" That formation of the
sea wall is just outside of Santiago. "The waves tunnelled
their way easily enough until they ran up against those five
mountains and then they had to fall back." How natural for
one of us to be unimpressed by such a feature of the
landscape, and yet how characteristic of Dick Davis to see the
elemental fight that it recorded and get the hint for the
whole of the engineering struggle that is so much of his book!
We went over those mountains together, where two decades
before he had planted his banner of romance. We visited the
mines and the railroads, and everywhere found some
superintendent or foreman or engineer who remembered Davis.
He had guessed at nothing. Everywhere he had overlaid the
facts with adventure and with beauty, but he had been on sure
footing all the time. His prototype of MacWilliams was dead.
Together we visited the wooden cross with which the miners had
marked his grave.
One is tempted to go choosing through his book again and rob
its surprises by reminiscence--but I refrain. Yet it is only
justice to point out that for "Soldiers of Fortune," as for
the "Men of Zanzibar," "Three Gringos in Venezuela," "The
King's Jackal," "Ranson's Folly," and his other books, he got
his structure and his color at first hand.
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