has avoided bringing the matter to an issue, wanting no hard feelings while aboard the yacht. Like Fury she is eager for the trip to be ended. What had started as a glorious and exciting vacation was ending in a deadening feeling of futility and animosity.
Murdock arrives on deck while they talk and this leads to angry words. Agnes Bracelin adds a catty remark of her own to an already tense situation.
Further trouble is stopped by Ken Farrell with the comment that there’s trouble enough without fighting among themselves. They can see no evidence of life ashore, although two very dirty fishing boats are moored at the end of the dock. Not even a stray dog is visible.
“Deserted,” Bracelin comments, looking ashore.
“No,” Farrell says, “look.”
A MAN in dirty whites and a battered straw hat has appeared from between two buildings. He does not move forward, but merely stands watching them. Another appears beside him, and then still another, until there are at least a DOZEN. They show no evidence that they wish to be friendly. In response to shouts, they make no reply, but merely stand, staring.
Blair Murdock goes to the dock and starts toward them, muttering irritably. His short, thick-set figure shows both arrogance and anger as he strides forward. “Hey, you!” His voice is harsh. “Who’s in charge here?” There is no response, no movement, no indication that he has been heard.
“We’d better go with him,” Farrell suggests, “he’s apt to get us all in trouble.”
Their footsteps echo hollowly on the ancient wooden dock. There is nothing in the faces of the men to reassure them. Most of them seem sullen and menacing. Only one or two have a more positive attitude, but these are afraid to speak or step forward.
It is obvious to both Farrell and to Fury that something is drastically wrong, that they have unwittingly stepped into a situation loaded with danger. Furthermore, nothing in Murdock’s attitude is likely to alleviate the situation.
The men on the shore look toward the graceful white lines of the yacht. On the deck are four women, young, attractive women. There is greed in the eyes of some of the men, greed and hunger.
Glancing beyond the group, Fury can see nothing but solitude and emptiness. Obviously, the mines have been abandoned and the town is all but deserted. But why have these few stayed on here? And what is wrong? Fury speaks to them in Spanish and one man finally replies. A tall man of gaunt face and thin body.
The mines have, as they had surmised, recently closed down. The rich vein of copper that had been worked there has been lost…first the smelter closed down, then after some futile attempts to find the lost vein, the mine closed down. The machine shop is closed and the machinists and mechanics are gone. No one is in charge here now.
To his question as to why they have remained, the man hesitates, then replies this has always been his home, the grave of his father is here, and that of his mother. His wife is here, and his son. Where else will he go? What will he do?
As to the others, some are like him. Some, he admits, have remained behind for other reasons. Some, he adds, are “the men of Arango.”
Arango, it seems, is a local bandido, a rider of the hills, and a most dangerous man. With the closing of the mine this place has occasionally become his hideout.
At this there are some angry remarks from some of the rougher men in the group. Fury does not like the way these men look toward the yacht, and he is impressed anew with their helplessness. What, he wonders, is to prevent an attack upon the boat, a looting?
Farrell is professionally interested. He wishes to examine the mine. He is, he tells the tall man, whose name is PIETRO, a mining engineer. If the vein did not play out, but was broken off, he might be able to locate the lost vein. He is an expert in this sort of thing and has been employed by many of the largest mining corporations to uncover lost ore bodies.
Fury suggests they might find tools in the machine shop, but his comment provokes immediate reaction. Several of the men come forward threateningly. They are not to go near the machine shop. It would be dangerous in the extreme to persist at present. Fury can see this.
Murdock interrupts and declares they must have tools and spare parts. This is not exactly a wise comment, and from the exchanges between some in the group, Fury can see that there are those who would like to keep them from leaving.
They return to the Caribe to debate the problem. The few good men of the crowd disappear and only the gentuzas (riff raff) remain. They crowd to the edge of the dock and look at the yacht and at the women. Gail Matteson, a tall, shapely brunette, is wearing shorts and a halter. Wendy is dressed in the same way. Bracelin comes on deck carrying a bottle and a glass. This excites further muttering among the group on the shore.
Only when rain begins do they leave. Looking out a few minutes later, Larkin Fury sees the dock deserted, likewise the town. During the first hours of darkness, Pietro slips aboard and tells them they must go, that word will be taken to Arango. The men know the yacht is helpless and they will seize it. Murdock scoffs and refuses to be impressed. Bracelin is drinking and seems unaware of any trouble. The crew are working about the yacht, but obviously do not like the situation.
