JX Tl "S^ ^K w^ ^*L^ "■■*»--*-^ "* . ^Hqucfin| mf^st^ ^"•"-^X.J^ ^ OF TFIE TTNIVERSITY A CoiKiiieriii^' Corps Bafee AND orilKR STORIES OF IIIE PHILIPPINES By GENERAL CHARLES KING Author of 'The ColonvFa DaiigbtiT." ••Marion's Faitb," ••Capt.iia Illake. "i'nder h^rc." •• Tbe (ieni-rnrs Double," '• lletiyeon the Lines." "A Wiirtime Wooing," •• ('Hn)pnigning nitb Crook" and •' Xoraian Holt." With Illustrations liy Miss Alicia GooiKsiii, B. Martin Justice ami Stuart Travis. Cover designed by Miss Elinor Vorke King. L. A. R H () A I) F S c^ C O M P A N Y MILWAUKEE. WISCONSIN I 902 Copyriu,lucd 1901 by Charles King Burilick & Allen Printers Milwaukee TO THE MEN OF SANTA ANA— THE Soldiers of Caufornia. Idaho. Washington', and of Light B.\ttery "D." Sixth U. S. .'Krtii.i.ery.— THE oi.n First Brigade. First Division, Eighth .\rmy Cori's. IN admiration of their valor and gratitude for their loyalty, THESE stories m-k- mii'c^ \TFIi ivi(;(MGy8 PREFACE TORIES that tell of the early days of the Army of the Philippines are as yet not numerous. The badge of the Eighth Corps, worn at the outbreak of the insurrection by an almost pitifully small command as compared with the numbers of the encircling foe, appeared later on the breast of many thousand gallant fellows — regular and volunteer— and later still was worn by many a fair woman— wife, sister or sweetheart of some boy in blue, fighting across the broad Pacific for his country's flag; and it is to these, and to those whose hearts were with them, these stories are hopefully commended. "A Conquering Corps Badge," the first and far the longest, except for a local airing makes its initial appearance herein. "The Manila Wire," a"true bill," found a page in Youth's Companion a year or so ago, the flattering sketch of the writer in Ainslie's Magazine, and most of the other talcs were told to the readers of the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. For the courtesies extended them by these most popular periodicals, the hearty thanks of the publishers of this little volume, as well as his own. are thus inadequatelv tendered bv THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS Page A Conquering Corps Badge, - - - - i Jack Royal, 6i Dove Cote Days. - - - - - - 109 A Rival Ally, - - - - - - "US The Senator's Plight, 171 The Luck of the Horseshoe, - - - - 205 A Camera Capture, 231 The Fate of Guadalupe, - - - ■ 247 The Manila Wire, 271 Hetrayed hy a Button, 285 Biographical, 293 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Bessie Bellingham, ------ i Midwinter in Manila, 26 "Pit-a-Patty," - - 61 "Maclean's," ------- 105 With his hand on his heart he made her a low bow, - - - - - - - - log "Will you trust yourself to me— alone ?" - 141 He broke from them to clasp Ethel in his arms, 145 "Teniente Americano," ----- 168 A moment of odd silence and constraint, - 171 "Permit me to restore missing property," - 205 She quickly unslunt:; her camera, etc., - - 231 Six white-gloved hands went up in salute, - 231 Ruins of Guadalupe Church, - - - - 247 Paco Church, - - - - - - - 271 Portrait of General Charles King, - - - 293 Concordia Bridge, - 305 w/ ^ BESSli: BELLI NGHAM. A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. PART I. It had been raining in cataracts, as it does at times in the Philippines. The rice fields were a lake, the road was a river. The only bit of highway in sight, in fact, was the top of the stone arch of the bridge. Walls, roofs and trees stood straight out of the flood, and, when the rain let up and the sun came out for a peep at his satellite before going to bed, walls, roofs and trees seemed absorbed in their own reflections — as they appeared in the w'ater beneath. Close by the stone i)ridge stood the bamboo and nipa guard house, perched on high like some many-legged aquatic fowl. Close by the guard house was moored a raft, and, outspread upon the raft, was the supper of the guard. 2 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. The sentry at the bridge, squatted on the stone coping to keep his feet out of the wet, sliouted inquiry as to liow soon the rehef could wade out and let him come in. Number Two, perched in a tree two hundred yards distant along a line of bamboo fence whose upper edge alone was visible, shouted louder, and with genuine Yankee freedom, a similar query. Number Three, somewhere back toward town along the invisible road, was lost in the bam- boo — and his own affairs, which at the moment happened to be so interesting as to make him indifferent to either relief or supper. Along the main street of the barrio of Bally- bag were many native homes of bamboo and nipa and a few structures whose lower floor, at least, was of stone, with latticed veranda surrounding the upper story. One of these, close to the edge of the village was distin- guished by a flag staff, from the tip of whicii, limp and bedraggled, hung the stars and stripes. At an opening in the lattice of the veranda sat a pretty girl ; like the flag, Ameri- can beyond question. Now, that girl was the major's daughter. He had been wounded during the early days of A COX(Jli:KlMi CORE'S BAlHli:. 3 the Tagal insurrection, whereupon her niotlier sailed at once across the seas expecting to nurse him at Manila, and found him. to her amaze, in saddle and Malolos. Once abroad, mamma couldn't well go hack, so much had it cost to come and so many were the army wo- men already in Luzon. To her dismay, and her daughter's delight, she found herself housekeeping without a house maid, cooking without a cook and marketing without a mar- ket. By the time the rainy season was on in good earnest the major was off on an amphi- bious raid after the elusive Aguinaldo, leaving two officers, the regimental band and sixty men to guard the lively bailiwick, containing three American and o\er three hundred Filip- ino families, not to mention a floating popula- tion of some three thousand that had drifted in from the surrounding lowlands of the Pam- pamgas. Captain Cross, — th Foot, was the putative post commander. Lieutenant Coates was post adjutant, post commissary, cjuartermaster and post exchange, signal and ordnance officer. If tliat wasn't complication enough for one man there was the further taiudc that he was 4 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. in love with Bessie BelHngham here in Bally- bag and engaged to be married to a girl in Baltimore. The funny part of it was that the girl had artlessly written and told Ress all about it as soon as she heard of her having gone to Manila. But Mr. Coates never dreamed that Bess knew. He thought it safe at first to flirt with her because she didn't know, and she thought it quite as safe to flirt with him because she did. And this was the situation when there came from Manila four convalescent soldiers, privates in the ranks, one of whom was Mr. Philip Fargo, graduate of the University of California, son and heir of a man of wealth and standing on the Pacific coast, and at the close of this steaming, sweltering July day, Mr. Fargo was straddling a plank in the lower branches of that clump of bamboo near the edge of town, garbed in khaki trousers, trimmed off at the knee, a soaked blue flannel shirt and a drab, bangabout felt hat that flapped moistly about his ears. His slim waist was girt with a crammed cartridge belt. His rifle hung close at hand. One bare foot was plunged in the flood and his sotil in melan- A CONQUERIXG CORPS BADGE. 5 choly. His shoes were at the barracks and his thoughts at the BelHnghams' — centered on Bess. After six months of quixotic service in the ranks. Mr. Fargo had come to the con- clusion that his father was an oracle and he was an ass. Exalted patriotism might be all right in the abstract, but was all wrong in the ranks. He had been a well-to-do dawdler up to the time the war broke out, neither brilliant nor bad. but a genuinely honest, wholesome, modest young chap for whom money had done much but make him happy. He was weighted with the conviction that good looks, good hab- its, good temper, good manners and morals were about all there was to him, and what would they have been without — money? He longed for a chance to prove that per- sonally he amounted to something, and so when the war was six months old and he was twenty-six he went and enlisted in the regulars and — away to Manila. Old Fargo fumed, the Club laughed and certain mammas mourned — he would have made a most tractable son-in- law if only he hadn't gone for a soldier. Now Fargo was sick of it all inside of six weeks of O A CONQUERING CORPS BADC.E. his enlistment, but too proud to own it. He was sicker of a fever inside of six weeks after the sharp fighting up the line of the Dagupan railway, but had rejoiced in the fighting, had been mentioned in ofticial reports and was cocksure of liis che\rons when taken down with typhoid. That gave him a set back and could have given him his discharge, but he wouldn't have it. By the fourth of July he was afield — or rather afloat — again, and, his own company being afar off in the mountains, they set the four convalescents to light duty at Ballybag. Fargo was at first much bored, but that was before he saw Bessie Bellingham. Now, hav- ing seen her almost daily for nearly a month, he was in worse plight — he was enamored of a girl to whom he was supposed, socially, to be unworthy to speak — he, who had more to his credit at the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank in town at that minute than her father had seen in a year; — he. who b}^ birth, breeding, educa- tion and family connection was, if anything, the honest old soldier's superior, had yet by a freak, become his subordinate of the lowest A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. J grade, — also hy the fortune of war, his daugh- ter's unknown, unsuspected adorer. Coates was the first to find it out, and, know- ing nothing of Fargo's antecedents beyond his descriptive Hst, was properly shocked. "Fargo always wants Number Three post and is will- ing to go on guard every day," was Sergeant Finnerty's report to the post adjutant. "There's such a fine looking young soldier goes by here so often," said Mamma Belling- ham. the same evening, "even now when he has to wade. " It was Bess who said nothing. She had noticed that lately, in a month when marketing was more difficult than even in May, their Filipino servitor appeared time and again with fruits — bananas, mangoes, even mangos- teens — that couldn't be bought within ten miles of town, and fish that never swam so far from the sea — also tender young chickens and fat young pigs that were no kin to the late la- mented of Ballybag. "Chinaman hab got," was Sabino's sole explanation. Mamma had begun to brag to other army women of Sa- bino's superior foraging ability — an unsafe thing to do when others are living on rice and canned salmon. Chinamen did come paddling 8 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGK. in their cranky dug-outs to the village walls, but Chinamen, who had anything worth buy- ing, wanted ten prices iov every item, ten times more than army purses could stand. Thrice had Miss Bellingham's bright eyes, aided by her opera glass, discovered Sabino in chat with a Chinaman out on the Angeles road, and twice had mamma's fine looking young soldier, who would wade past there when it wasn't pouring, appeared and joined the two, on both which dates their tea table was garnished with wnld flowers, as indeed it had been on others when she had not discovered the medium. "Tell me about that man," said Bess, to Mr. Coates, one moist July evening, as the second relief, on a raft, poled its way past the house en route to the station of the outpost at the bridge, and Miss Bellingham indicated a tall, slender young fellow, with a singularly refined, clear-cut face who wielded a shoving stick with much vim. "That's a recruit — Fargo — belongs to ''F" Company, but can't get there. Captain Cross says he's a swell. — 'listed on a bet that he couldn't stand it six months. The brigade surgeon knew him and had a long talk with A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 9 him when he went through last week, but he won't tell. Where'd you get your flowers?" "Those? Oh, Sabino finds them somewhere. What a pretty corps badge, Mr. Coates? When did it come?"' .-\nd Miss Bellingham's fine eyes fastened on the left breast of the faded khaki. Coates beamed. The interlocking circles of the Eighth Corps in white and red and blue enamel certainly did credit to their designer as well as to that pull-together command. It was bliss to note her deep interest in the little emblem. It was thrilling to have her bend toward him — the pretty curly head so close to his lips, the slender, taper, white fingers actually toying with the badge as she curiously examined it. "You all wear these?" she asked, guilefully content that she had diverted his attention from the flowers, and intent on extracting in- formation interesting to herself. "Oh — Th.ere's no regulation about it, I sup- pose, but these finer ones are worn only by the oflicers — in the regulars, that is. There's no telling what the volunteers may do," he added, with the faint disparagement felt by a certain few of these jirofessionals not fortunate lO A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. enougli to have been tendered volunteer com- missions. "Then / could wear one!" she exclaimed, joyously, thinking none the less that she had once seen one, even finer than Coates's, on the blue flannel breast of a sentry out toward the bridge, before the inundation. "You ! You could wear this — if you only would!" cried Coates, all Baltimore forgotten in the presence of the belle of Ballybag. And his eager hands, seeking to unclasp and trans- fer it, encountered hers — which dropped on the instant. Miss Bellingham demurred. Women and statesmen are much of a mind on one point : Neither an offer nor a nomination should be declined — in advance. She saw his infatua- tion, as politicians read an impending appoint- ment, but it would be unseemly to seem to see it. She knew an avowal was trembling on his tongue, and she did not mind its trembling in- definitely so long as it — only trembled. She knew that the Baltimore girl no longer held place in his heart, but until "officially notified" she would be violating martial, political and feminine precedent by permitting herself to A CONQUERING CORPS RADGE. I I know t'nat slie was being tendered the vacancy. She had let Coates fall in love with her when she knew. — that is she had been told by a total stranger, that he was pledged to another, but she couldn't help that, could she? She drew the line, however, at overt wearing of his corps badge, which was rather over scrupulous, was it not? "Don't take it off, Mr. Coates," said she. "I'd rather not." "Has any one been telling you — anything about me?" he queried, with sudden suspicion. "Lots," answered Miss Bellingham, veraci- ously. "Dr. Skeels, when he went through after General Lawton, said you were just splendid at Malolos, and Colonel Fitzhugh and — and Major Briggs!" "That ain't what I mean," said Coates, mol- lified and pleased none the less. What war- rior isn't when his deeds of valor are pro- claimed ? "I mean — has any woman been say- ing — things that ain't true. — at least that ain't now." "O, no-o-o-o, indeed," asseverated Miss Bel- lingham, pursing up her lips. "None whom I know, at least," suddenly mindful of some- 12 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. thing Kitty Cross had said as to this very affair. "Well, you don't know this one." interposed Coates, measurably relieved, yet gazing rather ruefully out over the well watered flats beyond the village. "Which one?" queried Miss Bellingham, ingenuously. But Coates did not answer. He was look- ing at an elongated speck skimming the sur- face of the flood between town and the east- ward mountains. "That fellow's in a hurry!" said he, as he took up the field glass, lying on the rustic table beside her. "A banca!" he continued. "Two natives paddling and a third man in the middle, com- ing full tilt for town, too." He pulled out his watch. "Mail can't be in for an hour yet. Guess I'll have to look into this," and, picking up his campaign hat, he darted through the open casement into the salon and stumbled over two natives, whispering. Both instantly looked preternaturally innocent and feigned to be busy skating in woolen arctics over the hard wood floor. Coates glared at them sus- piciously, but clattered down the stairs, and, A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 1 3 leaping into a shallow punt, bade the sleepy Tagal, curled in the bow, to shove off. "Quite like Venice, isn't it?" he called to Miss Bellinghain and waved his hat as his craft was shoved slowly up street toward the office, while scowling, sullen faces from the covert of the striped curtains in the opposite gallery peered at him, warily. There was still two feet of water on the level, though it was rapidly receding. The wire to the rail- way had been down thirty-six hours, and Cap- tain Cross was blaspheming the hardest worked, if not most efficient, department on the Island — the Signal Corps, as his many- functioned lieutenant stumbled out of the shal- lop. "What brings you in such a hurry?" growled the captain. "Have you heard any- thing?" And the anxiety in the deep-set eyes showed plainly that he had. "No," answered Coates, "but there's a banca coming like a streak. C'mup stairs and see for yourself." From an upper window the two gazed out over the wooded lakeland to the east. There was the "dugout" almost within pistol shot of the church tower, splitting the water like a 14 A CONQUERING CORPS BAfXiE. knife. A picket had hailed and tlic man amid- ships was frantically waving something white — a despatch, probably, for the treed sentry let him by without halting. In five minutes the native paddle pliers were drooping, ex- hausted, over the gunwale, as strong hands hauled the long sharpie close to the steps and a pallid soldier tumbled out. a dripping dis- patch in his hand. Cross and Coates had scurried down to meet him and could not wait to read. "What's happened?" demanded the former. "Ambushed, sir," was the hoarse whisper in reply, "twenty miles out — the major's killed!" "Good God ! — and his wife and Bessie here!" A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. I5 PART II. Two weeks later, hy which time tiie am- buscade of Major BelHngham's Httle column was an old story in Manila, there was a new emotion at Ballybag'. The typhoon that fol- lowed the flood had swept out into the China Sea. whirling the waters before it to the end that streams indistinguishable because of the general inundation now became insignificant sloughs. Mud dries (|uickly under Luzon suns when rains come not to liquefy, and now when the winds l)le\v seaward from the moun- tains the dust rose responsi\e from the one street of Ballybag and powdered the uniforms of the guard with detachable khaki. They were few in number, the guard, for Cross had taken forty men. paddled to Bambinoag up the river, waded thence to Balic na Bato and "hiked" from that sanctuary on the hilltop to the scene of the recent traged}'. It seems that Bellingham, broken down by the severity (»f the campaign and still weak from wounds and fever, had been induced bv l6 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. the doctor to turn over his command to a younger man and, with a small escort, start for Ballybag. The populace had been profoundly peaceable and loyal when, three hundred strong, the column marched through on its eastward way. But the sight of a sick major and a squad of half-sick guards restored latent pluck and patriotism. Six score Tagal sol- diery surrounded Bellingham's litter and es- cort and shot most of them to death before anybody really knew where the volley came from. Then came the old time Indian busi- ness over again. Cross went out to "pursue and punish;" gave the poor mutilated remains Christian burial; sent a scrawl to Coates bid- ding him break the news to Mrs. Bellingham, that the major's remains would hardly bear transportation, and to look sharp to his own sentries lest the Tagals give him a touch of the same treatment. "Better send the women to the railway." he wrote, "they're not safe at Ballybag." Coates tried and they refused. ]\Irs. Bel- lingham, it seems, was too much prostrated to be moved ; Bess wouldn't leave her mother, and the other women vowed they'd stand by both. A CONQUERIXf. CORPS BADGE. IJ Mr. Coates could get reinforcements from the railway. Ordinarily, perhaps, he could : but. as the flood went out so did the soldiery, in every direction, in search of suspects. This left small garrisons, mere handfuls, at the stations along the line, and no one could be spared for Ballybag. This, too, at a time when Coates caught more native servants whispering in cor- ners, and once whetting holos in a back yard. Cross had started on a Sunday evening. His note reached Coates on Wednesday, and the latter lost no time in sending a banca with three men down stream to the railway — two days* march away in dry weather. They went by boat, with the typhoon at their backs, and came back by trail, bearers of much bad news and mud, and were five days making the round trip. Colonel Storke. commanding at the nearest post on the railway, said all his men were ordered out to reinforce Lawton. He hadn't a squad to spare for Ballybag, and the "Amigos" — so-called because of their peace- ful protestations when in j^rcsence of any force of .