Beppo was bilked by Frabbo, so he plotted his revenge. Beppo came armed with a stiletto. We are in Verona, circa 1566. Frabbo was something of a dab hand at bilking, but no match for a pointy thing prodding at his torso. That was why he wore an iron vest.

They say that Frabbo walked away unscathed that day in 1566. But he never again bilked in Verona. He had been shaken, and there were dents in his iron vest. He embarked upon a ship and sailed away to the New World.

Aboard ship, Frabbo considered the rigging. All those skeins and knots reminded him of the plots in which he had so loved to become entangled. But for Frabbo a New World meant a New Leaf. He would be a good and simple exile.

Frabbo’s brain became dizzy at the exotic strangeness of the New World. Seeking comfort in the familiar, he fell in with Jesuits. He helped them to convert the Inca through fire and flame. He lost all reason.

Frabbo’s tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth and he scampered into the interior naked and loose of limb. The interior was a wild place of dripping foliage and shrieking birds and globular fruits. Frabbo found it horrible.

Come 1576 and Frabbo is enswathed in turquoise raiment. He is deep in the interior and when he snaps his fingers monkey acolytes do his bidding. Ah, but hacking through fronds and creepers comes bilked Beppo at the head of a clanking platoon. It will be man versus monkey, and much blood will be spilt.