Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

The Ninth Man nee FROM where he was he could see \Gitau the entire city lying below. He ~~ Knew his appearance on the streets would attract attention and he was trying to figure out a way to get to the wharves without passing through the city. This he saw was impossible. Several times he started forward and stopped. He had not’ seen any of his own kind for so long he was afraid. Yet he must pass through the city to get to the steamship office. At last he set off down the mountainside. He hobbled horribly with the beri-berz. His back was bent almost double. He looked more beast than man. He came in at the head of Rua Dom Pedro Segundo. A woman standing in the doorway called upon all the saints and dashed within. Then she came out again and gaped after this strange being. Other women were doing likewise. Dogs were barking. Men and boys began to follow behind. The curiosity of the women got the better of their fears and they also joined the procession. By the time Gibbs had reached Rua Lapa a huge mob was strung out behind him. He crossed over into Avenida Central (now Rio Branco) and hundreds more stopped to gape and fell in behind. Hesaw a policeman ahead and he left the Avenida and turned sharply toward the bay. He passed the post-office and swung down along the water-front. His eyes searched the signs on the buildings. He saw one bearing the sign “Lamport & Holt S. S. Co.” A painted hand pointed upstairs. He was panting as he entered the office. Several American and English clerks were behind the counters. One of them dropped ‘a large bottle of ink he was opening to the floor and gave vent to his amazement with an oath. Gibbs stood blinking across the counter at them. Each left his work and they formed a line across the counter in front of him. The roar of the mob that had followed Gibbs, came up from the street. The thought came into his head that he was‘ safe at last. He tried to speak. It had been two years and nine months since he had uttered a word. His Adam’s apple trembled. He sat the huge pouch of gold on the counter in front of him and took out a nugget the size of an orange. The words came with great effort. It was as # he had to tear them from his larynx. Several 71 times he made a sound as of some one trying the reed of a clarinet before he could speak. ‘‘Please — let — me — have — a — ticket —to—New—York.” The rawhide sack had worn thin as paper in spots. The impact of setting it on the counter had torn a small hole. The weight from within forced a small nugget out slowly through the aperture. It balanced pre- cariously for an instant, then dropped to the counter and clattered to the floor. Gibbs swooped for the bag of gold with - both hands and clutched it to his breast in the meanwhile muttering sounds the like of which his hearers had never heard before— something but not exactly like the growling of a mother ape when her young are men- aced. Other nuggets crept forth and tum- bled to the floor. He stopped the hole with one hand and hugged the sack closer but the rawhide began to give in other places and the gold poured forth in streams. He hastily replaced the sack upon the counter and began feverishly scooping up the nuggets and pouring them back into it. But as fast as he put them in they rolled out onto the floor again. Something snapped inside his head and the mental part of him went wrong but he kept right on gathering the nuggets and pouring them into the sack. Soon he ceased gathering the real gold and began gathering imaginary gold by the handfuls and piling it upon an imaginary rawhide. “Gold! Yellow gold!’ he shouted. “A whole river full of it. We’ve been through hell, boys, but we’ve struck it rich at last.” Now and again he paused and his teeth chattered with the fear of some menacing danger that he thought was creeping upon him and his eyes dilated as he saw again a battle that was fought on the eastern frontier of Bolivia by a few Americans and many Jiveros. But soon he went back to scooping the imaginary gold from the floor and piling it upon the imaginary rawhide, mumbling incoherently the while. Men came and bound him into a strait- jacket and carried him away to a waiting ambulance. His body could no longer co- ordinate with his shattered mind but men- tally he scooped double handfuls of gold and piled it upon a rawhide. It was a task he would never finish as long as life existed in his body. COmicloo C©