\mericans — were rising in every direction. Attacks were of nightly occurrence along the 1 8 A CONQl'ERIXCi CORPS KADGE. line, and ]\lr. Coates would l)ettcr .^end a courier after his captain and bid him return. It all made Coates sorely anxious just at a time when it wouldn't do to show anxictv. The plaza in front of the church being dry- now, Coates ordered evening inspection under arms by way of making imposing show, and got exactly eighteen men into ranks, so that lie failed to impose. Even convalescents in hos- pital for the time being were propped uj) with a gun, and Dr. Blend and his nurses turned out for the show. Then the doctor and the temporary post commander went n\er to the quarters still occupied by the bereaved Belling- hams. They had to have speech with the ladies. Bessie met them readily ent^ugh. A sorely stricken girl was she. for dearly had she loved her stern, soldierly, devoted old father, and now was she well nigh worn out with the care of her weeping mother. Truth and candor compel the admission that tlie widow's wail was not so much because of what had become of her husband as what was to become of lier. Bess was young, pretty and "could marry any- body." said she to Mrs. Cross, who came to A CONQUERING CORPS RADGE. IQ coniftirt. "But the only penny I'll have in tlie world is three thousand insurance — and a pal- try pension." She had always liberally spent three-quarters of her husband's small pay. so nothing, of course, was left to her now. Bes- sie's beautiful eyes were filled with woe and weariness as she came into the veranda to meet her callers. It was now the eleventii day after the major's death, and she had had little rest. Moreover, at a time when little delicacies were much needed to tempt the invalid to eat, they were no longer forthcoming. Bess had been stinting he;rself to provide for her mother, and was not too strong as a consequence. The Filipino butler when questioned as to possibilities shook his head. Vet Chinamen were to be seen as before when the "fine-look- ing young soldier" was present for duty. Why brought they no tempting dainties now ? Even in her grief and despond there were moments when the girl, seeking air and a mo- ment's cjuiet on the veranda, would fall to vague speculation as to what had become of that fine looking young man. She knew, of course, that he had gone with Captain Cross and his detachment. She knew without asking a ques- 20 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. tion that he was no longer in or about Bally- bag. She knew nothing of the menace of clanger : That was something both doctor and temporary post commander had never men- tioned, but now the time had come when it had to be told. Sabino, Spanish schooled, had shown the officers to seats on the veranda, then tapped at the screen door, and Miss Bellingham pres- ently appeared. "Senor Teniente," said he, with proper obeisance, and then busied himself flicking the dust from a mirror on the east wall. The officers met her at the open doorway at the middle of the broad, two-storied house, but, seeing that Sabino was at work within earshot, the doctor led her to the end of the veranda before broaching the subject. Even then he lowered his voice and she looked up, startled. ''We cannot be sure of our servants, Miss Bellingham," said he, in explanation. "But Sabino speaks no English," she inter- posed, unwilling to be so far beyond her moth- er's call. "Speaks, no; but comprehends much that he does not speak," was the answer. "Can you send him of an errand?" A COXQUERIN'G CORPS BADGE. 21 "I can."' said Coates. eager to be useful, as well as to remind both that, though only a subaltern, he was none the less now command- ing officer. "Mira, homhrc!" he called at the doorway, "Sabino, aqui!" he called again, as the swarthy native seemed to hesitate. "Hush! Mr. Coates. Pray don't call." begged Bessie. "I fear you'll wake mother and she sleeps so little — at night." The good lady seemed to make up for it by day, how- ever, and to sleep soundly while the daughter waked, for no sound came indicating that she was in the least disturbed. Coates scribbled a line in his notebook, tore out th€ leaf and gave it to the servant, now standing with expressionless face before them. "Al cuartel," said he, despite the fact that he well knew barracks to be well nigh deserted — so did Sabino. He took the paper, how- ever, and vanished. Another moment and the doctor had again led Bessie to the corner farthest from her mother's window. In low. cautious tone he told her that by the morrow Mrs. Bellingham ought to be able to stand a day's voyage to the railway. He could put an awnine over the craft. Trusty boatmen JJ A CUNyUEKlNl". CORPS BADGE. would paddle and a g^iiard would go along in other bancas. *'It will not be risking very much to go." said he. "and it is risking far too much to stay." "Why?'' said Bessie. Dr. Blend paused and studied lier carefully. ''You are your father's daughter. Miss Belling- ham.'' said he. "and about the only woman I dare break it to. I fear we may be attacked here any night now. and we can hope for no aid." Her fingers tightened as they gripped each other in her lap ; her lips set. but. soldier girl that she was, she uttered no sound. "Hush!" said Coates. stepping quickly to a lattice screen, then bending down and peeping through. Almost instantly up he sprang, with wrath in his eye. and darted round into the house. A second later arose the sound of scuffle and stifled w'ords. condemnatory in one and expostulatory in another. Then Sabino came shooting out into the sunlight from un- der the veranda, looking aggrieved and hold- ing himself by the seat (^f his flapping white trousers. "The scoundrel was listening," panted A CONQUERING CORPS BAUC.i:. 2^ Coates. coming- back. "He had tiptoed round to the side veranda and was crouching there back (jf the screen. 1 caught him at the head of the stairs, gave him a shake, and then sent him to the foot with one kick." The doctor shook his head. "Better keep your hand and temper. Coates! But we'll have a guard here to-night. Miss Bellingham, and to-morrow your mother must make an effort. I'll send Lolita over to help you pack." Bessie went with them to the head of the stairs, tilled with apprehension and vague trouble. "You must have shaken him soundly." said Blend, stooping and picking up a dingy paper packet that was covered with Tagal hieroglyphics. There was something within. His fingers and thumb tried it and a (|ueer lot)k came over his face. Ripping open the enveloi)e he drew forth a smaller packet, wrapped all in tissue paper. Coates, halted • m the fourth step, turned and looked back. Even professional calm seemed to give place to a tinge (^f subdued excitement as Blend tore away the flimsy paper and brought forth a flat pocket-book ^ji some fine, soft skin. Two let- ters in monogram and gold were stamped on -'4 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. tlie flap, F and P, and when opened it was found to contain some seventy-five dollars in American currency, worth over one hundred and fifty in silver pesos. There was some- thing more, half a dozen visiting cards — like this: Mr. Philip Fargo, University Club, San Francisco. "Nab that man, quick, Coates !" said the doctor, unconsciously and illegally assuming the functions of commanding officer. Under other circumstances Coates would have de- murred and given the medical officer to under- stand that his rank of captain carried with it no right to issue even emergenc}^ orders to a lieutenant of the line. To his credit and that of the service in general, be it said. Coates never thought of it an instant. He was oft' like a shot. Rank and precedence are weighty questions in Washington, but less so in war. Then our medical man turned again to the girl, now clinging, pallid and trembling, to the baluster rail. "Do not let your mother sus- pect anything. Miss Bessie. I must rely on you. I'll return in a moment.'" Then he. A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 25 too. went leaping lightly down the black wood stairs. Under the table, half way across the salon, mute evidence of the centrifugal powers im- parted to Sabino by the vigorous hand of Mr. Coates. another little packet peeped forth, a gleam of gold at the torn edge of the paper. This she pounced upon and bore to the light. Sabino had indeed been shaken to some pur- pose. Her slender, taper fingers drew forth a dainty toy in blue and red and white enamel, set in solid gold, the workmanship of a famous house in San Francisc<» — a far more costly and beautiful toy than that then pendant on the broad chest of the young post commander. It was the badge of the Eighth Corps as worn by Lawton's old division. This in itself was remarkable, but what made it more so was the fact that, carefully folded in a bit of oiled silk, in the same packet, was a half yard of blue ribbon. She knew it instantly. She had lost it from her gown one gusty evening when they had walked out to the bridge — Mrs. Cross. Kitty and herself, and mamma's "fine looking young soldier'" was on post under the bamhrios at Xo. 3. 26 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. PART 111. There is something ahnost uncanny in the silence of a FiHpino town at night. Even be- fore tlie curfew orders that kept the villagers within bounds after sounding "call to (juarters" on the American bugle, all manner of mirth or revelry seemed to die away with the setting sun. Twilight, mystic hour under Northern skies, they know not in the tropics. There is no gradual blending of gladsome day with gloomy night. Xow, this summer evening, faint, fire-fly glimmer peeped from native huts where the inmates squatted, muttering and puffing their eternal tobacco. Dim and ghost- like, white robed forms flitted from door to door, or darted through black alleyways be- tween hedges of stiff bamboo. This was the case, at least, in rural Ballybag where now, mid September, there was no longer force left to enforce the order against natives visiting- after nine p.m. A little earlier, fora month after the stubborn defence of the barrio, the brawny soldiery from Yankeeland strolled jovially A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. J/ about the ])lace. lavish and good natured, un- conscious of secret hate, if indeed such hate existed, so smiHng and friendly seemed the oc- cujiants. But the finding of a brace of sentries with their throats slashed from ear to ear had led to sharp reprisals. Pedro Aquena had been shot dead at the post of No. 4 at the land- ing. Augustino Cortina, lowering himself from the second story window of a residence in the fashionable quarter, unluckily lit on the bayonet of a tall youth from the Youghiogheny \^alley. and night prowling ceased for as much as a moon. Xow it had begun again, but no man could know it by means of his ears. A cat is nn more stealthy than a Tagal. even in the snapping bamboo. And this was why Coates had put two of his best men on guard at the Bellingham's the night of Sabino's escapade, one at the steps in front. t)ne in the yard in rear, both stimulated with strong coffee and a sense of dangerous duty, and ordered to be all night on the alert. At midnight Coates himself, a revolver gleam- ing at each hip. halted under the shining stars in front of the house, where lay still querul- ously moaning, the distracted widow. — where 28 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. watched, and read to, and strove to soothe her. the devoted child. Other army women, kind and charitable as they ever are in time of trouble, had been there during the afternoon. Lolita. dusky hand- maid and laundress at the hospital, had worked busily under Bessie's supervision, for Coates had put his foot down with firmness hitherto unlooked for in that easily string-led subaltern. All the women were to be sent to the railway with the morrow's sun. Mrs. Cross, her daughter and Mrs. Warner, living close under the wing of the main guard, were safer than were these at the outer edge of town, but no man could say what the night would bring forth. Sabino had vanished. No further word had come from Cross. No help could be hoped for from the line of the railway, and now a new apprehension had taken possession of Mr. Coates. How happened it that Sabino had had Private Fargo' s pocketbook and money? He would have been still more ap- prehensive had he heard about that costly corps badge. It was his belief that Sabino had either found or stolen the book, but that was A CUNL'UERIXG CORPS BADGE. 2C) a belief Miss Bellingham did not share. Xor was she in position to say what her theory might be. As matters stood, silence seemed her wiser cc>iirse. Army girls, frontier bred as are mosi of them, have seen too much of the American savage to scare easily at the puny Malay. Bessie Bellingham had been one of the best shots with a little Smith & Wesson in old days at Fort Custer. She had a heavier pistol now and well knew how to use it. This night she had twirled its gleaming cylinder and tried its lock to see that all was in trim working order. It was lying on a little table just where her mother could not see it, but easily within her reach as she sat and rocked and read aloud. It was there when she went at ten o'clock to the east gallery and glanced out at the loveliness of the summer night and saw the moonbeams glinting on the bayonet of the silent sentry, peering about him in the lower yard. It was there when, much later, she tripped out into the quaint Spanish kitchen to heat a little broth over a spirit lamp. The kitchen stood in a semi-detached, towerlike, two-story structure at the end of the east gallery, and underneath 30 A CONQUERINfi CORrS BADGE. it on the js^nnind floor slept Sabino's half- brother, S.il)ino's half-brother's diminutive wife and two pickaninny Tagals that were the pride of the parents' hearts and. until sorrow weighed, a source of unutterable merriment and delight to Bess. Sorely troubled were those guileless natives over Sabino's disappear- ance. They said little. They looked \olumes. They were pobre-muy pobrc. They knew not of Sabino's wealth. They marveled when shown the pocketbook and its store. They were questioned as to their knowledge, but denied everything. They wept at the sorrow- ful fate of the head of their house. They had but one theory. Sabino must have been kid- napped by bad men from the hills — Igorrotes, or perchance evil doers — Macabebes from the lower river. Did not good Padre Alfonso vouch for his piety — and theirs? Their little den was dark and silent as Bessie glanced down the gallery before returning to her mother. The glistening revolver was still there when, half an hour later, she heard low voices out in front and went to listen, and stayed a moment or two. for, after sipping of the grateful bowl. T^lrs. Bellingham had ap- A CONQUERIXC. CORPS B ADCR. T,\ parently composed lierself for a snatch <jf slumber. Coates and his sentry were in mut- tered — ahnost eager, talk. The man was say- ing something she was not meant to hear, and therefore longed tt). She strained her ears and threw back her beautiful wavy, golden hair, hoping to catch his rapid words, for he was telling (^f strange and suspicious sounds as of distant voices and plashing oars. Per- haps over eagerness to catch his words made her deaf to other matters nearer at hand, for a bamboo screen moved stealthily, a curtain fluttered when there was no breeze to stir, and when Coates «;trode suddenly away beyond the gate and toward the tree where the "fine look- ing voung soldier" used to nM)st so fre(|uently during the inundation, and Bess finally tip- toed softly back t<^ her mother's bedside, the light still burned dimlv on the little table where lav her watch and revolver ten minutes liefore. The watch was ticking there busily still, for she took it uj) and noted the hour — 12:20 — and long had she reason to rememl)er it — P.ut the revolver was gone! Even before she cmild realize her loss, there came from the vard at the rear, stern, sharp. T,2 A CONQUERING CORl'S BADGE. almost savage, the challenge of the sentry — "Halt! Who is thcrcF" Springing to the back gallery, she saw crouching in the dim light close to the rear gate in the bamboo fence, a form in ghostly white — saw the sentry with leveled bayonet advancing sturdily upon it — saw crouching, pantherlike, two forms, dark and dusky in the shadows of the little tower of the servants' quarters, saw them spring forth, a gleam of steel in the hand of each, then, with her instant shriek of warning, came the spring of the Tagal tiger, a stifled, gasping cry, a crash as of tumbling metal, a heavy, sodden fall, a gurgling moan, and away sped the shadows, vanished in a second. Her mother's scream of terror rang from within. The sentry in front tore through the stone-fiagged passage to the rear of the house and stumbled over a prostrate form in khaki and cried out for the guard. Coates came rushing back to the quarters. Sabino's infant nephews set up a shrill wail. Almost instantly there burst up- on the night, from the bamboo thickets to the rear of the post of the guard, a quick crackle and sputter of musketry, followed by stento- rian shout from an Irish sergeant calhng on A COXgUERlNC. CORPS BADGE. 