the men in the smoking-room of the steamer there were the
numberless playful stories, in the rough, of the experiences
on all five continents and seven seas that were the
backgrounds of his published tales.

At Santiago, if an official was to be persuaded to consent to
some unprecedented seizure of the streets, or a diplomat
invoked for the assistance of the Army or the Navy, it was the
experience and good judgment of Dick Davis that controlled the
task. In the field there were his helpful suggestions of work
and make-up to the actors, and on the boat and train and in
hotel and camp the lady members met in him an easy courtesy
and understanding at once fraternal and impersonal.

That picture enterprise he has described in an article,
entitled "Breaking into the Movies," which was printed in
Scribner's Magazine.

The element that he could not put into the account, and which
is particularly pertinent to this page, is the author of
"Soldiers of Fortune" as he revealed himself to me both with
intention and unconsciously in the presence of the familiar
scenes.

For three weeks, with the exception of one or two occasions
when some local dignitary captured the revisiting lion, he and
I spent our evenings together at a cafe table over looking
"the great square," which he sketches so deftly in its
atmosphere when Clay and the Langhams and Stuart dine there:
"At one end of the plaza the President's band was playing