Adventure Magazine Cover — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

= - eee eee “oy The Merchant and The M. Be” —~-. FE ————S—— ~ partes =? ae aes McMorrow ws wy 4) of Toxe rre = $5 ee Author of “Cigars, Cigarets, Chocolates and Bonbons,” “Tub o’ Lard,” etc fj HERE was in the A. E. F.,, during those ‘dull months fol- lowing the Armistice, one Scal- lan, called “the Merchant,” a sawed-off, sandy, hard-mouthed runt of a buck private who was made for peace-time soldiering as a hedgehog is for a seat. He hated to drill, would walk up to his’ knees in mud to avoid passing an officer and salut- ing, would rather do a month in the guard- house than an hour at guard-mount and never saw a sentry.on post or an M. P. in his path without thinking that the people who put them there knew best, and that it was worth while to explore what it was worth while to forbid. And, having a tongue buttered on one side and rasped on the other, a velvet palm and a hickory fist, this contrary little man walked hither and yon through the shock-charged rules of the A. E. F. at his sweet pleasure and as if they were cobwebs. He had a vicious brute of a dog that was a creature after his own heart. If you stooped down and patted him on the head, he’d bite your hand off, and when you gave him a good rousing kick he’d lick your shoes and was your friend for life. The Merchant had taken up with this brute in Buzancy the day the order came to get rid of all pets and mascots. He was bitten at once, on first acquaintance and asa matter of habit, and thereupon he brought down his rifle and started every suture in the animal’s ugly skull. A retort so pat impressed the canny beast; he was a mis- understood dog no more, and then and there he adopted the Merchant till death do us part. that he was mangy from nose to tail and lacked one eye and one ear—and a well- made animal too; there was no denying that, for every last bone of him showed. through his skin. A more gifted beast or one that could be taught more diverting tricks could not be found between the sea and the Swiss frontier—if only the fleas had let him apply his mind to learning. ‘He was usually to be seen marching after the Merchant with his tail in his mouth or his ear under his foreleg, disputing mastery with the fleas, for this dog had the heart ofa lion and never knew when he was beaten. His name was Kamerad. s But even if he did have a blemish or two, as you might say, being hypercritical, his master would not have swapped him -for the Great Hound of Tibet and a barrel of monkeys to boot, and he was convinced