33 liis ready men. ami then, almost before she could realize that an attack was opened upon their few defenders, the shutters of two houses across the street were flung open : flash and flame leaped from the casement ; answering shots barked and banged uj) and down the dusty street. The insiirrcclos seemed swarm- ing in the town and all about them. yet. despite the fusilade, over it, loud, shrill and warning, a cry r:'.ng again and again on the night — a cry in an unknown tongue, at sound of which there came rush and scurry from the hedge- rows close at hand. Dim, white-robed forms fled streaking like flying spectres through the by-ways and darted into nipa huts, for, from the side of the river, there rang the loud cheer of a swift running line, and old Cross's voice raging over all — "Hold your fire, you fools! You'll kill your own people !" Heaven-directed, the scouting party had come back just in the nick of time. 34 '^ coNgLEKiNc; corps hadge. PART 1\'. Six months later and the situation at Bally- bag had somewhat changed. Amigos and in- surrectos both were there. So were the band, headquarters and a battahon of the regulars, but the Bellinghams were gone, leaving Coates lamenting. Despite his defection he had de- served better of fate than to fall out of (,)ne en- tanglement into another, wherein he was not wanted, for Miss Bellingham found him sorely in need of consolation at a time when she had none to spare. It was that young devil "Dan Cupid" and that prolific source of similar woes, proximity, that were really to blame. Coates had fallen heels over head in love with bonny Bess, and most loyally had he thought for her, fought for her and profusely, as it turned out, had be bled for her. He fell, indeed, shot down from the o])posite windows after \ali- antly collaring two skulking invaders close un- der her own. One, the brother of the van- ished Sabino, had not even time to hurl away A COXQL'ERING CORPS nAIX.K. 35 the incriininating- pistol he had hlched from the sick chamber. The other, with a hand wet and j^ory. still wielded the blood- warm bolo with which, not a minute before, he had slit the sentry's throat. The timely coming of Cross and his men had nipped the well-planned out- break in the bud, and l)rought woe to the hopes of Tagaldom. Smiling and submissive, they had come forth by dozens at the break of day ■'to welcome home to his faithful friends" the brave captain and his heroic men. But Cross ordered instant search of the Padre's house, and found it an arsenal of ammunition. The Alcalde, too. turned out to be a pious fraud. But the man that Coates most longed to see in limbo was Sabino. who came not at all. An- other missing man who came not. even to prove property and claim it, was Private Fargo. Six months had passed. Coates had been ofifered a lea\c of al)scnce by an appreciative corps commander, a chance to take a l«^ng sea vcjyage for recuj)eratit)n. an opportunity to see India. Aden. Suez. Malta, "Gib," aye. even Baltimore, and he didn't care to go. but asked to be allowed to recuperate in Manila instead. The I'cllinghams were still there. The pa- 36 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. ternal general had found means to provide Bess with a paying clerkship with which to support her mother. The paternal general government had found means to withhold that bereaved lady's pension — the fact that she had been known all over the wide frontier, for over a quarter of a century, as Bellingham's own and only wife was of no avail in the eyes of the Washington officials in the absence of a mar- riage certificate that happened to have been burned with the rest of their belongings one bitter winter's night in far Wyoming. There were a dozen officers within a mile of the pen- sion building who could have sworn to the widow's rights in the matter, but it took longer by several months to send all the papers in the case back to Manila, where, but for the charity of friends and the energy of her daughter, the unhappy woman would have been in sorest need. Coates stood by them manfully, limping about the Ermita suburb in search of chickens that were not, like the human biped native, all legs and leanness. Mamma was ever ready to receive him and pour her woes into his ear. Bess was too busy. Besides, she thought him A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 2>7 well enough now to be stumping about Bally- bag and finding out what had become of Sa- bino. of course, and incidentally, perhaps, of the "fine looking young soldier" of whom nothing definite had been heard since just be- fore the night battle. "Private Fargo." said Cross's ofticial re- port, "was with the command until, after a forced march of twenty-two miles, we reached the river just after dark. Then it was found that the insurgents had run away the ferry cables and boats and a delay of two hours oc- curred before we could find barges and make rafts sufficient to cross the command. By that time Fargo had disappeared. He had appar- ently wandered off into the darkness and was probably seized by lurking insurgents and, I fear, dispatched without mercy." But a story had drifted in that Corporal Forbes had seen Fargo parleying with a China- man, and two men heard a canoe paddling off across the stream, but their hails were unan- swered. San Francisco had sent men of mark to inquire, and all the Eighth Corps within reaching distance of the railway by this time knew that the missing private was a million- 38 A coxyuERixc; corps badge. aire or the next thing to it. There had never been doubt that lie was a gentleman. Many a man can be either without being both. Then came March, the first of it at least, and tidings from the North. Somewhere about Vigan a troop of cavalry struck the fresh trail of a F"ilipino band; followed and "jumped it" in the early dawn and the outskirts of a pretty inland town. Ordinarily the insurgents got away. This time six were captured, also four American prisoners. One of the latter was Private Fargo who was ordered sent round to Manila by sea as soon as able to travel. \\"\ih him came Sabino to stand trial for his life. Arraigned before officials and bidden to ac- Cf)unt for the possession of Private Fargo's pocketbook and all that money. Sabino promptly and confidentially said that Sefior Fargo had given them to him ; nor did official scoffing shake his statement. Private Fargo, summoned before the same presence, was con- fronted with the prisoner and asked how much, if any, of his statement was true. "All of it." said Fargo promptly, to the amaze of the provost marshal. "Then ask him what the devil he ran away A CONQrERIXf, CORl'S RADGK. 39 for." said the Ci)l(iiiel. U^ the interpreter, and the tlemnnd was fairly rendered. Sd was the response. "The culprit says he didn't run — he was kicked out" — a reply at which the pencils of the correspondents fairly tlew. ■'Will you explain how you came to give this man so much money?" asked the deputy pro- vost marshal, of the private. A faint flush rose instantly to the young sol- dier's temples. He glanced quickly about him as though to see who might be present. Coates sat glowering by a window of the great stone building — a window overlooking the grass- grown parapet, the old Botanical Garden be- yond, then the long curve of the dusty road- way, with the stone towers of the Puente Col- gante, the wide-spreading, tent-surrounded buildings of the l''irst Reserve Hospital, and between them the shaded enclosure of the Estad(^ Mayor. Over there, half a mile away as the crow flies, a blue-eyed girl in black was l)ending over the columns of figures on the glaring page before her. and I-'argc* knew it. for only a few days before an attendant had brought him a little packet with the beautiful 40 A CONOUEKING CORPS BAUGi:. corps badge he had never looked to see again. The only message with it was a line : "Found at Major Bellingham's quarters, Ballybag, September 14th, '99. dropped pos- sibly by Sabino who disappeared on the after- noon of that date." Fargo "back tracked" it all the way to the sergeant of the guard at the Estado Mayor, and there learned that Miss Bellingham had sent it. She had a desk in an office close at hand, they said, and there Fargo found her, yet looked upon his humble imi- form, faltered in the presence of his dead major's daughter and withdrew without seek- ing speech with her. How could he now tell these men that it was his hand that, from time to time, sent the little gifts of flowers and fruit, that his money had supplied dainties for their tabic when others had to go without, that it was to keep up the supply during his absence on scout that he had hastily thrust the book into Sabino's receptive palm as he rushed away in the gloaming at sound of the bugle — never questioning Sa- bino's probity, never noting till next day that the corps badge, too, was gone. A weary scout was that with Cross. Filled with strange A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 4 1 foreboding was he from the very start, and when at last they reached the river on the homeward way and found the ferry cables gone, Fargo slipped down the bank to a clump of huts he had many a time marked from dis- tant Ballybag. and hired a Chinaman to set him ashore at the old stone bridge within sight of the roof that sheltered her — he could not wait — and that move led him straight into the clutches of the insurgent foe. Hours before the fight began he had been whisked away into the jungle and months of captivity. Xot un- til now had he learned that Sabino had thriftly hung on to the cash. Not until now had he really connected him with the disappearance of his costly corps badge. And now they wi-shed to know how he came to entrust such a sum to so faithless a servitor, and he shrank fnmi the telling. '"I — prefer nr>t to say." was nt last the hesi' tant reply. "Surely not because it would incriminate yourself?" frowned the e.xamining officer. "Xo. sir. not at all I" *'Then the court martial will compel it. so why not now?" 42 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. Why, indeed, if they knew all about that corps badge, too ? How was he to suppose that she had kept that secret to herself — that she, he and the faithless Sabino were the only ones who could tell the contents of the little packet ])rought in at the First Reserve. Yet, how could he shame her by confession of his mani- fold and lavish gifts, and the purpose, too, of his leaving money with Sabino ? What might not be said of her, his commander's daughter, receiving the bounty of — a private soldier? Let the court martial compel reply, if compel it could! • At least until then he would be dumb. A moment of profound silence ensued, "Take that man back under guard," were the orders of the provost marshal. Full five days elapsed before the assembly of that court, and much, in matters military, can be effected even half around the globe within that time. "You're checkmated," said a high official at the Ayuntamicnto, to the judge advocate, and held forth a cable despatch from the Secretary of War. In brief, curt cipher it directed the immediate discharge from service of Private A CONgUERIXC; CORPS BADGE. 43 P. Fargo. Company "X" — L'. S. Infantry. Once more was Phil a sovereign citizen who conld not be made to testify before a military CDurt — the experience of even a Presidentialiy ordered martial triljunal having demonstrated that, in Chicago, at least, it has no rights either the press or the public can be made to respect. It must be said of Fargo that he behaved toward his late "oppressors" with rare mag- nanimity. The transition from soldier to civil life in Manila is easy, since the simplest of white raiment ser\"es as "Sumlay best" for bt->th and such garb is quickly made even in the land of mafiana. Fargo couldn't give much of a dinner because of the poverty of the Manila market and the limitations of Manila restaur- ants. l)ut Mumm in abundance, properly cooled, covereth a multitude of short comings, and Mumm was the word even when a laughing grouj) of e.xiles. mainly shoulder-strapped, gathered to congratulate him on the record he had made in the ranks and on his speedy return to the States. "Well. 1 may not return — at once." said Fargo, again flushing a bit. "1 may run over 44 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. to Hong Kong- first," he added, hurriedly, as he caught Coates's eye. And Coates was thinking — hard. So was Bessie Bellingham, who had heard promptly enough how Fargo had refused to tell about that money, and who well knew who else could have told, — at least who could have guessed, though she wouldn't tell for the world. To think of his submitting to arrest, threats, punishment rather than tell what might have told the whole story! To think that mother's ''fine looking young man," — de- spite the flapping campaign hat, the flannel shirt, the sliced-off khaki inexpressibles — was a club young man, a college young man, a young man of the "capitalistic class" ! She had encountered that term somewhere in the course of her reading aloud to papa in the long winter evenings before the outbreak of the war. A big tear fell on the back of the slender white hand as she recalled those homelike hours after her return from school days in the East. How fond and proud he had been ! What comfort he had taken in her devotion to him ! What uneasiness he had shown when the youngsters came in to call and break up their cozy hours A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 45 together! He was ever so afraid some young officer would come in and carry her off, — and mamma so correspondingly afraid that some one would not ! — all that first winter of her home coming. — the only one of all they. had hoped and planned for, — the only one, after all, for in April the regiment had been ordered away to Cuba and from there back to Wyom- ing, just to pack up for Manila. And now there was no dear old daddy, fond and proud, to read to and rejoice in. She could read, she might read to mamma, but — And now mamma, querulous and com- plaining, was calling from an inner room — they had but two — and the girl set down upr>n the broad white window ledge the old opera glass which had so often gazed out over the fields and flats and floods about Ballybag, and through which she had been studying the swift-darting carriages over along the sea wall of the Luneta. The day had been insupportably hot, the glare in- tense. The evening breeze off the beautiful bay was now soft, cool and inviting. It was the first really restful hour, and mamma seemed tn realize it and called her. Bess went 46 A CONQUKRINC, CORPS HADGK. Willi a sigh. Perhai)s she felt what was com- ing. Perhaps she was only mindful of a cer- tain maternal peculiarity that used to prompt that piously disposed matron, in her hours of ease and dejection, to summon the child from her joyous companions, and to sober her daughter's blithe spirits by long homilies on the uncertainty of human life and die liollow- ness of human affection, with especial refer- ence to her father's short-comings in the latter line. Having spent eight hours of the day in labor that the mother might not want, it now behooved the girl to spend another, at least, in listening to her upbraidings. "1 suppose you know Mr. Coates has been to see me," was the salutation, and the elder slowly i)lied her big Chinese fan and narrowly watched her daughter as she spoke. "He comes almost every day, doesn't he?" was the guarded answer, as Bessie sank into a seat near the maternal lounging chair. "Almost!" impatiently. "Ezrry day, and you know it, Elizabeth!" Mrs. Bellingham could never bear that name. It was that of her husband's favorite sister, now deceased. She used it onlv on state (Occasions or when she A CONQUERIXt; CORPS BAIKiE. 47 wished to he unusually impressive if n(»t severe. "Moreover, you knnw it's liigh time you ^avc liim an answer." '"Another?" "Ves, another! A ihttercnt one. it you will have it. and he deserves it after all he's done for you — and within a file of his captaincy. t(jo — and sure to get it this month." Mamma was bridling and the fan going at speed. "The — answer, do you mean?" now t(ueries Miss Bellingham. guilelessly, yet guiltily. She knows better. Moreover, she knows that be- fore she knew of Fargo — and even after that — and while she had reasiMi to know of Coates's plighted troth, she — she let Coates come every day in growing admiration, because — oi course. — because it was perfectly safe, he being pledged to another and presumably in love. She had even allowed herself to be what Mr. Howells calls "intentionally beautiful" at Ballybag.and for C<uites's arrient eyes and Miss Cross's envious contemplation. — Kitty being five cyclesher senior in years. and several shades her inferior in attractions. W'iiat harm could there be when he had sup])osably no eyes ex- cept fcr lii>. P,;iltiin')rf bciutv?* .Xnd n<>\v that 48 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. brave, stupid, foolish fellow had gone and for- gotten his far-away love and allowed his affec- tions to fasten on her ! "His captaincy, I mean," says mamma, "and it's much more than you deserve. When I married, your father was only a second lieute- nant. Don't think you can aft'ord to fool away your time here." (Mamma, alas! did not use the diction prescribed at Ogontz) "Girls are coming by every boat, but bachelors are scarcer than — than ice — No, I can't see any one this evening, Felippy," — this to a Filipino lad, who appeared barefooted and patient at the doorway, a card extended in his brown fingers. "Who is it, Bessie?" "A — a gentleman who called at the Bureau yesterday," falters Miss Bellingham, with color suddenly rising. Had Coates enlight- ened mamma as to Mr. Fargo's transforma- tion? She herself had never referred to it — nor to him. Their sole reception room was the partially enclosed veranda at the front, and thither had "Felippy" conducted the caller be- fore coming to thus mutely announce him. "Mr. P. Fargo, University Club, San Fran- cisco," reads mamma from the card dutifully A ^.0.