Evening journal., 1922-12-13

were probably what our own would
have been. were afferward scratch
ed out. We might have believed
that some one else had made these
erasures but for the fact that the
journal from this time on never fails
TO speak of these three men in the
highest terms. Their tireIessness.
their energy, their courage. their
devotion to Chauvannes IS the one
note that continues through this
journal TO the end.
"Of course. one could say that as
these men had 70 depend on Chau-
vannes 10 bring them out. the pres
ence OF a common peril would have
united them in his support and that
while they were apparently exert
ing themselves for him. they were
in fact. laboring to get out of that
wilderness alive.
They were evidently densely L.
norant persons OF low order. ever,
one Of them. The Finn and the
American beachcomber had no edu.
cation whatever: Lecture could read
he was a deserter we think. from
the Foreign Legion-and he had a
sort of DEVILS shrewdness. But he
was no match. when Il came TO
wits. Tor Chauvannes. None OF them
were. They were ignorant and super
stitious. But they were determined.
desperate 20 the last degree and
afraid OF nothing
- -
Journal that first Impressed me was
The fact thae Chauvannes had no IL
lusi0ns about these men. He under
stood EACH Of them perfectly. He
pinned the success Of his great plan
70 an accurate conception of the
Apache Lecture. He thought this des-
perate human creature was what
you would call the best man. He
expected him TO come out the best
man. and he laid the plan ne had
in mind TO fit that eventually And
he was right. I saw that when I got
70 thinking about the journal.
And / saw something else.
saw that Chauyannes realized his
own situation pretty early In the
march Of events He knew what he
was going into. And he knew where
the thing would lead. He realized
Il a long way ahead. This fact, as l
have said. was one OF the conspicu-
Gus features of the journal. / sup
pose one. in an incipient madness,
might realize all the accurate fea-
lures OF the situation that lay about
Chauvannes, and before him. as he
did; but I doubt It. think only a
man sound and sane could have
seen it with the certainty that
Chauvannes saw Il. and at the dis
lance beyond the event. Only the
soundest intelligence. in the calm
control of every faculty, could have
realized that the thing before him
was inevitable. a man in any other
state of mind would have under
taken to delude himself He would
have resorted to futile devices. or to
some tragic issue before the end, 80
to some futile hope. 1t took a mind
like Chauvannes'. profoundly sane.
to see that the thing that awaited
him was inevitable!
Il studied that journal as closely
as a cipher dispatch. The evidences
of Chauvannes' mental condition did
not appear until the entries begin
ming about the seventeenth of De-
cember-the day on which they
finally came out Of the forest on the
old elephant trail. OF course. strange
things had happened before that
the decimation of the force. for one
thing. But Chauvannes never seem
ed to attribute this to any but a
natural cause, a sort Of united plan
OF the dwarf camps to destroy the
members Of the expedition.
Another installment of "T'he Great
Cvnbe,. " will hpOfn in Our naxf iaS,,a