"Ludlum, Robert - The Cry Of The Halidon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ludlum Robert)

infamous Cock Pit jungles, flying low and seeing things no one in a
commercial airliner could ever see. I traveled to Kingston, to
waterfronts Bob thought I was nuts to visit. (Remember, I was much,
much younger.) I explored the coves, the bays, and the harbors of the
north coast, questioning, always questioning, frequently met by laughter
and dancing eyes, but never once hostility. I even went so far as to
initiate negotiations to purchase Errol Flynn's old estate, when, as I
recall, Hanley hammerlocked me and dragged me back to the plane under
sentence of bodily harm. (Much younger!) I was having so much fun that
one evening, while sipping cocktails in the glorious glow of a Jamaican
sunset, Mary turned to me and, in her delightfully understated way,
said, "You were actually going to buy the Flynn estate?"

"Well, there is a series of natural waterfalls leading to a pool,
and----@' "Bob Hanley has my permission to severely wound you.

Your right hand excepted." (I write in longhand.) "Do you think you'll
ever start the novel?"

"What novel?"

"I rest my case. I think it's time we go home."

"What home ..?"

"The other children, our sons."

"I know them! Big fellas! " Do you get the picture? Call it island
fever, a mad dog in the noonday sun, or a mentally impaired author
obsessed with research. But my bride was right. It was time to go home
and begin the hearty prime rib.

While rereading this novel for editorial considerations, I was struck by
how much I'd forgotten, and the memories came flooding back over me. Not
regarding the quality of the book-that's for others to comment on one
way or another-but the things I experienced that gave rise to whole
scenes, composite characters, backcountry roads dotted with the great
houses and their skeletons of bygone eras, the cocoruru peddlers on the
white sandy beaches with their machetes decapitating the fruit into
which was poured the rum ... above all the countless hundreds of large
dark eyes that held the secrets of centuries.

It was a beautiful time, and I thank all those who made it possible. I
hope you enjoy the novel for I truly enjoyed working on it.

Robert Ludlum

Naples, Florida January 1996

PORT ANTONIo/LONDON