\(Jl KKI Nt, tiiKl'.s i'.ADGE. 49 passed tu her. '"I'm sure / know of no such ])erson. If this is any reason why you — you are playing fast and loose with Sam Coates — " -Mother!" ■'Well, next time he comes you'll just have to see him for yourself. 1 shan't. What's this Mr. Fargo like? — " But the daughter had fled to her little sanc- tum within and was dashing cool water on her wri.-ts and hrow. She looked — ayd was — composure itself when she joined Mr. Fargo on the gallery, and found him, as she was awhile ago, gazing out on the Luneta, now fast fading under the robe of night. \'cry presentable looked Mr. Fargo in im- maculate white drilling, with silken gloves and hose and canvas shoes as snowy, and a face well nigh as pale. Just one speck of color ap- peared on his dainty garb. The little jeweled corps badge in scarlet, l)luc and white enamel and polished gold hung at his left breast. He looked so cool and fresh and white, and her garb was so black and sombre, but he never seemed to see it as he turned and greeted her — eagerly. "I must ask you to forgive my intruding so 50 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. soon again,'" said he. "I have — news. I am called at once to Hong Kong." The 1)lue eyes looked up instantly into the brown. This Avas so diflferent from what he had told her — yesterday. "Yes. they cabled me to-day. Father's cor- respondent in the China trade is very ill and I am needed. They expected me to he there ten days since, really, but — " "Won't you be seated. jMr. Fargo? ^Mother will be here — directly.'' It was one way at least of letting him know he was detaining un- necessarily a long, slim, white hand. "Oh, thanks, yes.'' And now Mr. Fargo remembers that he should have asked for mother, as he lowers himself into a cane chair six feet away and three feet broad and deep, while Miss Bellingham slowly settles upon a light bamboo and leans an elbow on the broad ledge of the gallery. It is getting darker still and the electric globes are sparkling over at the kiosk and all along the Luenta drive. Every now and then a carriage whisks along under their perch, its white-garbed occupants looking up and lifting their white-topped caps, for Miss Bellingham is very much looked up A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 5 1 to and admired in army circles. Most of the linesmen are away at the front, but guards must be maintained, and staff officers in swarms are needed in Manila. The big chair is too big — too far away, perhaps, for Mr. Fargo impatiently heaves his long length out of its depths and impulsively draws nearer to her. Bess herself is tall, but Mr. Fargo has nearly six feet to his credit and bears it well. Now his white elbow comes down on the rail as he bends toward her. his dark eyes seeking the bright blue. "Yes," he continues, his thin face working oddly, and his eyes glowing into hers as at first she lifts them — bravely, "I ought to have gone as soon as my discharge was ordered, but I — just missed the Esmeralda — At least," he hurries on. "I wasn't ready. Miss Belling- ham. Fve got to be at the general's this even- ing and to sail at dawn. There was no way of asking permission to call upon you, — no time to be conventional. I beg you to pardon it, — to believe that under other circumstances I should have sought permission. Fve come — There was something else I wanted and could not ask vmi for at the — office. Vou sent me 5-2 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. my corps badge, but, that — little blue ribbon that was with it — ^iDray, didn't you find that, too?" Indeed she had ! the very ribbon that blew away unseen by her or her companions that breezy evening when Coates so cavalierly acknowledged the "present" of the "fine look- ing young soldier" on No. 3. Indeed she had, and had unrolled it with wonderment and strange emotion of pleasure, and had guarded it carefully ever since — even though now she mendaciously falters : — "Find it? — O, yes, but I — didn't suppose it had any value." "Value !" he cries, and now he bends still closer to her. and she cannot but shrink a little, so eager is the movement, so glowing is his gaze, so thrilling his tone. "Miss Bellingham, I've come to beg for it. -I cannot go without it. I wore that ribbon near my heart until the night we hurried away. It dragged out with the pocketbook, I suppose, and probably Sabino found it. I want it again. Ah, don't draw away. I've got to say it, no matter how sud- den it may seem, I've loved you ever since I saw you there at Ballybag — loved you so that A CONQUERING CORPS P.ADGE. 53 I can't 2^<) and leave you here slaving in this scorching climate. Oh. look at me, Bessie! Look up into my eyes — read it for yourself — Can't you see how I love you? Giz'c me my ribbon that 1 may know 1 may come back to you — 1(^) l)eg you to be my wife." \\'ho was it said "lieware of entangling alli- ances?" Shades of the immortal George! Whoever dreamed that in faraway Manila, within easy sail of the oldest philosophy of the world, these, his children of a nation barely a century old. should so far forget the teachings of the father of his coimtry ! "Entangling alli- ances," indeed! Hers was a straight backed, stiff-backed chair. She couldn't draw away fartlier even were she so inclined. On the left breast of the snowy sack coat just over his bounding heart that pretty corps badge, obey- ing the natural law of gravitation and seeking the vertical now that he was leaning so far for- ward, was dangling from its golden bar. and there was her curling crop of golden hair, its tendrils twining instinctively as the vine about anv [)rojecting support. Only for an instant, oh. certainly only for the merest instant — and bv the merest accident, those lovelv tendrils. 54 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. that dainty, dangling, tangling corps badge are in juxtaposition, but, "a miss is good as a mile," that instant is good as an age, for when "Felippy" comes shuffling in with a lamp, just preceding mamma and her fan, corps badge and curls are hopelessly entwined. Her blushes are beautiful to see. Her struggles are frantic. There is no need of blue ribbon to wrap round that martial insignia when at last she tears loose, for his efforts to unfasten it are vain. The twin circles of the Eighth Corps are twined with golden hair, and mamma stands glaring at the "fine looking young soldier" of Ballybag days, practically embracing her •daughter, for his left arm is certainly around her as he aids her to rise. "Well — I declare !" says madame, unable to say anything else. "That's — just what I've been doing," says Fargo, promptly facing the inevitable. "But — it was rather sudden. I suppose, and I — haven't had much experience," he adds, in hap- less humility. "Elizabeth, is not this the young man that — Oh, what zuoiild your poor father have said? I wonder you can look Mr. Coates in the face!" A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. 55 This is too much for Miss Bellingham. She starts from her lover's side, a flash in her bright blue eyes. '"Mother!" she cries, "father would have blessed — " but gives way to a flood of in- dignant tears, for there stands Lieutenant Coates, speechless, at the door. "Excuse me." stammers the intruder. "I knocked twice, and the doors were open and Felipe beckoned, but I didn't mean to inter- rupt." In the language of the day "it was up to Fargo." He alone can explain and right man- fully he does it. "Mrs. Bellingham," he says, w ith a little choke in his voice that seems to fit in with the words, "I was the young man in — the lieutenant's company. I enlisted from sen- timental motives, perhaps. So did other fellows I know, and Fm neither sorry nor ashamed. It brought me to — your daughter. So long as 1 was a soldier I couldn't speak, for all I loved her. Now I am free, yet must go to China in the morning. I should have come first to yuu, I admit, but there was no time. I have begged Miss Bellingham to be my wife, and I'm com- ing back to get my answer." Then he turns to her. his lips trembling: 56 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. "Forgive me for this scene — that my awk- wanhiess has caused you. 1 must go at once, l)ut I shall write. Good-night, Miss Bessie," and he bows over her lini]) white hand like a courtier of old. "Good-night, Mrs. Belling- ham." and he bends in formal respect, almost in stately obeisance, to the elder lady, speechless for the nonce behind her fan. "G(^od-night — Mr. Coates," and the inclination to his late superior officer is just what civility requires, and Avith another, a comprehensive, bow, at the threshold, Mr. Fargo steps forth into the night and his waiting carriage. The little brown imp of a coachman had been saving of his candles. The lamps were not yet lighted, and regulations were strict on that point. It had to be done before the)'^ coulcj start, and meantime down came Coates. looking aimless and dazed. Moreover he was still lame, and the men at least had loved him for a brave and kindly officer. "May I drive you anywhere in town, Mr. Coates?" said Fargo. "I'm going right up to the palace." Something in her face had filled his heart with li('i)c and gladness and charity A CONQUERING CORPS BADGK. 57 for all men, and his hand was clasped upon the soft, silken tendrils still hanging on his breast. "Thanks — nuich obliged — I believe not to- night." said Coates. as he limped away, think- ing- ruetnllv that he was driven whether he would or no. He wasn't over brilliant, but he had read and seen enough. P^argo was gone nearly two months, but long before his return the engagement of Miss Bel- lingham was announced by mamma ; long, in- deed, before Miss Bellingham would have an- nounced it herself, and some fabulous tales were afloat, indirectly traceable to the exultant matron, concerning Fargo's wealth and social positic^n. Mrs. Bellingham. for a woman wid- ow-ed and woe-begone so short a time before. had displayed remarkable powers of recupera- tion — "was in her glory," said certain envious mothers, with daughters of their own not yet provided for. It was c|uite the romance of the early .spring. It was a beautiful ring the happy felUnv slipped upon that slender finger the night of his return, and .she thanked him with shy delight and love in her beaming eyes. '•\\'1h> di> VI )U supp(»sc was buying another in 58 A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. the same shop?" is tlie laughing question, a Httle later. "Captain Coates?" she answers, interroga- tively. "He said he was going by way of Hong Kong when he bade us good-bye." "Captain Coates it was! and the ring was for a Baltimore girl. He told me they'd been en- gaged for nearly two years, and d'you know, sweetheart, 1 fancied — " and Mr. Fargo pauses, reflectively. "What — Mr. Fargo?" The woman in her may resent all accusation of having in the least degree encouraged other admirations, yet in no wise does it repel assertion of their existence. "Mr. Fargo, indeed!" he remonstrates, vehe- mently. "Can't you call me Philip yet? Your mother finds it easy," he adds, with whimsical delight, but the instant shadow on her f(3nd and lovely face covers him with self reproach. "For- give me. Bessie," he murmurs, all love and con- trition on the instant. "I want to be Philip to her — to all who are near and dear to you, but to you most of all," and now his arms encircle her and draw her to his breast — mamma hav- ing considerately left them to their own devices and sent Felipe to the commissary's. She A CONQUERING CORPS BAIXIE. 59 nestles there one moment, with drooping head. It is all so new and sweet and strange a happi- ness, and work and want and care seem now so very far away. His lips are pressing kisses on her rippling hair, but the fair face is pillowed beyond their reach, and he so longs for it. An effort to upraise it results only in its burrowing the more closely — deeply, whereat, instead of rejoicing in the blissful contact, he suddenly flinches, and most unaccountably, unromantic- ally says "Ouch !" The bonny head pops up instanter, prompt consternation in the big blue eyes. "Oh I I've hurt you!" she cries. "T'wasn't you — It's — something way in- side." he says, and opening the loose, Manila- made, grass-cloth coat, his hand explores be- neath, exposing the white silken shirt and, as it withdraws, drags partially to light an end of a frayed, bright blue ribbon, whereat the blushes deepen on her dimpling cheek. "It's the pin of that blessed corps badge," says Fargo. "The thing got twisted in the inner pocket and spiked me in the ribs. It's all right now." and again the arms enfold her. Shyly she drops her head ui"ti b!< ^boulder, the slcn- 6o A CONQUERING CORPS BADGE. der, white hand whereon the beautiful ring is gleaming, creeps up and timidly draws to light an inch or two of the prized blue ribbon. He seizes hand and ribbon both and draws them to his lips. ''It seemed a mighty long time before that little ribbon came back to me over the China Sea, Miss Bellingham. I began to think Coates had the inside track — and that it wasn't I — but the corps badge that drew you here — that won- derful evening." "Oh — you — drczv all right," answers Miss Bellingham, falling unconsciously into the lan- guage of the camp and the Corps. Then, dimp- ling again, delight and mischief mingling in her hai)py, hidden face, she waits an instant ; then — bcwilderingly. bewitchingly pretty, she glances up into his eyes, "But it was the badge that — ilidn't — let 2'0." J - '' r '4- i "PIT-A-i'ATTY. JACK ROYAL. "A fiueer thing happened out there at Block House 1 1 t' other night." began the aide-de- camp. "Royal was on guard and a carriage came bounding over Concordia Bridge — " And here the aide-de-camp stopped short and turned sharply on a brother staff officer who had with prompt and amazing vigor brought his booted heel down on the toes of the speaker. "What in h — " again began the aide-de- camp, in agonized query, then again stopped short at sight of the offender's face. In dumb show his brother officer was all but saying. "Shut up.you idiot !"as he glanced significantly to where a middle aged civilian sat in earnest converse with the General. It was just after dinner, and dinner in Manila in the days preceding the outbreak of 62 JACK ROYAL. hostilities in l-cbruary. 1899, was not the movable feast it became later in the campaign. At 7:30 sharp the Filipino major domo, yclept Marcelino, expected the General, his staff and the few guests from the neighboring barracks or from town to take their seats before permit- ting the procession to enter from the outer re- gions. Then "Foremost and bearing the bowl Came the Philippine's practical neighbor" in the person of Ah Lung, chef dc cuisine — a graduate of the Hong Kong ciub and a knight commander of the Order of the Skillet, and Ah Lung's smile was broad as he deposited the huge tureen in front of the General, for it was a fad of that single — and sometimes ill-starred veteran personally to serve the baker's dozen daily in evidence at" their hospitable board. Following at the heels of Ah Lung, in spotless white, came Fabian and Manuelito, natives here and to the manner born, who were the official waiters of the brigade mess, and who took station, respectively, to the right and left rear of the "Old Man," as, through later revela- tions, it was established the brigadier was be- dubbed by his staff. Over the ceremony cere- JACK l<()^ Ai.. 63 moniously presided Marcellino. graduate of the menage of a Spanish grandee who had come to Manila to repair his fallen fortunes at the expense of those that remained to the luckless natives. It had l^een the habit of the General and his statif. earlier in the winter, to sit at mess in the cool white garb so suited to the climate, but matters at the front had changed all that. Every night of late the chief and his retainers had spent riding the line, with occasional cat- naps in I'aco suburb, out Santa Ana way, and, as men had to be at their posts early in the night, it resulted that only those who were not "on watch" came to table in white; the chief in blue serge or khaki and the aides in either, giving a diversity to the coloring of the board. And this night there happened in a civilian whose customary suit of solemn black was un- relieved by glaring white shirt front. He was buttoned up in sombre alpaca : had just re- turned from Hong Kong; had no dress clothes nearer than his home at Santa Ana; had need to see the General, he said, on personal busi- ness, and. despite his protests, was induced to stay. dine, and was now taking a post prandial smoke in :m o;i<v clKiir out on the l)road ve- ^4 JACK ROVAI.. randa tliat overlooked the ever 1)eantifiil bay of Manila. It was a lovely January evening, soft, still and starlit. The rythmical plash of the wave- lets on the sandy beach fell in soothing ca- dence on the ear. The distant war dogs of the Yankee fleet off Cavite were trying their search lights and tossing great beams of silver athwart the skies, ever and again sweeping the long concave semicircle of the south shore with jealous and unwinking eye, and "spiering" as Bruce said, far over to Manila. Bruce was a high functicuiary of the Hong Kong and vShanghai bank and a pillar of the English Club — and church — and Bruce, a welcome guest at any time, had declined to stay to din- ner that night. He pleaded an engagement, but the foot-crushing aide noted that not until Bruce saw the black-garbed civilian did that engagement occur to him. He had gone so far as to take an ante prandial peg with the adjutant general in that official's own room and then, coming out on the rear veranda where sat the chief in converse with the stran- ger, Bruce had shaken hands most cordially w'ith the former and very awkwardly and re- JACK ROYAL. 