To try to escape in the face of the storm is extremely dangerous, and Murdock refuses to allow them to drop down into the channel. As he says, the men ashore have boats and could attack anyway, if they wished. He is not afraid, and implies Fury and Farrell are building up fears from nothing.
Larkin Fury determines to have a look at the machine shop. If they can get the necessary articles to make the repairs, and the tools they need, it is possible they might complete the work in a few hours. In the darkness and the rain he lowers a dinghy and gets into it. At the last minute, over his objections, he is accompanied by Wendy.
A driving rain is raking the harbor waters. They go up the shore to the smelter, a great, gloomy building, creaking and groaning in the wind.
They open a window and make their way through the machinery to the mechanic’s shop. Occasionally they believe they hear unnatural noises, only to pause and find nothing. They go into the machine shop and searching about, find tools, and some lengths of pipe. Suddenly, Wendy catches Larkin’s arm and points. He looks up, and there hanging from a rafter is the body of a man!
This, then, has been the reason for the fear and threatening atmosphere in the village. This is the reason why they were not wanted near the smelter. Realizing that if they are caught here they might be killed, they start to move out, and get back into the main building. Suddenly, they hear muttered conversation, and in a lightning flash, glimpse three men. Then one lights a cigarette, and in the flare of the match they see a dark, mustached face under a wide hat. He is a fat, sloppy, dirty man…but one look is all they need to know that he is also a dangerous man.
Carefully, they ease their way out of the smelter and return to their boat. They make their way back to the yacht and climb aboard.
Bracelin, who has been on lookout, is drunk and has passed out. Fury finds several of the gentuzas are aboard. One is raiding the bar, another is stuffing himself with the night-lunch put out for the watch. At the point of a pistol Fury drives them from the yacht, but they get away with several bottles and the knowledge that the yacht is ripe for the plucking, stored with quantities of food and wine.
Murdock had slept through it all. Gail Matteson has succeeded in escaping to her cabin, and although a man tried the door, he did not attempt to break it down.
Despite the seriousness of the situation Murdock will not be impressed. Part of it is obviously that he is contemptuous of the Chilenos, part of it that he wishes to show Wendy how unafraid he is. He scoffs at their story of the murdered man…they saw a sack or a shadow. Nothing to it.
Day breaks with great storm clouds at sea and white caps on the water. The crew falls to work to attempt repairs. This is all kept secret for the knowledge that the yacht is being repaired might precipitate trouble.
Ruth Farrell comes to Fury. Her husband has gone ashore with Pietro before daybreak to have a look at the mine. He believes something may be done, and Pietro has told him that only fear of the policia would prevent trouble. If the mine was to be reopened and the policia were coming back, the worst of them would take to the hills with Arango and there would be no danger.
Pietro has told Farrell and his wife of the dead man. He was the smelter boss, hated by some of the men who favor Arango. They had tortured him, believing he was taking away a large amount of gold. It had turned out to be very little, but some of them believe there is more hidden around the smelter. They say that along with the copper the mine produced some gold, and this man had kept it hidden for himself.
Fury slips ashore and talks with Pietro’s son. The boy tells him there are good men in the village, and a half dozen women, but that the gentuzas outnumber the good men, and are dangerous. Yet they will begin nothing by themselves. They fear Arango.
Fury tells the boy that he believes Arango is already in the village, and described the man he has seen in the smelter. The boy agrees he must be back and looking for the gold. Some of the good men, the boy tells him, are being swayed by the gentuzas. They are horrified that the smelter boss was tortured and killed but they are hungry, for food is short, and they are being told there is much food on the yacht.
The mine, the boy tells him, was a rich mine. It was the life of the village, of the people. Here they wished to stay, and they had remained, hoping without cause that the mine would live again. Farrell, the boy says, has told his father there is hope. That he had seen a formation like this, that an earthquake might have faulted the ground…and there are many quakes here.
Fury returns to the Caribe and is fortunate to get back aboard for now a dozen tough-looking men have gathered on the edge of the dock near the gangway. Sounds of the work going on below have been heard.
Fury warns them away and they laugh. They are doing nothing, but who is to stop them no matter what they do? And if the yacht disappears, who will know it was not lost at sea? Suddenly the crowd opens and Arango comes through.
