Story Time
The Golden Fleecing Part 1
The Golden Fleecing
Strange adventures have befallen Uncle Scrooge in the years that he has been amassing his great wealth.
But none has topped his quest for a golden coat!
It’s funny I never thought of this before. But a duck of my wealth should have clothes to fit his fortune!
Here I am, still wearing this old broadcloth that I bought at a rummage sale in Scotland in 1902!
Other rich men wear fancy loafer coats when they are loafing around, like I am this morning!
I’ll get myself one of those!
But my coat will be fancier than any in the world!
I’ll have it made of thousands of dollars’ worth of pure gold!
And, since I already have the gold, the coat will cost me only a few dollars--for the weaving and tailoring!
But Uncle Scrooge finds that gold coats aren’t all that they seem to be!
Mr. McDuck, I could make you a coat from this bar of gold,
but you would not like it!
Why not?
The cloth would be crinkly, like tinfoil!
That’s right! I hadn’t thought of that!
If I had some magical golden wool--like the golden fleece of ancient myth--
I could no doubt make you a gold coat that would feel like a coat!
I’m sure you could!
But the Golden Fleece was, of course, only imaginary!
(sigh!)
I guess that proves that even with my wealth, I can’t buy everything that I want!
Uh-oh! Somebody’s following me! I can see his shadow on the wall!
No doubt he’s after my gold bar! Feet, do your stuff!
Wait, Mr. McDuck!
It’s the evil looking foreigner who was in the tailor shop!
He’s up to no good! I can tell by his looks!
Uncle Scrooge! Hey! What’s your hurry!
Donald! Help me hide! Quick!
Duck into this coal chute, Uncle Scrooge!
What are you hiding from?
I haven’t time to tell you now!
Follow me through this abandoned factory!
Now through a few culvert pipes!
And under this fence!
And we’ll hide beneath this barrel!
This is the hiding place I use when Daisy comes after me to mow her lawn!
Nobody can ever find you here!
You take the gold and run Donald!
Mr. McDuck!
Jumping Jackalopes, Man!
How did you find me here?
Hee! Hee! Let us just say that I have a keen sense of smell
And you, Mr. McDuck, have a strong aroma of money!
Oh, so? Well, the joke’s on you, sniffy!
I haven’t a cent on me--or a bar of gold, either!
Calm yourself! I am not a robber!
I am--Hee! Hee! a salesman!
I overheard your words in the tailor shop
about your--Hee! Hee! desire for a golden coat!
I’ve changed my mind!
How sad! Because it so happens I have exactly what you need!
Hee! Hee! See this yarn in my hand?
My bugging eye bulbs! That’s gold wool!
You couldn’t have made this! Where does it come from?
Hee! Hee!--From far away! From fabled Colchis!
Koll-kis? I never heard of it! Is it near Hollywood?
Hee! Hee! Hee! It is the land of the fleece and the sleepless dragon!
Fleece and--Oh! You mean Colchis, the mythical land of the golden fleece?
Hee! Hee! Hee! And this golden wool
Take another look at it, Mr. McDuck! A good look!
You mean that it--it--
My stars! That could be real wool from the Golden Fleece!
It is! Hee! Hee! Hee! How very fortunate that we should meet!
Well, nobody believes ancient myths these days,
and least of all Uncle Scrooge,
But this stranger’s hank of golden wool is very, very believable!
I’m an expert on gold, and I know this stuff couldn’t be faked!
I’ll give you a bar of ordinary gold if you tell me how to get more of this!
Enough fleece for a coat, eh, Mr. McDuck? Hee! Hee! Hee!
It would mean a voyage to Colchis, Mr. McDuck!
But--Hee! Hee!--Come aboard the “Argo” and we’ll talk it over with my sis--
I mean brothers!
Hi, Uncle Donald! Who are you spying on?
SSHH!
I’ve been watching Uncle Scrooge and a stranger--a guy who’s trying to sell him the golden fleece!
Huh?
It’s even more fantastic than it sounds!
Let’s follow them! They’re going aboard a ship called the Argo!
Great Scott! Uncle Donald, that’s the ship that is pictured in our book of the old myths!
It’s probably a copy of the Argo!
The galley in which Jason sailed to find the Golden Fleece!
Something mysterious about this!
Quick! Sneak aboard! We want to listen to what they say!
In the cabin of the Argo!
Mr. McDuck, meet my sis--
I mean brothers--Eikral Senga, Eikral Zeni, Eikral Eisseb, and Eikral Yaf!
I, by the way, am Eikral Ali!
We are the dau--
I mean sons--of the queen of Seikral!
I’ve never heard of a country named Seikral!
They’re a royal family! Fancy that!