65 luctantly with the latter. It was plain he didn't like him, when to the General's "I pre- sume you know yh. Pettibone," Bruce re- sponded. "Er — ah — yes. yes. How' do?" I 'or a man who claimed to be Boston ^o the backbone. \Ir. Pettibone bore few of the birth- marks of Back Bay. He had turned up in Manila soon after the American occupation in August, and was energetic in business of some mysterious kind. He had pervaded the Ayun- tamiento for a month or so until the sentry be- gan one day asking his business before letting him up-stairs. Then he was much in evidence ab' ut the depot quartermaster's. And then there arrived his family, the wife, too young looking to be the mother of either the callow youth who escorted her, or of his sister, the one redeeming member of the family circle. She came just in the nick of time, for Jonas Petti- bone had lost favor in the eyes of the elect and was cold-shouldered about Manila as curtly as though he sought to borrow money. \\ hen the original commander of the depart- ment took his departure he bequeathed his suspicions of Pettibone to his revered succes- S'T. !)Ut {!i;it was bofMri- P;ittv Pet till, .in- ranie 66 JACK ROVAL. upon the scene. "Pit-a-Patty" the young offi- cers began to speak of her presently, in allusion to the effect she had on the hearts of her ad- mirers, and they were many. Xor was her step mother deficient in charms, though some- what more mature, nor was she averse to pa- rading them. It was indeed because of this proclivity on part of his spouse that Pet took alarm, and no sooner did the Insurgents issue their mandate to the effect that the Yankee officers would no longer be allowed to visit in the villages outside the line encircling Manila, than lie jumped at a chance to rent a furnished house in Santa Ana, a delightful little suburban town on the bank of the Pasig not three miles from the heart of the city, and thither in Janu- ary had he moved Mrs. "Pet", as I regret to say the youngsters called her, Jonas, Jr., who amounted to nothing, and "Pit-a-Patty" who amounted to a great deal. Now, while living in ]\Ianila the Pets had sported a very natty little open carriage and pair, and madame and her shy, silent, wistful- looking stepdaughter appeared every evening among the promenaders en voiture along the Luneta. For a time, too, it was their habit to JACK UOVAL. 67 draw up to the curb near the bandstand, and there they were speedily joined by Parke and Kitson. subalterns of the Fifty-third, and sometimes by "Patsy" Bolivar of the Cavalry, and always by handsome Jack Royal, of the Washingtons. whose company was quartered far out on the Calle Xozaleda, but who never minded a two-mile tramp each way or cold soup and fish on his return, so long as he could look love for thirty minutes into the eyes of pretty Patty Pettibone. Other fellows there were who would gladly have cut in for the running and cut out Jack, but he took no chances. Not until they began doubling the outposts and calling on his company for duty at the far front did he miss an evening, and that was only just before Pet moved his family to Santa Ana. If. then, Jack Royal so steadfastly "held the pole" and his place by the left rear wheel — Patty's side — how came it that Parke, Kit- son and Bolivar were so constant? Ask Mrs. Pet. Better than any of her far-sighted sex she could sec just how far she had impressed those most impressionable young warriors, and mightily she liked it. It is an ill wind that blows nobodv good. So absorbed were they 68 JACK KOVAL. in their charmer, so engrossed was she in charmini^-. that Patty and Jack were so com- jjletely and bhssfnlly ignored as to be able to coo and murmur and look unutteralilc things, and the course of true love ran smooth and sweet as a Filipino manifesto until Pet saw fit to ransack his wife's bureau one evening when she was at the Luneta and he supposedly still at Ilo Ilo. and therein he found a note of an- other kind — several notes — that jarred like sweet bells jangled, and that night there was a row. No more did the ladies drive alone. Pet sat scowling on the front seat and borbade the diminutive cochcro to rein up anywhere. Two or three young regulars experienced no little chagrin, and thirty or more no no end of mis- chievous delight, over the sudden break in those blissful relations. But Jack Royal was too deeply, honestly, squarely in love to be laughed at, and the only fellow who tried it was a young "tough" who had got into the regiment through pi^litical "pull" and went out of it with an official "push" that never let up till he was safe across the sea. But that was because of a case of "white feather" that blackened his record — of "cold feet" that de\-eloped in the JACK ROYAL. 69 heat of battle — not solely because of the knock out he got at the hands of Jack Royal, whose heart was sore as the offender's head, and sore-hearted men are hard hitters. Then as there were hours when Pet li^d to be about his business and madanie persisted in receiving visitors, the move to Santa Ana fol- lowed. Once there Pet thought his birdling safe from followers. He took the carriage e\ery morning himself to town and drove back only toward dusk. He imagined that thereby he prevented his wife from coming into Ma- nila, and that the Filipinos would as effectively prevent the young officers from going to Santa Ana. But Pet wasn't as bright as his wife by any means. There was nothing to prevent the young fellows' sending carriages out for her, nothing to prevent her driving in to shop on the Escolta, nothing to prevent their joining her there and as Manila afforded no such re- sort as Delmonico's or The Wellington — no cool retreat where ices and chocolate could be served, there might have been nothing to pre- vent madame's accepting their invitation to drive to barracks and partake of champagne and confectionerv at the officers' club. There /O JACK ROVAL. would have been nothing but for Patty. Patty put her little foot down summarily on the scheme. She would drive with her stepmother "open and aboveboard" to and along- the Escolta and he rewarded by a few brief words on the Calle Nozaleda with her watrliful Jack, but the pure heart of the American girl needed no prompting where to draw the line. Her lovely blue eyes, soft, pleading and wistful at most times, flashed with unwonted fire as they gazed straight into the black orbs of the ma- tron. "You know you cannot go there with- out me," said she, "and with me you shall not." And this was in part the situation when old Pet found it imperatively necessary to go over to Hong Kong the third week in January. Now he was in a quandary. To be on the safe side he much desired to take madame and Patty with him, but that would cost a heap of money, and Pet was close as a clam. He went to the agents of the Esmeralda and "boned" them for a "complimentary" for the ladies, but the agents were obtuse and couldn't see it. He tackled that jovial mariner, Taylor, her com- mander, but Taylor had long since "sized up" Pet. and his former "Any time the ladies want JACK ROYAL. Jl to run over to Hong Kong let me know" had meant any time they wanted to go w^ithout Pet. Pet would have been glad to invoke the guardianship of certain charming English resi- dents of Santa Ana. but the men had .given him the cold shoulder almost from the start, anil women, though their hearts went out to Patty and would have found welcome for her. had., with unerring instinct, taken madame's measure and never seemed to see her. As for calling, none of their little number ever con- templated such a thing for a minute. But there were impressionable gallants in and about Santa Ana as well as across the lines in and about Manila, and madame's rolling orbs had speedily lured certain field and staff officers of the Filipino army — young gentle- men of fair fortune and European education, several of whom had served in the army of Spain and two, at least, who had been, taught tlie rudiments of the art of war in Paris and Madrid. Of these was Sandoval, swarthy, Imt suave, aide-de-camp to General Ricarte, whose headquarters were in the big stone build- ing backing on the river directly across the Plaza from the '>. I'n.lrav^ r^f the retreat old 7- JACK KOVAL. Pettibone had cliosen fur his birtlHnofs. Need- ing no other "hid" than that which he read in madame's bold, black eyes, the little General, accompanied by two of his staff, with Sand- oval as interpreter, called in person to pay his respects and before the week was ont all were frequent visitors when Pet wasn't in. To madame, who spoke a little Spanish and was desirous of learning more, the General and his senior staff officer paid assiduous court. But Sandoval spoke English, like a grandee, to be sure, and all the more stately and sonorous did he make it, and Sandoval was fascinated from the start by those liquid blue eyes, by the fair face and pearly teeth of pretty Patty Petti- bone. It was a clear case of physical charm, for Patty, loving and loyal, had no thought for any man on earth but her bonny boy in the uniform of the First Washington, and never a word would she vouchsafe to Sandoval if she could possibly help it. thereby only spurring him to more assiduous and demonstrative de- votion and. presently, to investigation as to this utter indifference to fascinations he had never hitherto exerted in vain. Among the damsels of Spain, the iMestizas of Manila, the daugh- JACK KOVAL. 7^^ ters of the "liigli class" and educated natives, Sandt)val had hornc for three years a record as a lady killer. He raged in his semi-savage little heart to find all his charms wasted, his advances si)urned, his Howery compliments laughed at. There could be only one explana- tion, said he — another — a previous attachment. Then who was the man ? It wasn't hard to find out. Half a mile west from Ricarte's headquarters meandered the Tripa de Gallina — a pulsating estuary of the Pasig that rose and fell with the tide, its median line the intangible barrier betwixt the narrow limits accorded the Yankee intruders and the broad lands of the Insurgents. There, bearing the main highway from the interior into Manila, stood the massive stone bridge known as the Puente de Concordia. On the Santa Ana side, close to the stream, stood the guard-house filled with swarthy little soldiers in broad-brimmed straw hats and pale l)lue uniforms, two sentries ever pacing at the bridge, the arms of the guard stacked at the roadside. Beyond the bridge, a yard perhaps from the abutment, stnnle a stalwart ^'ankoc. Springfield on shoulder, and two hundred 74 JACK ROYAL, paces beyond him tliere towered Block House II, crammed with bliie-shirted boys from the Pacific slope of the far-away States, for there was stationed the advance guard of the First Brigade, First Division of the Eighth Army Corps, a brigade made up entirely, barring the commander and his staff, of gallant volunteers from California, Idaho and Washington. Against that block house, in redoubts along the river bank Ricarte had trained his Krupp guns. Against the block house and the blue jjicket posts along that crooked stream the In- surgents had thrown up earthworks here, there and everywhere along the front. Over that bridge and into the Insurgent lines no more was Yankee foot permitted. Levelled bayo- nets and harsh ''No quicrc Americanos" turned back every would-be explorer. Across that bridge, on the contrary, anywhere, everywhere they cared to go within the Yankee lines, unlet, unhindered, even honored by saluting sentries and welcomed by officers and men, wandered at their own sweet will the soldiers of Aguin- aldo. Such were the orders issued by the de- partment commander; such were his instruc- tions from home. It made manv a Yankee JACK ROYAL. 75 soldier shake his head, Init it couhhi't shake his sense of subordination. "If that's what Uncle Sam wants." said "Thinking- Bayonets", "it goes, but me if I can see the sense of it!" And so it took Sandoval next to no time to hear and tlien to go and see for himself that there was a tall, handsome, dark-eyed, dark- haired, dashing looking first lieutenant quar- tered right there at the Archiepiscopal palace across the Paco bridge who was always on lookout for a certain carriage when it came spinning in from Santa Ana, as well as on the back trip, and who seemed to rejoice in being officer of the guard at Block House ii. It was the nearest post to Santa Ana and his inamorata. And Sandoval went so far as to suggest to madame that he would be glad to drive with her occasionally, and to the aston- ishment of Lieutenant Jack Royal, when next the carriage came bounding acr<^ss Concordia Bridge one sunshiny afternoon late in January, and his field glasses had told him "she", as usual, was on the back seat, the sentries at both ends of the bridge. Tagal and Yankee, pre- sented arms, and then that "queer thing hap- 76 JACK ROYAL. pened" that the General's aide-de-camp started to tell about in the hearing of old Pet him- self. Royal had gone leaping down the wooden stairs within and into the brilliant sun- shine without, and over to the roadside just in time to meet the carriage as its spirited little ponies were pulled up at the post Number 3, and there on the front seat, facing the ladies, beamed a dapper little Tagal officer in uniform of immaculate white, the gold stars on his shoulders fresh from the dainty hands of the Filipino maids at the Convent of San Pablo, the broad-brimmed straw hat, finer in texture than the famous fabric of Panama, circled by its snowy, silken ribbon with the insignia of his regiment embroidered in gold, a silken ker- chief in one white gloved hand, the other raised instantly in precise salute as madame sententiously spoke the words of introduction, emphasizing, as was her w^ont, the difference in rank. "Captain Sandoval, permit me to introduce Lieutenant Royal," and Jack, sighting warning in his sweetheart's blue eyes, tiushed, bowed after the American fashion and half extended his long, shapely hand. JACK ROYAL. "J"] "It ees an honor I have seek for so long." exclaimed Sandoval, hand and kerchief on his heart, (and showing two rows of unimpeach- able teeth). "We — your brothers in arms — your allies, desire much the acquaintance-of so distinguished officers." "Yes." answered Jack, grimly, "those bayo- nets across the bridge yonder look like it." "Ah." and the square little shoulders shrugged, "a mere temporary order, a matter our president will rectify within the week so soon as he hears from my General. It is not, belief me. of our doing — " And right here the "queer thing" happened. Galloping across the arched bridge full speed came another native officer, lashing his excited pony to frantic effort. Within fifty yards of the block house he recognized the carriage and in- stantly, settling back in his saddle, began to pull with all his little might, bringing up sput- tering and splashing in the mud his pony, all a(|uiver. and handing quickly to Sandoval a sealed and folded paper, — then, wheeling about antl. without waiting for reply, setting spur to his mount and dashing back toward Santa Ana. Roval could have sworn the young 78 JACK ROYAL. Staff ofticcr went a shade yellower. The healthy brown of his skin gave place to a muddy tint. "It is from my General. You will pardon." he murmured, uplifting his eyes in appeal to the ladies, as he broke the seal and tore open the page. Patty's eyes signalled "come over here," and Royal quickly stepped back of the carriage to her side. Then she bent as though to whisper, and at that instant in uncontroll- able excitement, if not agitation, young Sand- oval sprang iu>m the carriage. "I am — recalled," he said, bowing low to both ladies. "I — " But something fell with a heavy plunk in the roadway. The glistening white sling of his sword belt had caught the handle of the carriage door. The sword, in accordance with existing conditions had been left at Santa Ana, for it was only by unarmed Filipinos that the lines could be passed. The sudden strain had burst the belt which buckled underneath the white sack coat, and with the belt fell a holster and gleaming revolver, its chambers crammed with cartridges, also a rectangular poucli of Russia leather. With sudden swoop J At. K K( 11 AL. 79 the Filipino possessed himself of the latter. With quick, supple bend, Royal pounced on the other. A cry. half suppressed, came from Patty's lips. Madame herself looked startled. "Pray do not wait. Seiiora." said Sandoval, whose self possession did not seem to leave him. "Until the evening." he continued. Then, kissing his hand, and bowing elabor- ately, "I count the hours. Senorita, Mis labios van cstar frios." he added, with killing glance at Patty. ".^/ corrco, coclicro!" he shouted to the weazened little driver in top hat and boots. Away sped the team, and they stood facing each other, the stalwart son of the Pacific slope, reared in the "glorious climate of California", trained mentally and physically in a great university and soldiering now for the honor of his flag, and the sinewy, yet diminu- tive product of the tropics, bred in luxury and indulgence, schooled in the arts and languages of the Latin race and serving under the standard of a leader almost fanatically loved. in the full conviction that the Tagal was alone fit to rule the Philippines. The smile left the face of Sandoval as he looked squarely up into •the stern eyes of the officer of the guard. 8o JACK ROYAL. Ladies were no longer present; besides, he stood unmasked, self convicted of a violation of the compact. To the Spaniard as to his apt pupil, the Filipino, no disgrace attaches either to a lie or breach of faith except that of detection. Royal was the first to speak. "You under- stand English, Senor Capitan." said he coldly, "and you well know you have no business to wear this within our lines. What's more, you know you couldn't have done it without detec- tion had you not come in a carriage with ladies. Take your pistol. I have no orders to seize it. Our General did not contemplate the pos- sibility of hidden weapons among officers and gentlemen." Sandoval's eyes flashed and his strong white teeth set like a vise. Already he had heard and seen enough to assure him that here was a favored suitor, therefore a hated rival. Butt foremost, the glistening weapon, only half con- cealed in its dainty holster, was extended to him. Close at hand paced the silent sentry on No. 3. Over at the block house stood or sprawled a dozen Washingtons, curiously watching the scene. The cold, almost con- JACK ROYAL. 8 1 temptuous tune oi the tall American stung the Tagal to the quick. Passionate, hot-blooded, vengeful, indulged and petted of women, en- vied and flattered by men, he had been bred to domineer, never to know disdain. All the fire of his race flared in instant rage. ■'You dare insult me!" he hissed, with a stamp of his beautifully booted foot. "Keep that pistol, for you have none to match it, you Americans. But I bring one again and I challenge you to meet me — yonder — at the Tripa — Ha ! — " His furious harangue broke ofi short. Over toward the distant gray walls of Santa Ana, quick- and stirring, a Filipino bugle broke the silence of the afternoon. Almost instantly there came thrilling answer from the guard- house across the stream, and the swarthy little brown soldiers were seen springing to their stacked arms. Clutching his leather pouch and withriut another word. Sandoval turned and ran like a deer for the bridge. "Here! Take your popgun." shouted Royal, hurling the bolstered pistol after him. It flew half a dozen paces bevcnd tin- -«\\ift white runner be- 82 JACK ROYAL. fore it plowed the niiul, but he never stopped nor stooped. ''Form your guard there, sergeant !" ordered Royal, drawing his sword and striding for- ward t(nvard the block house. "There's no telling what may be up." Aloft in the upper story the telegraph in- strument was madly clicking. Far over the rice fields to the southwest little parties of na- tive soldiers could be seen running for the bam- boo patches and nipa "shacks" scattered along the outer bank of the Tripa, every one an out- post of Pio del Pilar. Over at Block House 12 and back of Battery Knoll, south of the Paco suburb, the Americans could be seen scrambling to the highest reachable point and staring out toward Santa Ana in search of ex- planation of the excitement. But Royal promptly got his guard into ranks, sent a cor- poral, with half a dozen men in palpable sup- port of his sentries on the road, and then awaited developments. They quickly came. A soldier sprang from the dark interior of the block house with a paper fluttering in his hand. Royal seized the despatch and read : JACK ROVAL. 