, 1922-12-10

1850
down. which were probably what our
own would have been, were after
ward scratched out. We might have
believed that some else had made
these erasure but for the fact tina.
the Journal from this time on neyer
fails 20 speak OF these three men In
the highest terms. Their tirelessness,
their energy. their courage. their de-
votion 10 ChHuvannes Is -he one note
that continues through this Journal
to the end.
'Of course. one could say that as
these men has to depend on Chau.
vannes 70 bring them out. the pres
ence OF "A common peril would have
united them in his supper: and that
whpa they were apparently excrtlrg
themselves for him. they were. in fact.
laborlng to get out OF that wilderness
alive.
They were evidently densely iE-
norant persons OF a low order, every
one of them. The Finn and the
American beachcomber had no e1uca-
ton whatever; Lcture could rend, he
was a deserter, VIC think, from the
Foreign Legion-and he had a sort
of devils shrewdness. But he was no
/ match when It came TO wits fer Chau-
vannes. None OF them were. They
were ignorant and superstitious. But
they were determined. Desperate 20
the last degree and afraid OF moth
ing.
"One of the features OF the journal
that first impressed me was The fact
that Chauvannes had no illusions
about these men. He understood each
Of Them perfectly. He pinned the sue
cess OF his great plan to an accurate
conception of the Apache Lecture.
He Thought this desperate human
creature was what you would call
the best man He expected him
to come out the best man. and he laid
the plan he had in mind to fit that
eventuality. And ne was right. I
saw that when I got 10 thinking
about tho Journal.
And I saw something else. I saw
that Chauvannes realized his own
situation pretty early IN the march
of events. He knew What he was
going into. Ans he knew where the
thing would lead. He realized It q
long way ahead. This fact. as I
have said. was one of the c%onspicu.
Gus features OF the journal I sup
pose one. in an incipient madness,
might realize all the accurate fea-
lures Of the situation hat lay about
C-hauvannes, n before him, as he
I'D; but / doubt It. ] think only n
man sound and sane could have seen
II with the certainty that Chauvannes
saw 1t, and at the distance beyond
the event. Only the soundest in
-~e-7.gence. in the calm control Of every
faculty. could have realized that the
thing before him was inevitable. 4
man in n other state of mind
would have undertaken 10 delude
himself. He would have resorted 10
futile devices. or 10 some tragic IS
sue before the end, or to some futile
hope. II ook a mind like Chau-
vannos'. profoundly SAN to sec that
tho thing that awaited him was IN
evitable!
II studied that journal as closely
as a cipher dispatch. The evidences
OF Chauvannes' mental condition lid
not appear until the entries beginning
about the 18th of December-the day
on which they finally came out OF
the forest on the old elephant trail.
OF course. strange things had hap
pened before that-the defamation OF
.he force. for one thing. But Chau-
~vannes meyer seemed to attribute this
to any but a natural cause. a. sort
OF united pan of the dwarf camps
to destroy the members OF the ex.
petition.
Another installment Of "~The Greai
Cipher will begin in our next issue