Monkeying With Ancestors

W. C. Tuttle's Western comedy drops Hen Peck and Chuck Warner into the dusty boredom of Paradise, where a trainload of trouble arrives in the form of enraged performer Pedro Adonis Ferretti and his trained ape, Ajax. What begins as a drunken curiosity turns into a townwide farce when Ajax proves he can smoke, shake hands, wear clothes, carry a six-gun, and behave with unnerving frontier confidence. Soon he is wrecking saloons, frightening gamblers, and leaving behind a trail of broken furniture, bad guesses, and bigger lies. As accusations fly, Chuck and Hen find themselves blamed for shootings, robberies, and impossible acrobatics, while the sheriff and the townsmen struggle to decide whether they are dealing with criminals, fools, or both. Before the night is over, mistaken identity, borrowed clothes, and a wild chase through Paradise lead to one absurd revelation after another. Tuttle's sharp banter and slapstick energy keep the pace brisk, building to a final comic twist involving hidden money, returned clothes, and the uneasy truth that some trouble is best left unmonkeyed with. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.