83 "Bugles all over town and suburbs sound- ing 'To Arms'. All commands forming at their barracks. Alarm started along the Escolta in Binondo. Cause not ascertained. (Signed) ''Davis, Operator." "Started along the Escolta in Binondo!" said Royal to himself, "and yet those beggars out yonder knew it before we did, and we have the wire. Keep the men in ranks for the pres- ent," he ordered, then quickly returned to the highway and gazed townward. Hurrying toward him with their odd, shuffling gait, in little parties of three or four, some in their uniforms, some in native white, came dozens of the little brown soldiers, the rearmost running in their haste to join their regiments out at Santa Ana. And then, be- yond them, lashing his fiery team of pony stal- lions, appeared the diminutive coclicro, em- ployed and costumed by Messrs. Parke. Kitson & Company, driving like mad as though to escape from the wrath to come. He strove not to see Royal's signal to stop, but the latter 84 JACK KOVAL. would not he denied. Madame was found on the verge of hysterics, Patty, pale but silent. "Oh, what arc we to do?" moaned the ma- tron, wringing her hands. "It is dreadful that this should happen and Mr. Pettibone away !" "But nothing' of any consequence has hap- pened, Mrs. Pettibone," said Royal, as he stepped to Patty's side and possessed himself of a little hand that hung over the edge of the low victoria. "The troops form as a matter of course, but I assure you there is no trouble in store for you. Everything will be quiet presently and you will have forgotten it by the time Mr. Pettibone returns. To-morrow, is it?" "To-morrow probably; Monday at latest," answered Patty, as the elder lady seemed al- ready to have forgotten the existence of her spouse. Then the girl's voice sank to a whis- per, and her eyes filled. "O Jack, I wish — I wish I could think there was no trouble for him — for father. There's something I must tell you, but I can't now,'' and she glanced significantly at the moaning, frightened wo- man by her side. "To-morrow, then Til watch for vou at JACK ROVAL. 85 Paco." answered Royal, pressiiig^ her liand. And then the carriage darted on : shut up the incHne and over the l)ridge and was lost to sight beyond the hurrying groups of Filipino soldiery. Royal, gazing after it, roused from his revery at the voice of the corporal of the guard who stood with Sandoval's pistol in his hand. "What shall I do with this, sir?" was the question. "Mechanically Royal took and thrust it in the pocket of his field uniform just as the clatter of hoofs announced the coming of a mounted party: and turning, he hastened to receive the brigade commander. "Who were the ladies?" inquired that dig- nitary, leisurely dismounting. "Vou need not kee]) your men in ranks. Mr. R(^yal. It was a mere flurry in town." "Mr. Pettibonc's wife — and daughter, sir. Dismiss the guard, sergeant!" answered Royal. "Ricarte's men over yonder were greatly ex- cited. General, and what's queer is that they got wind of the trouble before we did." "There was no trouble worth mentioning." was the answer. "But when there is they can learn it (|uick enough. San Juan del Monte and San Felijic Xeri across the I\'isig yonder 86 JACK ROYAL. signal direct to Santa Ana church tower in front of yon. Well, who's Pettibone?" So the brigadier did not know Pettibone on Saturday, January 28th, yet here he was on Monday evening, January 30th, entertaining him at dinner, and Bob Bruce had palpably re- fused to sit at meat with the party because Pettibone was present. It was an evening of suppressed excitement anyhow. Just at six the division commander had come riding in with two of his staff, and in brief conference with his senior brigadier announced that a cable from Washington warned General Otis to look out for mischief, the Insurgents were planning to attack before the reinforcements shipped in late December and early January could possibly arrive. Orders were issued for all troops to breakfast at 4:45 a.m. and form under arms at 5:15. The force at the front was to be strengthened forthwith, and all the nec- essary instructions had been reduced to writing and the type-written copies signed and had just been sent out when Mr. Pettibone' s card was handed in with a request for an interview with the brigadier. They were still in conversation, for Pettibone had much to say, when dinner JACK Kn\AL. 87 ^vas announced and Pet was induced to stay. That night, under the stars as they rode the hnes. a favorite staff officer turned on his chief with the abrupt question "General, do you know anything about ^[r. Pettibone?" "Nothing but what he told me. Why?" "P>ecause — he is persona iion grata at De- p:iriment Headquarters, and the provost mar- shal disapproves of hini. I tried to catch your eye. sir. when you invited him to dinner." "He brought me a letter of introduction from Colonel Burke at Ilo Ilo and all he wanted was a pass through our lines at Concordia Bridge in case he was detained in town late at night. I sent him to Division Headquarters. He had much to tell — seems to have traveled and seen a good deal." "I'm glad you didn't give him the pass, sir. That man's capable of selling information to the enemy." "Is he?" laughed the general. "Well, I dtnibt if he'd find a market. They have far more information than he, and can get all they need without paying for it." Three days passed without further tidings of Pettibone at l)rigade headcjuarters and, what 88 JACK ROYAL. was worse, of i)retty Patty along the Xozalecla, and Jack Royal was in a fidget — three days and nights in which the strain of the sitnation at the front became intense. The Pettibone carriage had driven in each morning and back late each afternoon, unhindered by either guard, its sole and sallow occupant scowling malignantly at sight of Royal who was always on watch. But the carriage sent out. presum- ably, by madame's admirers infra miiros. to the dismay of those young gallants and the mis- chievous delight of their comrades, never re- turned. There was evidently a restraining hand in Santa Ana. It was Friday morning when Royal marched on again as officer of the guard at Block House II, having "swapped" tours with a comrade in order to get there ahead of his time. .\nd the first thing he did after distributing his sentries was to swing out from the Santa Ana front, nailing its upper edge to the sill of the rifle slit, a big tal)le cloth that he had unscrupu- lously borrowed from the mess kit, and Johnny Filipino across the stream looked, marveled, gesticulated anrl chattered, then sent hack to headquarters for staff officers who came scam- JACK ROVAL. 89 periiig mit on their mettlesouK' ponies to see what manner of sig^nal this was the Yankees were setting-, and with them came Sandoval, who £^az:ed, askeil just one (|uestion of the Tag-al otliccr at tlie bridge, got the reply "El Tcniciitc Royal", and galloped back to Santa Ana as hard as he could go. Whatever his object it in no wise interfered with Royal's plan, for barely three hours later there came spinning across the bridge a carriage, recog- nized at once as that of Mr. Maclean, a prom- inent English resident of Santa Ana and lead- ing business man of Manila, and pretty, smil- ing, dainty little Mrs. Maclean was seated therein, two of her children with her. To Jack's suqirise and joy a corporal came hurry- ing to him with a note. Royal raised his hat and bowed his thanks, then tore open the ])rc- cious missive. "Jack, Jack," it said, "thank God for sight of your signal. I have been almost mad with anxiety. Father and Mrs. Pettibone. too, seem to have fallen utterly into the hands of those Insurgent officers. Sonicthiiii^ is being plotted. I don't know wliat. Pio del Pilar with other Cienerals .spent twenty-four hours 90 JACK ROYAL. here. Father was with them at night and has packed up his papers and bidden us to be ready to move at a moment's notice. He is fearfully nervous about something and is in some grave complication, though I hardly know what. But, this you must know^ Captain Sand- oval is here morn, noon and night. He seized the carriage that used to come out for mother and he insists hour after hour on our leaving here and moving to his home, which is near General Montenegro's at Taytay beyond Pasig. Father would have gone before this, but for a large sum of money due him that he is striv- ing to collect in the city. It is all that pre- vents our leaving, and Jack. I dread it more than words can tell. I dread this little demon Sandoval, and oh, Jack, you must be on your guard agin St him. He is capable of anything and he terrifies me by his threats. Promise me not to go near that bridge to-night. Jack — promise me, and if you can do anything to help my poor old father do, Jack. He was good and loving to me always until this other marriage. There is only one way to get this to you. I am going to the English lady you have seen driving by so often, to implore her JACK ROYAL. 9 1 help. The Filipinos dare not stop or search her carriage. Fondly, anxiously. "Patty." "The lady said she'd stop for an answer on the way back, sir," said the corporal. But be- fore that answer could be written came the General to potter all about the premises for a whole hour, "spiering" over the rice fields with his glasses, studying the movements of the In- surgents about their earthworks and redoubts, asking countless questions and finally taking Jack another hour's tramp up and down the banks of the Tripa. It was two o'clock when he remounted and rode away, and there was the Maclean carriage waiting. Jack could only pencil a few hurried lines, thank the gentle, sympathetic little woman with all his heart and falter a bungling plea that she should befriend his endangered sweetheart, and then out came a messenger on the jump with this despatch : ''Commanding Officer Block House 1 1 : Post sentries to guard every possible cross- ing of streams on your front and prevent the 92 JACK ROVAL. return to Santa Ana of Jonas Pettibone, Amer- ican citizen. Arrest him wherever found within our Hues. Copy sent brigade com- mander. Acknowledge receipt. (Signed) "Cabell A. A. G."' Tliat was a busy afternoon along the Tripa, but nightfall came without a sign of the desired Jonas. Two Generals and at least twenty offi- cers of various grades were out inquiring for him at different times. Everybody knew he had driven into town that morning, but no- body seemed to know what had since become of him. His carriage and coachman had easily been found by the stalwart amateur police from the Thirteenth ^Minnesota, but Jonas had some- how got wind of the sudden mo\-e to nab him and had vanished. Filipino. Chinese and Spanish merchants with whom he was known to have had dealings vowed they knew nothing of his whereabouts, but the chief of police, act- ing under information from the martial col- lector of customs, "ran in" six or eight im- porters and by nightfall everybody seemed to know it was another case of opium smuggling, all planned and carried out by the astute Jonas. JACK KOVAL. 93 Moreover, there was bribery and o •rruption of minor officials proved against bim. and in- timate relations with Insurgent officials more than suspected. "It was these latter," said the provost martial's people, "who now had him in hiding, the deuce knows where." For three nights the American sentries on the road at the west end of Concordia Bridge had been subjected to all manner of annoyance and insult, but this Friday night seemed to "cap the climax." Taps had hardly sounded back in Paco when, officers and soldiers both, the little brown men came swarming over toward the American side, whetting their keen boles on the stone parapet and daring and taunting the sentries to fight. Loyal to their orders, the big Washingtons laughed at their jninv tormentors, which only made them the madtler. and toward eleven o'clock they be- came so demonstrative that Private Stone sent forth a stentorian shuut for the corporal, and with that long-legged non-com came running the tall officer of the guard, followed panting by a gray-haired, grizzled little Idaho major, the field officer of the day. Instantly there was rush and scurry back across the bridge on 94 JACK ROYAL. part of the Filipinos, and in the dim Hght of the cloudy moon their guard could be seen springing into ranks and taking arms while two or three officers leaped into saddle. Be- fore Stone could report the cause of his signal, faint, yet clear and distinct, away off to the left toward the point of Pandacan Island a rifle shot rang out on the night, close followed by another, and at the sound, whipping and spurring their little steeds, away scurried the Filipino officers in tlie direction of the shot and sped out of sight behind the stone walls of the Norwegian consul's residence across the stream. Away streaked dim, ghostly, pale- blue shadows skimming across the flats toward the river and, fired by the sight, straddling his pony, the little Idaho major spurred for the bridge at Block House lo. It was midnight before the eager watchers at the center learned the cause of this alarm. A boat had crossed tlie Pasig just in front of Pandacan Point and landed two men beyond the Concordia. Jeering laugh and vulgar taunt were the reply to the picket's challenge. A pistol flashed and cracked, answered in- stantly by the rifle of the lone Californian who JACK ROYAL. 95 had just time to reload and tire once more be- fore the figures shot out of sight behind the bamboo, and a shrill, mocking voice shouted the (|uery ■■\\'a-at you Vankoes gif for Pettibone now?" There was no missive from Patty to glad- den Jack Royal's heart before he turned over the outpost to his successor Saturday morning. Instead, a grave-faced gentleman stepped from his carriage about eight o'clock. *'My name is Maclean." said he. briefly, '"and my wife bade me stop to say to you that she had tried to see Miss Pettibone this morning, but Mr. and Mrs. Pettibone declared she was too ill to receive anybody, yet my wife saw her at an upi)er window signalling to her and looking well as ever. She will try again later." But trials were vain. No word came from Santa Ana through the livelong day; no sign till late at night, and then the expected storm broke in fury along the northward front. Taunt, insult and abuse having failed to pro- voke the Yankee to heg'm the fight, the Tagals in desperation stealthily posted their firing lines to sweep the field and sent armed ])arties <)6 JACK KOVAL. to compel the shot of the American sentry in front of Samta Mesa. When Sunday morning dawned on Block House 1 1 the battle was in full blast and there was wild excitement beyond the lines at Santa Ana. Confident that the patient sufferance and self restraint of the Americans meant that they stood in terror of the Tagal, the little brown men had rushed impetuously to the at- tack toward three o'clock, but the sun rose up- on a baffled force and a bk^ody field. The Americans had not yielded an inch. What was worse, the gathering light had made it pos- sible for them to use their field guns, and now Dyer and Scott, with their beautiful, long breech loaders at Battery Knoll, and Haw- thorne with his Hotchkiss "barkers," close to Block House ii, were sending their shells shrieking at the Insurgent works, their shrap- nel bursting into deadly storm of lead that swept the parapets and silenced the bellowing Krupps. Through the upper stories of the houses in Santa Ana, built of frail bamboo, shell and lattice, the bullets came whizzing every moment, and the inhabitants, English, natives, and that one American household, had JACK ROYAL. 97 taken refuge on the groun«l floors where, be- liind solid stone walls, they were safe. Safe from flying lead, that is, but not from flying foe. From the moment of his arrival late that Friday night Jonas Pettibone had been in terror. Young Sandoval, he who had so eagerly urged that the family should take refuge at his home at Taytay, where they could be under guard of his retainers and far from the pi^ssibility of English interference, now could not leave his post of duty to escort them, and in his jealous passion, would not let them go without him. Every hour or so all Satur- ilay he had managed to dart in to ask for Pattv, pleading to see her. l)ut the girl had shut herself in her room and would not come down. Temporizing with Pettibone. he promised to convey him Sunday beyond all possibility of capture, but well he knew that before midnight. in all likelihood, the attack would begin. Not for an instant did he doubt that, when once the assault was ordered, he and his heroic com- jiatriuts, whirling the coward Yankee before them into the sea. would go careering into Manila, masters of the great city. Then he c<»uld return at will to Santa .\na and dictate 98 JACK ROVAL. terms to Pettibone — terms that included Patty in the spoils of war. But Sunday morning had come with the ''coward foe" unshaken, and now the dis- heartened battalions of Ricarte were drifting back from the banks of the Trii)a to the shelter of the intrenchments and the stone-walled en- closures of Santa Ana. Now the shrapnel be- gan to burst in mid air in front of his redoubts and spatter death throughout his lines. Xow the huts and the houses, the great churchyard and the roomy convent began to fill up with dusky wounded, and stragglers and skulkers came huddling back into the Plaza. In gal- lant effort, Sandoval and his comrade officers rode, shouting and sword-waving among them, and drove all uninjured soldiers into ranks again. And at longer range now the fight was renewed, and Sandoval took heart. The Americans had not given way. to be sure. It w^as a drawn battle iov the time being — but, just so soon as reinforced by Pio del Pilar, Ricarte could order another assault and with overwhelming' numbers sweep the opposite bank. Meantime the American dare not strike. \^iinglorious1y. therefore, he rode JACK ROYAL. 