He wears sandals and has a bulging waistline, and a straggly black mustache. He starts to come aboard and Fury orders him back. He smiles what is meant to be an ingratiating smile and tries to convince Fury that he wishes to help. He indicates several men whom, he says, are mechanics. They will make repairs. When this fails his manner shifts alarmingly. He becomes furious. He gestures. He threatens. There is a moment of tenseness when it might come to shooting, but Arango is covered at close range by Fury’s pistol and he backs off…then shrugs, laughs, and implies he was only having “fun,” that he means no trouble. He starts away, then suddenly he turns and spits on the deck, anger and vindictiveness alive in his expression.
The crew are working desperately on the engine and believe it will soon be ready to go. It is late in the day but Farrell is still ashore. Larkin Fury decides to go after him, for when the time comes to move, they must move fast. When Fury prepares to leave, his pistol is missing. Murdock offers his own. Wendy wishes to go along, but Larkin will not have it and Murdock offers objections also. Larkin goes ashore.
Later, Wendy overhears Murdock telling one of Arango’s men that Fury is ashore, and the men leave at once. Wishing to go ashore, and warn Fury, Wendy is forcibly restrained by Murdock. Hurrying below, she attempts to awaken Bracelin and tell him. That fails, and leaving Gail to work on him, Wendy goes below to where the crew are working on the engine. They refuse to believe that Murdock has deliberately sent the men after Fury. And anyway, unless the diesel is repaired they may all get caught.
The steward will not go ashore. He is afraid. The waiter is warned by Murdock that if he leaves without orders from him, he had better not return.
Ashore, Larkin Fury moves among the abandoned buildings. He is aware that Arango would like to catch him ashore where he could be murdered with impunity. Arango is no fool, and whatever he does he wishes to have as few witnesses as possible. It is one thing to know a man is a thief and a murderer, it is quite another to prove it.
Soon Fury realizes he is being stalked, yet he evades his pursuers in the darkness while working his way through the village toward the mine. Somehow they have learned he is ashore. He can tell that much. Leaving the buildings he works his way over the rocky mountainside toward the mine.
Gentuzas are waiting there, too, waiting for Farrell, who is inside the mine. Fury starts a small rockslide to divert attention, then runs for the mine, but is seen just as he enters. They rush him, he tries to fire, the gun clicks…he realizes that Murdock has sent him ashore with an empty gun.
Fury escapes into the mine and sees lights bobbing toward him. It is Pietro and Farrell. They have drilled a round of holes and spit the fuses. At his warning, they duck into a cross-cut. Their lights are hastily put out, there are running footsteps and lights that bob by the cross-cut, then a shout as the runners smell the burning fuses. Footsteps rush in the other direction. There is a roar and then silence.
Farrell returns to see what has happened at the face of the drift. Farrell is sure that work in the mine was ended on the verge of rediscovering the old vein. Fury is shown by Pietro another way out of the mine, an old working used now only as an air shaft.
Back in the abandoned streets, Fury runs across a sentry. He disarms the man and keeps the gun. At the edge of the dock he finds the yacht gone…then through the drifting fog he sees her out upon the water. Murdock has at last moved away from the dock.
In the distance Fury sees men climbing aboard through the rail from a fishing boat. He hears a shout of laughter from the boat, and a woman’s scream. He rushes down to where he had moored the dinghy in which he came ashore to avoid the crowd at the gangway. He pushes off and fog closes around him. He listens. Yells and cheers from the boat draw him on. He comes alongside and crawls aboard.
There is loud laughter from the after deck—they have already found the liquor cabinet. They have formed a rough circle and in the midst is Murdock. His shirt is torn to ribbons, he is battered and bleeding. Each time he attempts to escape the circle of his tormentors, he is hurled back or struck.
Slipping aboard, Fury finds Bracelin in the chart room. He has been beaten unconscious. Gail Matteson and Ruth Farrell are there also, working desperately over him. His wife has shut herself in her cabin and the crew are locked below. Bracelin is coming out of it; shaken, he tells Fury, “I’ll be all right. Just give me a few minutes.” Fury leaves Bracelin, telling him to release the crew and arm them…any way at all.
Bracelin starts for the crew. Fury hears Wendy scream and he goes down the ladder. Suddenly he is face to face with Arango, who has Wendy by the wrist. Murdock lies against the rail in a bloody heap. Arango stares at the gun in Fury’s hand, then at Fury.
Arango smiles, he insists they are friends, his boys are just having “fun”—they want no trouble. He starts edging closer, talking softly. Fury orders him to stop, to release Wendy. Arango’s smile fades into a snarl.