Mr. McDuck is very rich!
Mmm!
Smell the money!
I didn’t come here to be sniffed at!
I came to talk business!
Gir--I mean boys!
Mr. McDuck wants to know our price for guiding him to the Golden Fleece!
Hee! Hee! One way, of course!
He’s rich enough for our purpose!
Hee! Hee! Let’s sail back to Colchis now!
I’ll cast off the mooring lines! Hee! Hee!
I don’t like that whispering!
They’re up to something!
Y-Ye cats! L-look at that shadow!
What was it?
A big bird came out on deck and saw us and darted back
A bird with a funny head!
All birds have funny heads!
But not with horsetail hairdos!
There’s something dishonest going on!
We’ll have to have our rich plaything come back later
when his spying relatives aren’t along to raise cain!
Yes! Drat it! Send him away!
Hee! Hee! We have set our fee at five bars of gold, Mr. McDuck!
Be here ready to sail for Colchis at dusk! Hee! Hee!
I’ll think about it!
Later!
You’re not going to sail with those pirates, are you, Uncle Scrooge?
I’ll have to--if I’m going to get that fabulous fleece!
I wouldn’t trust those guys to bring it back here, once they’ve been paid!
We wouldn’t trust them to bring you back here, either, Uncle Scrooge!
Don’t worry! My wealth can always buy me out of jams with petty hagglers like those! And besides--
I kind of like the idea of being a modern Jason and going adventuring off after a golden fleece!
Uncle Scrooge is too blinded by the glitter of gold to see the danger he’s risking!
I’ll stay near him and do my best to keep him from going on that wild voyage!
Yes, lock him up, if you have to, until we find out more about The Argo and its royal crew!
In the ancient story, the golden fleece was the wool of a mythical ram!
Yes! Jason was sent to fetch it from the palace of Ares in Colchis!
Which he did--after scattering some birdlike creatures and knocking out a sleepless dragon!
He took the fleece back to Greece and married a witch named Medea!
So much for the fable!
How do these phonies happen to have some real strands of the Golden Fleece with them?
And how did the Fleece get back to Colchis--if there is such a place?
There is only one way to find the answers, men
in the Junior Woodchucks’ Guidebook and Reservoir of Inexhaustible Knowledge!
While the kids read, Uncle Scrooge returns to his office!
What a strange day!
But a lucky one!
It looks as though I’m going to get a golden coat after all!
I’ll stay here and guard that door! Nobody can get in or out without my seeing them!
Seikral Ali! How on earth did you get in here?
Through the window! Hee! Hee! Hee!
The window!
My stars, man! That’s twenty stories from the ground!
Sure is! Hee! Hee!
But such feats are easy for one who has lived long in Colchis!
But come! I am here to help you carry the five bars of gold back to the Argo
I-I’m getting scared!
Oh, so? Well, look again at the wool of the golden fleece before you
Hee! Hee! Change your mind!
Oh, boy! Oh, boy! The Golden Fleece! The Golden Fleece!
Let’s be on our way!
Great Caesar’s goosepimples! Uncle Scrooge is on his way already
And one of those Eager Edgers is pushing him along!
Wait, Uncle Scrooge! Wait for me!!!
Who hit me? Where did he come from, and where did he go?
Nobody in sight! Just this strange black feather floating down!
The kids have found some rare information!
The book says Medea got sore at Jason and skipped back to Colchis,
taking the Golden Fleece with her!
And there she hung it in the hall of echoes!
Then the birdlike creatures came to live in Colchis,
and the sleepless dragon resumed his vigil!
Golly! Everything became as it was before Jason took away the Golden Fleece!
What does it say about those funny birds?
Not much except that they had heads resembling women!
Ye cats! That’s what I saw aboard the Argo!
Aw! That couldn’t possibly be!
Read on! See what more the book says about Colchis!
Donald reaches the dock in the nick of time!
Stop that ship! I’ll call the police!
We’re going to have to take that noisy pest with us!
Yes! Better that than to bring a plague of snoopers upon Colchis!
Hee! Hee! Welcome aboard The Argo, Mr. Quackyface!
Donald!
Get out of here quick, Uncle Scrooge!
There’s something fishy about this ship!
Now, Now, Donald!
I’ve paid for my voyage with five bars of gold!
I’m sure these men respect their obligation!
Oh, sure! Sure! We respect it!
Like this! Hee! Hee! Hee!
You threw your gold overboard! Why?
Hee! Hee! Because we have no use for gold in Colchis!
And we have no use for these garments, either!
Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee!
Great Caesar’s Ghost, Donald! What fantastic creatures are these?
They’re not spring chickens! I can tell you that!