99 back to the Pettibone gate and. tliished with battle and the consciousness of personal valor, appeared before them. Pet and his hysterical spouse crouching to the tioor in abject terror. Patty almost scornfully ministering to them. The crash of Filipino musketry close at hand made Pet rave with apprehension. They must be falling back ! The Americans must be com- ing! "For God's sake — for pity's sake — order the carriage and send me up to Pasig!" he pleaded. In vain Sandoval strove to reassure him. The Americans would be slaughtered, said he, if they dared venture to cross the Tripa. "They dream not of the valor of our soldiers." he declared, and ordered coffee served and breakfast cooked without delay. But even as he spoke the spat of whistling bul- let, tearing through the fragile lattice of the floor above, made Jonas cower lower, and the peal of the bugle called the young staff ofticer to the Plaza without. Carriage, (juilez and carromata in front of headquarters were being loaded up with wounded officers and official records. The reserves were forming in grim silence. The cheers of the earlier morning had <lied awav. "Those accursed ^'ankoes!" lOO JACK ROYAL. growled a trembling, grizzle-pated official," his brown face streaked with sweat. "They have deceived us. They have thousands to our one!" Sandoval knew well what that meant. Not that the enemy had gained a man, but that the Insurgent had lost his nerve. Turning to a shaking little servant, he bade him seek the carriage and have it in readiness at the "casa Pettibone," then hastened once more to the front. Lying dow^n behind the foot high ridges in the rice fields, crouching be- hind the earth parapets of their redoubts, aim- ing over the tough stone walls, Ricarte's lines were still blazing at the opposite bank of the Tripa, sweeping the Concordia Bridge and sending a storm of Mauser and Remington bul- lets into the smoke bank that, hanging low along the stream, ever and anon jetted forth a fiery sheet, as in steady, well-aimed volley some Yankee platoon responded. Peering from an upper window of the convent he could look out over the now deserted field toward the Paco suburbs, here, there and everywhere dotted by patchs of pallid blue or dirty white, the aban- doned dead of the Insurgent brigade. It was eight o'clock and Ricarte's attack had failed. JACK ROYAL. lOI The signals from across the Pasig at San FeHpe Neri and further away San Juan del Monte told of triumph for the Filipino cause and bade the brothers of Pilar's division do their share and the day was won. But Sand- oval could see with his strong glasses that San Miguel, commanding on the zone in front of Santa IMesa, had made no headway against the stalwart lads from Colorado and Nebraska. "A Spanish victory!" he swore in bitter wrath, and then went bounding down the stairs. Once more he sought the presence of the girl whose l>eauty had enthralled, whose disdain liad maddened him. Suppose the Yankee should advance or turn his guns on Santa Ana! then what hope had he of holding her? There stood the victoria at the gate, the little stallions dancing from excitement, the pigmy cochero livid and shaking from fear. Burst- ing without ceremony into the presence of the family party, he found it reinforced by Jonas, Jr.. scared but spunky. Even that inconspicu- ous citizen had some pride left, and the stiff stand of his fellow ct»untrymen had rejoiced his feeble heart. Coffee and food stood unnoticed on the table. Old Pet was crouching in a cor- I02 JACK KOVAL. ner. Mrs. Pet moaning on a bamboo couch, Patty, i)ale but calm, was hunting through some of her father's papers. "You must find it!" he quavered. "It would ruin me if — " He broke ofif with a shriek. Three Filipino soldiers came bounding in at the rear door, arms still in their hands. Furiously Sandoval whipped out his glittering sv^ord and de- manded the meaning of this intrusion. "The Americans! The Americans!" was their affrighted cry. Springing to the stairway he reached the upper story and gazed out over the native nipa huts and the level rice fields beyond them toward the Tripa, and there he saw a sight which sent the blood rushing back to his heart. In long blue lines, at "fighting intervals" the right of the Yankee brigade was already across the Tripa and sweeping- steadily eastward toward the San Pedro road, his one means of escape to Pasig. The right center was just emerging from the stream, four splendid, stal- wart companies of those big W'^ashingtons. They halted one instant at the brink. The line blazed with flame, a sheet of hissing lead swept the field and tore through the thinning ranks JACK ROVAL. 105 to the south of Santa Ana. Then (»n tliey came and, as in panic, Sandoval leaped down the stairs. The crash of another volley straight from Block House 1 1 told that the second hat- talion of the W'ashingtons was coming, too, and the splinters of lattice and shell work cov- ered him as he leaped into the presence of the family below. "To the carriage!" he shouted. "Vou have not an instant ! You will be captured !" And with a howl of anguish old Pet grabbed at his papers and ruslied for the gate. "Follow, Senora, follow!" he said. "Assist the Sen- ora," he ordered the frightened, but docile soldiers — then sprang to Patty's side. "Come, SefTorita, come!" he cried. But she darted behind the table away from his appealing hands. Other Insurgent soldiers came hurry- ing in through the open court, some tearing off their uniforms and appearing in the white garb of the peaceful natives, seeking where to hide their arms. The crash of another volley not six hundred yards away and a glorious, full- thn^ated cheer burst on the morning air, and drove the Tagal captain to frenzy. With one cat-like spring he cleared the narrow table, I04 JACK ROYAL. and. despite her furious blows, struggles and shrieks, seized the frantic girl in his :rrms and shouted to the soldiers for aid. Death was the only punishment they knew for disobedi- ence, and at his demand they, too, pounced up- on her, and. borne now by four little brown devils, poor Patty was rushed into the open air, through the gateway and out on the open Plaza. A fierce imprecation fell from the lips of Sandoval. The carriage was gone! Ter- rified by the nearing clamor and uproar, the little team had darted away, and with Tagal soldiers dragging at their bits, were plunging and rearing full three hundred yards up the square. There was no help for it, thither must she be carried, and. half fainting, the fren- zied girl was hurried along. Yet she did not lose hope or pluck. Nearer and nearer the glorious cheering came, borne on the breeze, the ringing bugles sounding the charge, the rifles rattling all along the line, and from the south and west front of the village the scatter- ing shots of the Filipinos were dwindling awa)^. as the demoralized offenders took refuge in flight. By dozens and scores the little brown men were scurrying past them in mad JACK ROVAL. 105 race for the river road. Was there none to help ? — none to save? All along the north siiie of the Plaza ran a high stone wall, and at the middle stood th.e ornamental iron gate, now sternly closed, in front of the beautiful grounds and homestead of the Macleans. Patty's im- ploring eyes caught sight of two or three stal- wart forms in civilian dress behind the bars, and all her remaining strength went forth in one agonized scream for help. Then came a scene such as Santa Ana never knew before. Forth from the gateway burst three Anglo Saxons and bore down full tilt on Sandoval. ••Don't let them take me!" gasped Patty, and fainted. There were breathless questions, furi- ous answers. Brittanic bluster and Tagal threats, then biff! biff! — right and left banders that sprawled two of Patty's bearers in the dirt. Biff! Bang! and Sandoval's half drawn pistol went spinning one way, the owner another. "Quick! Back to the house!" ordered Mac- lean, and thither the victors carried the girl just as a sjnittering volley and thrilling chorus of exultant cheers and shouts and stentorian orders 'Torward! Forward! Roll 'em u]) ! Swing round on the right !" told that the right I06 JACK ROYAL. wing of the Washingtons had carried the works and now were bursting in tlirough the native huts- at the south, cutting off the retreat of Ricarte's main body. Sandoval w-as trapped. The carriage whirled away and darted round a distant ccM'ner to the San Pedro road. In mad panic the scattering rebels were fleeing for the river beyond the great stone church. Sandoval, staggering to his feet, was swept away w-ith them just as the blue-shirted leaders of the Washingtons came cheering and charg- ing through the yards and pathways opposite Maclean's and springing out into the open Plaza in a dozen places at once. For a few seconds the volleying broke forth again, as they spied tlie fleeing Tagals. But all along the opposite wall the belated ones threw down their arms and pleaded piteously for mercy. "Round 'em up. Gather 'em in, lads," were the orders, and a tall young officer strode forward to the group of natives huddled at Maclean's gate. Far to the left down the Pasig the fierce crash of volleys told where the Idahos and the Washington's left were still hotly engaged at the rel)el redoubts, for, caught like rats in a trap, the little devils JACK ROYAL. IO7 fought savagely, but to no purpose. The rat- tle of musketry soon gave way to prolonged and enthusiastic cheers, and then a smiling civilian appeared behind the bars. "Come in, Mr. Royal." said he. '"We've got one of your prisoners here." A moment later. Jack Royal was ushered upon a scene that so long as he shall live will live with him. indelibly photographed upon the filmy retina of that intangible yet almost in- destructible organ — the mind's eye. In the safe shelter of the massive stone walls of the mansion, in an improvised sitting room on the ground floor, three fair women were bend- ing over a couch whereon lay, pallid, yet un- s])eakably lovely, a fourth. Wondering, big- eyed, flaxen-haired, curly-pated children hung about them. With an inarticulate cry of mingled joy, relief and love unutterable, the tall soldier threw himself upon his knees, be- side the couch — before them all. and folded the slender fnmi in his strong arms, pillowed the pretty, disheveled head on his breast — all other captures for the time forgotten. it was the sound, unwelcome — doubtless — , of the General's voice that brought Jack Royal I08 JACK ROVAL. back to earth. Maclean and liis friends were extending welcome and congratulation. "But I heard the men at the gate say there was another prisoner in here," said the briga- dier. "What did that mean?" "It must have meant me, sir," quoth Jack, mopping his happy face as he came forth into the sunshine of Santa Ana. Old Pet was not present at his daughter's quiet wedding. From Filipino sources it was learned that Sandoval had lived to fight an- other day and died like a little man, facing the assault of Wheaton's Flying Column on Cainta, but Filipino reports are always unre- liable. They would have it that Pet was drowned in the Pasig by the overturning of the banc a in which he sought to escape from the pursuit of the Californians to San Pedro Macati, and that madame had subsequently joined her fortunes with those of a wealthy Meztizo merchant, whereas officers returning to the United States swore they saw Pet skulk- ing about in Nagasaki, and everybody knows madame, like ]Mrs. Micawber, would never de- sert her spouse. '■ With Ills liand on liis heart lie made her a low bow." DOVE COTE DAYS. There was excitement extraordinary one still, starlit January night, soft, warm and sen- suous, and all the placid suburb of Ermita, south of the old walled city of Manila was aroused and in commotion. Somewhere toward two o'clock in the morning the sentries on the edge of the Luneta and a patrol scout- ing through the narrow, dusty streets had been startled by a woman's scream, fearful in its terror and intensity. Instantly there went up a yell from three or four lusty throats. "Corp'r'l the Guard Number Three!" "Copple the Guard Xuiiiber Seven !" as the sentries, for- bidden to leave their posts, gave hurried alarm. But the patrol on the Calle Marina and the cor- poral of the guard at the guard-house gates, hampered by no such instructions, ran like wind to the Calle San Jose whence came the sound, I 10 DOVK COTE DAYS. and brought uj) standing- at the barred gate- way of the quarters occupied by Lieutenant Barriger, of the Artillery. Already doors were opening and heads peer- ing forth from the windows of the native houses across the way, but here at Barriger's all was silent. Yet the sentry at the corner could have sworn the scream came from within those walls. In two minutes the officer of the guard from the Calle Real, and the officer of the day, who was making the rounds down toward the English Club, came hurrying to the spot and demanded explanation. Why didn't Lieutenant Barriger show himself? was the latter's breathless question. "He's on night duty over at the Calle Noza- leda," responded young Hunter, lieutenant commanding the guard. "That's what worries me. The ladies are alone." And just then the "jalousie" blinds of the overhanging gallery slid softly aside, and a woman's voice, sweet and controlled, despite the tremor of some powerful excitement, was heard to say : "There is no occasion for fur- ther alarm. My sister has been badly fright- ened. Is Mr. Hunter there? Ah, ves — Mr. DOVK COTt: DAYS. I 1 I Hunter, if you can get word to Mr. Barriger to come to us as soon as possible I will thank you very much." "Can we Ije of no service. Miss Ferris?" in- quired the hard-breathing, pi^rtly officer of the day. "Thank you. Captain. I fear it's too late. But you might send a few men round and search the garden at the back. Somebody has been in here." And that is all that was told that night, or for two days afterward, except that the Diario de Manila and both Freedom and Ameridi came out with advertisements in Spanish and English somewhat as follows : "Stolen — From the quarters of Lieutenant Barriger. Ermita. on Thursday night, money, jewelry and a Rus- sia leather case containing letters and papers. $200, Me.x.. will be paid for the safe return of the missing case with contents, and no questions asked." "Xow what the dickens." was the question all over the quarters of the Eighth Corps in and about Manila — "what the clickens did Bar- riger mean bv leaving" valuable pa[)ers any- where outside of a burglar-proof safe in such a sneak-thief centre a? this?" I I 2 DOVE COTE DAYS. Only one man could answer that question — or possibly two: the Lieutenant himself, or else the comrade who of late had been his al- most daily associate, Captain Adair, of the — th Cavalry. Sam Barriger had been married just six weeks when the war broke out and he was or- dered to Manila. It w^is a sore blow to pretty Kitty Ferris, his bride. They had been en- gaged half a year with the knowledge and con- sent cf the elders, and twice as long without. They had met when he was serving at the Presidio the winter of '95-6 — he coming in for frequent dinners and she coming out as a debutante. ]\Iost girls in her set in San Francisco were tall and willowy; Kitty was willowy, but not tall. She was a mite and a darling, the joy of her parents and the idol of her elder sister, Constance. The Ferrises were well-to-do, had ambitious projects for both daughters and were doomed to disappointment. Constance had been betrothed to a man of mature years with big returns from his profession, but something happened to kill her respect for him and she summarily snapped the tie and declared the DOVE CUTE DAYS. I I 3 engagement ended. It was something in some way connected with a previous entanglement. The barrister was an eloquent pleader and he hr.d an earnest advocate in the person of Mrs. Ferris, but they talked to stone. The counselor took bis leave and a trip to Europe. The mother took it out of her daugh- ter by denouncing her daily for a week as b.eartless. undutiful and absurd. Then pater- familias called a halt. He and the lawyer were friends and fellow-members of a well- known club. He had fathered the suit, but down in the depths of his better nature he knew that his pure-minded, truthful, honest Con de- served the love of a man as honest as herself — if she cctuld find one. and when he saw her white face as she came forth from one of those tlaily upbraidings he envied the man who could accomplish the apparently impossible feat of kicking himself down stairs. He shrank from her in shame, then went in to his wife, told her Ci'Ustance was right and they were wrong and that must be the end of it. The girl should make her own choice next time, and mean- while might the Lord forgive him for having brought her such annoy ! 