Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Author of “The Yardstick,” “The Long-Haired Jane,” etc. me TERE never should have been *Ul an odd man in the party, nor would there have been had >_j not Paul Jessee received word by cable from his wife that required him to put back tothe Statesfrom Colon. That is how there came to be a ninth man. Before the boat left Balboa for Guayaquil each of the party, except the odd man him- self, knew there would be friction after they got down to the hard routine of trail hitting. That was because the four pairs of partners had learned by experience the psychology of men under the third degree test of long trails. One man can travel alone very well, so long as he is only going a short way, otherwise the solitude may cause strange thoughts to stray through his brain and make him lie awake at nights when sleep should be resting both brain and body. Two men make the ideal combination for trail-hiking. Not that they always get along together. Sometimes they do not speak for hours or even days over the most trivial de- tail. But this is only the peevishness of strong men under punishment. Men who have ‘“‘mushed”’ dogs in the North, punched burros across deserts in the Southwest, or packed _ a blanket roll in the tropics know when to speak to a pal and when to keep silent. Otherwise, who knows how many murders might have been committed over such matters as a broken trace, a knot in a dog- whip, a cracked gee-pole, the cutting of a night’s supply of firewood, a lame burro or the pitching of a camp. Every man praises his pal as the greatest among men, but often over the glowing coals of a lonely camp-fire they scan each others’ faces for the expression that would cause them to draw and fire to kill. Thus 59 ate bet oe Sr yaeL Le it is with men who are the best friends in the world and who would fight for each other at the drop of a hat. It is a rank impos- sibility for three men to get very far on a trail. The third man is always suspicious and jealous. No matter which two drop behind or move ahead together, the third man watches cunningly and speculates that they are speaking of him or perhaps plotting against him. Soon there is a fight or a split-up and one man rolls his bed and takes the trail alone. Pairs of men who have palled together can get along outwardly better than one pair as they are ashamed of the childish- ness of sulking and hide their peevishness better, but there is many a look passed by one that is read clearly by the other. Books of psychology that young men study in college keep strangely silent on this point. This would lead one to believe that the writers of such books are men not given to moving from place to place by means of trails or dog-sleds. However, these facts as set forth are indisputable and are well known to prospectors, hunters, trappers, tropical tramps and adventurers. AND this ninth man had never been on a trail. He had been raised, as it were, within sound of his mother’s dinner bell. He was a boy- hood friend of Jessee’s. Co Doo CO