Bracelin appears behind Fury with the released crew. They all have clubs and heavy spanners, and are ready and anxious for action. But they are outnumbered three to one and several of Arango’s men have pistols and rifles.
Fury orders Arango to release Wendy and get off the boat. Arango suggests that if they let him keep Wendy, he will go. After all, they have a boat, they have money, they can get many women. After all, he leers at Wendy, she is “thin” and “not too much.” They will not miss her. Fury lifts his pistol and Arango jerks the girl in front of him.
Arango backs toward the rail, keeping the girl close.
Suddenly, they are hailed from the water. It is Pietro and Farrell in the other fishing boat. The blasting in the mine has exposed the vein…the mine will be working again!
This penetrates the consciousness of the few good men who have been swayed by desire for food and liquor. They draw back. A few of the gentuzas, the more cautious or cowardly ones, also hesitate. The police will come back, Pietro shouts—and they all know their police are not to be trifled with.
One by one they slink toward the fishing boat. Seeing himself deserted by all but a handful, Arango is suddenly vicious. He swings Wendy to arm’s length and hurls a knife. The action is sudden, but Fury has never taken his eyes from Arango. As the bandit hurls the knife, he fires. The knife misses by a hair, but Fury does not.
Arango goes down and the remaining gentuzas rush. There is a few minutes of pitched battle, and then from below comes a full-throated throbbing. One of the men has remained below to put the last bit of work on the broken down diesel.
As suddenly, the fight is over. The battered gentuzas clamber over the rail after the better men, and one leg over the rail, his shoulder and hand dripping blood, Arango looks back at Wendy.
“Oh, well,” he shrugs, “she probably wouldn’t know how to roast a goat, anyway!”
COMMENTS: It is likely but not certain that this was the first draft of a motion picture treatment. It definitely has the feel of an early ’50s, low-budget adventure film similar to Louis’s East of Sumatra.
Though I’ve removed a good deal of excessive and redundant description and rejiggered the odd paragraph structure in this manuscript to make it more readable, those issues tell me that Louis stopped and started this piece fairly often. I get the feeling he was frustrated with it or having second thoughts about bothering with it at all. As usual he was uncomfortable with the present tense requirement for treatments. Often it was only in his final polish that he got this problem squared away.
In the hard days between the decline of the fiction magazines and his breakthrough into paperback originals, Louis was often tempted to sell ideas directly to the film industry. In the end it was probably no easier than mailing away a manuscript to a publisher or agent and hoping for the best, but at least he could meet the people who were doing the buying one-on-one, and it was an additional market. Unfortunately, it is very common for people around Hollywood to tell writers that they know—that they are absolutely sure—that some star or some studio wants to make a particular sort of picture. If only a treatment could be produced or a pitch developed on the double, the idea could immediately be sold and everyone involved would be on their way to greater fame and fortune.
© Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved
I’ve been there myself and ninety-nine percent of the time it’s a delusion, a figment of the Tinseltown dreamer’s imagination and the writer’s desperate hope. Writers in Hollywood end up with stacks of these unused and often half-baked ideas; they burn them to stay warm on winter nights. Although Louis sold a fair number of treatments over the years, I fear he also fell victim to “producer’s dream syndrome” more than a few times.
It is amusing to read the description of the stereotypical bandito Arango, because I know just who Louis had in mind: the man who had almost single-handedly immortalized that unfortunate caricature in Hollywood culture, Alfonso Bedoya. Louis and Al were good friends, and I have a feeling that Dad may have pulled him out of many a fight in many a bar. I suspect Dad was trying to make the type so unmistakable that, if it was ever produced, Al would be first in line for the part.
Bedoya was a veteran character actor who made hundreds of films in Mexico and is best remembered for his delivery of the classic line “We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. From what I understand, Al was a serious badass. Louis didn’t allow a lot of people like that into his life lightly, so I’ve got to assume they were quite good friends.
Louis was fascinated by the Chilean coast. This story seems to be set in the north, but the southern stretches appear in a number of other stories. He had extensive charts, “Sailing Directions” guidebooks, and various traveler’s accounts of the southern areas from several different time periods. “Sailing Directions,” or pilot books, contain specific information for ships approaching various ports, including descriptions of the coastline and threats to navigation like reefs, sand bars, or sunken vessels. I suspect that the early description of the location of this story, and thus a good deal of the plot, was directly inspired by an old entry in one book of sailing directions or another.