114 DOVE COTE DAYS. But thoiic^li suitors came, Constance seemed to shrink fartlier and farther into her shell. Were all men like her former betrothed? seemed to be the question uppermost m her mind. She continued in society, but her heart wrapped itself about little Kitty, and when that child "came out." great was the pride and rejoicing. The mother took heart again. If Con persisted in being an old maid, here at least was a daughter who could be relied on to make a brilliant match. There were giants in those days in the way of "catches" — young gentlemen of fortune and family connection, and Mamma Ferris had set her cap for one of these, a near neighbor, a charming fellow, the only son of his mother, and she thought him well on the way to per- manent ensnarement when what did he do but bring Sam Barriger, his friend from the Presidio, to call. Then he gave theatre parties to both girls, chaperoned sometimes by his mother, sometimes by theirs, but attended al- ways by Sam, and this made Mrs. Ferris rabid. Their host was not handsome, whereas Sam was — extremely so ; and to the mischievous de- light of social circles and the wrath of the DOVK COTE DAYS. I 1 5 mother. Miss Kit ingenuously displayed a growing joy in Barriger's presence and was obviously and radiantly happy when dancing with him. It was a famous light battery that gave those dashing drills once a week for the benefit of admiring and applauding himdreds from town, and Sam Barriger's horsemanship was as good as his dancing. His voice had a clarion ring to it. and in the dash and dust and smoke of mimic battle he rode and moved a hero fit to grace the pages of Scott, and Kitty Ferris was not the only girl in 'Frisco to be moved by the sight. This precipitated matters — but I should like to tell that story another time, or rather read it as it could be told by another fellow. There is only rotnn for the main issue. Now a word as to Barriger. He was a far better fellow than would appear from what has thus far been said of him. He was a gentle- man and a soldier — a gentleman so poor in pocket that he denied himself both tipple and tobacco in order that he might never owe any man a penny — might even occasionally repay the lavish hospitality accorded him. He was a soldier so fine, so enthusiastic that he loved Il6 DOVE COTE DAYS. every detail of his duty and did it up to the handle, to the end that among his fellows of the allied arms of the service he had won the sobriquet of Battery Sam. He had his faults, or he wouldn't have been human. Some of them will not appear in this story and there- fore need not be mentioned. One of them came near turning it topsy- turvy, and that was almost indomitable pride. He fell frankly, honestly in love with Kitty Ferris before he had known her a week. Then something her mother said gave him a setback that made the little maiden sick at heart. He went off on a month's leave, exploring the Yosemite at the very moment she had reason to expect him to remain at her side, and wo- manfully did she make him feel it when he returned and found her absorbed, apparently, in the devotions of half a dozen other fellows. It was about this time the other girl episode occurred. Sam and Kitty, with hearts close knit, in spite of brave show to the contrary, were slowly drifting apart, and a certain Miss Caxton appeared about ready to receive con- gratulations, and as much as said so to Kitty, who returned the stab on the spot, with smiling DOVE COTE DAYS. I I J interest, like the plucky little woman she was at bottom, and then in the dead hours of the night deluged her pillow with tears :'nd was caught in the act by Constance. There was a double theatre party and sub- sequent supper at the Bohemian Club two nights later to which Miss Caxton did not hap- pen to be bidden, but there, among others, was Barriger. and there was Constance Ferris, be- tween whom occurred a ten-minute talk, un- heard of others, late in the evening, and from that night dates Sam Barriger's enthusiastic, chivalric admiration for his sister-in-law. "She is the best and noblest woman that ever lived." said he, some time later, "and the dearest — ex- cept one." It wasn't a happy courtship. Both parents "kicked" vehemently at the idea of Kit's marry- ing in the army. I don't much blame them, despite my belief that army women as a rule, are the happiest in the w<irld. For six months they wouldn't listen to it and forbade Sam the house. Then they offered to admit him on probation, so to speak, and he wouldn't come. Then Ferris, with a sigh, said if Mr. Barriger w^ould resign and go into business in San I-Van- I 1 8 DOVE COTE DAYS, cisc(3 he would consider it. Mr. Barriger re- plied that his profession had long since been chosen and he preferred it to anything else, stock brokerage especially. Meantime they tried the moth-eaten device of a trip abroad — Kit, Constance and her mother — and that didn't work. Finally Ferris gave in and at the last moment his spouse followed suit. The wedding was beautiful, the honeymoon blissful — and then came the war. It must be admitted that little Mrs. Barriger did not behave like a heroine when Sam was ordered across the seas. She considered him a bit of personal property and contested the claim of his Uncle Sam. Ferris wired to a Senator or two, and the tender of a captaincy in the subsistence department (of the volun- teers) came flashing back, only to be promptly declined. He was going with his guns. Ferris at first called him an ungrateful cub, but was out on the street waving his hat and shouting with the rest of San Francisco when Ander- son's — the first — expedition marched down to the ships, and there at the wharf he reached up and whacked his tall son-in-law between the shoulder blades and stammered something to DOVE COTE DAYS. I I9 the effect that he was prDiul of him ami of his going, atul of Kit for sticking to him. Manihi fell in August. The tiag went up on the Ayuntamiento and prices on the Escolta, And along in the autumn, to the consternation of the Commanding General, certain devoted army wives maile their way to the Orient, and nt) sooner was it known that the venturesome half dozen were actually there than half a hun- dred others were inspired with like ambition. Peace for a season bade the world farewell as far as the Commanding General and the Quar- termaster's department were concerned, for the number of women with missions to Manila out- numbered the staterooms on the transports, and, to put an end to importunity, out came the order that none would be taken. This barred women who couldn't afford the journey at their own exi)ense. but was no hindrance to Mrs. Barriger. She and Constance had been to Honolulu on the Doric; 'twas but a fortnight farther to Hong Kong: Constance was of years that made her mistress of her own means and meanderings ; Kit was determined to join her husband; Lawyer lUirton had returned to his practice and showetl symptoms of returning I20 DOVE COTE DAYS. to his clevotiDiis, and so it happened that, late in Septemher, wlien the O. & O. hner shoved off for Shanghai, Hong Kong and intermediate ports, the sisters sailed for the China Sea as special charges of her gallant Captain, and a month later were steaming into the mouth of the swirling Pasig. Now, at the edge of the Ermita suburb, close by the cooling sea, Sam Barriger had found a nest for his birdlings and, aided by the sym- pathetic hands of a big-hearted army woman, had it all in readiness when the steamer was sighted. It was a cozy little box, built after the Philippine fashion of solid stone on the gnnind floor, solid wood on the floorings above and l)elow, luit of light, airy framework — lat- tice, bamboo and shell — as to superstructure. Tough enough it was to resist tornado, yet sufficiently elastic to give and swing and sway in case of earthquake, and. if it had to C(3me down, not so heavy as to smash everything on which it might descend. It was owned by a native merchant, glad enough to take American coin in preference to Manila currency. Its front wall abutted on the narrow sidewalk : the front doors and win- IK)VK COTI-: DAYS. I -' I dows. Ptter the jealous Oriental mode, being heavily barred with iron. Its rear elevation gave ujion a pretty garden bounded north and south by high walls of hewn stone, cappe/1 by jagged glass set in cement. Westward through the high, vertical iron pickets of a forbidrling fence shone the sparkling bay. which at high tide bathed the sea-wall in briny foam. East and west a broad latticed gallery or vestibule overhung the lower story. The spiral stair- way from the ground floor opened on the breezv salon off which were the bedrooms rm one side, the dining and spare room on the other. The kitchen was in a little detached structure connected with the gallery and din- ing-room by a light, bamboo bridge. The serv- ants' f|uarters were below. It was furnished simply and sufficiently after the Oriental fash- ion, with broad, cane-bottomed bedsteads, with deep, easv lounging chairs and settees of bam- boo and cane. It was destitue of carpets, f>or- ticrcs or heavy curtains. It lacked electric lights and marbled bathrooms, but a fountain plashed i)erennially in a broad basin in the gar- den. The north and south windows looke<l out on luxuriant foliage and brilliant flowers. 122 DOVE COTE DAYS. A few paintings by native hands — no mean limners they — adorned the walls. The chan- deliers and sconces shone like polished silver, and Captain Adair, dropping in in his friendly way to see iiow Barriger was settled, gazed approvingly anil then semi-satirically dubbed the place the "Dove-Cote." "There's only one thing about it I don't like, Barriger," said he, after a leisurely survey, "and that's your neighbors. Native houses on every side of you but that ;" and he pointed out over the broad bosom of the bay, dotted with warships, tramps and transports, and all glis- tening in the declining sun. "What's the matter with the natives?" said Sam. "They seem amicable enough, in all conscience. Six women were here this morn- ing to bid for the family ^Vash. How quick they knew womenfolk were coming!" "How quick they know everything!" said Adair, knocking the ash off his cigarette and strolling to the lattice at the front. A shove with his powerful hand sent the high frame sliding easily back in its groove, and it opened on the narrow street and opposite houses barely forty feet away. DOVE COTE DAYS. • IJ3 Seated in a somewhat similar gallery, heed- less of the glare of the slanting sun. was a na- tive woman with two men, one of the latter in the uniform of an officer of the Insurgent Army. All three glanced up at sound of the sliding lattice, and at sight of Adair the ofBcer sprang (juickly to his feet and stood at salute. Grimly the Captain responded, then turned to his junior. "I only wish you were near your battery (*r OUT ktrracks. (ir even in town, close to the river, where they CDuld get out to the transports. When the row begins it will be all of a sudden and there's no refuge near you." "It was the best I could do,"' answered Bar- riger. an anxious cloud on his fine face, "and they seem confident at headquarters no row is coming." "Yes, that's what they give out, luit they're not so confident that we don't get scare orders and warnings thrice a week. Now. what's that fellow Medina doing yonder? 'S'ou kn..w who he is. don't you?" "I don't." answered Barriger. "I've met him a few times on the street and he's mon- strous p(,)lite." 124 ' DOVE COTE DAYS. "He was with Pio del Pilar, all the same, the (lay the I^'ourtecnth came so near a clash with the Tagals over at the Paco cigar factory. He is as smooth a scamp as ever I met. He can lie in three languages and tell the truth in none. He l)elongs out at San Pedro Macati, but spends most of his time picking up news in town. Keep an eye on him, Sam." And Medina — Ysidro Medina — was in that opposite gallery when, a few days later, happy Kitty Barriger threw back the lattice to breathe the morning air, and with his hand on his heart he made her a low bow. The girl-wife was de- lighted with her quaint and pretty nest. She missed the luxuriant flowers and luscious fruits of her California home. She found the Manila market but a sparse and inadequate means of varying their daily fare, but her Filipino chef, with his high-bred, Spanish manner, his high- combed "Pompadour" front, his immaculate white ropas, knew how to levy on the native fishermen as they paddled swiftly by in their sharp-bowed bancas. He had the run of neigh- boring poultry yards. His fish breakfasts and curried chicken lunches, his rich coffee and deli- cate. Japan-brewed tea, all appealed to her DOVE COTE DAYS. 125 dainty palate and won her sister's smiling ap- proval. As for Sam, he had the appetite of a strong, stalwart, healthful man, and sole leather might not have proved indigestible in such surn-undings. Before they had been housekeeping a week the sisters had received the visits of a swarm of soldier wives and daughters, and at least a score of officials had found time to call. Some of them, notably Sam's battery associates, more than once; one of them, not of Sam's battery, but of the troop- ers away over at the Marcelino (to their in- tense interest and amusement, by the way, for he had been regarded a confirmed old bachelor) no less than thrice — and that was Captain Adair. But then, despite ten years' difference in their ages, he had somehow become Barri- srer's closest friend. , "Yes," said Mrs. Sam one beautiful evening after their arrival, as the quartette left the din- ner-table and strolled out to the rear gallery to watch the brilliant night lights of the fleet, "I thought we should have trouble about servants, but they are admirably trained. Manuel is a capital cook, and so respectful and willing. Ypolito is deft and quick, and so noiseless, you 126 DOVE COTK DAYS. know. W liy, 1 never seem to hear him mov- ing around, and as for Carmencita, liis Httle dot of a wife, she's the neatest, cleanest, daintiest little mite yon ever saw, always smiling and busy, and she, too — why, -she's just like a mouse!" "Ye — es. I noticed it," responded Adair, glancing over his shoulder at Manuel approach- ing with tiny cups of cofifee on a lacquered tray. "That is one reason why I advocated the strong box." Here laughing voices and swishing skirts were heard upon the stairs, and while Mrs. Barriger arose to receive her guests, Adair seized the opportunity to secure a place by Miss Ferris' side. Talk was general for half an hour. It was after the Brents had gone, and Adair knew it was time for him to be moving, that Constance Ferris looked up into his earn- est eyes and said : "Captain Adair, I have heard you speak twice now of the possibility of treachery or theft on the part of the servants. Tell me why." "It is born in them, to begin with. Miss Fer- ris," said he, "and developed by three centuries DOVE COTE DAYS. 1 27 of Latin rule. Valuables shouUl be in the i)ay- master's big sate u]) in town — not here. You, T notice — pardon me — wear very little jewelry, but Mrs. Rarriger's rings — now — " .And the look in the direction of those tiny white hands on which were flashing gems of price and beauty was elo(|uent with anxiety. And so it happened that a genial Colonel at the Ayuntamiento became custodian of certain valuables of the Barriger household. Kitty would not part w ith her jiretty watch, her locket with Sam's picture therein that almost always slept at her snowy neck, and then household money they had to have. But a month went by without their missing a stiver or seeing a sign of dishonesty, and then Kitty said "Pshaw I" and drove to the paymaster's and got her packet. There was to be a reception and dance at the Division Commander's and she needed those diamonds. That night as Adair strolled slowly bark to barracks after a visit of more than usual length he came suddenly upon Captain Ysidro Me- dina, of Pilar's staff, at the corner of the Padre Faura, and but grullly responded to his elabo- rate "niiriuis uochcs. Caballcro." He never 128 DOVE COTE DAYS. had fancied Medina, and lie had grown to ab- hor liim since the Tagal officer had taken to frequent visits at the opposite house and im- pressive salutations to the sisters whenever they appeared on the front gallery. "What the devil is that fellow waiting here for at this time of night?" growled Adair, as he turned to the left. A mellow-toned bell was chiming ten o'clock from the tower of the old Spanish church the block above. It was answ^ered from the cupola of the Jesuit College and by the soft, prolonged notes of the cavalry trumpet sounding taps across the open fields beyond the observatory. Therr behind him came a sentry's challenge, sharp and imperative, "Halt! Who is there?" And, w^hirling about, supposing himself the object, Adair caught sight of the blue-shirted regular with leveled bayonet, fac- ing a figure in native white — a figure that in a strangely familiar voice squeaked the trem- ulous answer: ''Ami go Filipino." It was Ypolito! And yet, when Adair left the Barrigers not ten minutes before, Ypolito, the urbane, the incomparable, Mrs. Kitty's boast, in fact, was DOVE COTE DAYS. I JtJ tlmiigrht to be soiukI asleep in his dwii little den underneatli the suloi. He had issued from a narrow passage between some native hotises leading to the side-walk of the Calle Faura, be- lieving, dr-ubtless, that the coast w^as clear, but had. encountered the leveled bayonet at the cor- ner c»f the Calle Marina, lie was all of a tremble and at tlie sight of Adair began to plead. "Mi hcnnano! niuy uialo. Scnor, iiiiix male I" A sick brother is something a Tagal can trump up at an instant's notice. Adair dcubted, but what could he do? The corporal came and said. "Let him go." The orders were to treat the natives with every possible consideration and kindness, to .salute their offi- cers, to fraternize with their men. But Adair connected Captain Ysidro with Ypolito's prowl- ing and went home dissatisfied. "You'll have to watch those beggars of yours. Barriger." said he the next day. "And you'd better coax Mrs. Kitty to return those valuables to the safe." But Kit wouldn't. Ypolito and his wife were .«;aints and Ypolito's brother was really 7'cry ill : she was sure of it. Constance added her persuasion and was called cruel and sus- 130 DOVE COTE DAYS. picious. The little matron had a will of her own. "I don't see how anything can he taken. Adair," said Barriger. finding his wife obdu- rate. "Yon know I am always home at night, and — " "Yes. but will you always be?" (lueried Adair anxiously. "Things are getting squal- lier every day." .-\nd so they were. The whole demeanor of the natives was changing. Their leaders. balked in their plan to compel the recognition of their government and control, had with- drawn to the north, had virtually penned up the Americans in Manila and forbidden their crossing the lines toward the surrounding vil- lages, even while they themselves claimed the right to go within the lines at will. Their guns were planted commanding the American outposts. Their earthworks grew with every night. Their ofiicers and soldiers repeatedly insulted and threatened our sentries, and it was evident that the clash was coming, and com- ing soon. Other officers had arranged at first alarm to send their households at once to the transports in the bay. But Barriger's house I)()\'I-: fOTl". DAYS. I l\ was a mile from the river landing- and the water was so shallow in the rear of their sea- wall that nn launch could land, or even venture within fifty feet of the beach. Everywhere the story was current that the attack from without would he accompanied by an uprising of the natives within. No wonder family men were anxious! And then came a demand for Barriger's services at division headquarters. He spoke Spanish and was needed in the frequent clashes that occurred l)etween the outposts out Santa Ana way. Thrice in »^ne week he was sent to remonstrate with General Ricarte upon the ag- gressions of the Tagal officers and guards at Concordia Bridge. Thrice was Ricarte pro- fuse in explanation and expressions of regret. "It shouldn't occur again," said he. Vet it did, night after night, and the Division General saw the inevitable and made his dispositions accord- ingly. Ten weeks of bliss — ten weeks of "dove- cote days." as Adair called them — were fol- lowed by a fortnight of war alarms. Adair had become an almost daily visitor, welcomed with jtlayfnl anrl cvcr-Lrr"wing confidence by 1^2 1)(A H COTE DAYS. Kitty, and a certain sweet shyness and reserve by Constance. All the First Division knew by that time what took that stalwart dragoon so constantly to Barriger's, and now that the General had seized upon Sam and kept him so constantly on new and novel duties, Adair took it upon himself to plan for the protection of the inmates of the Cote. Out in the bay the Biltmore swung at anchor a mile to the west, Quaker-like in her leaden gray. Adair brought her executive and w^ard-room officers to call. This w-as magnanimous in him, for they kept coming, but it was all part of his plan. Lieu- tenant-Commander Sternsheets promised that the instant they got wind of trouble a boat should be sent close back of the Dove-Cote and Jacky should wade ashore and bear the doves to sea. Then Adair had further plans of his own. The Division General had issued in typewritten form confidential instructions to his brigade commanders and certain staff offi- cers. It was but a puny force he had to defend so big a territory against such a host of foes, but they were stout-hearted fellows, and so long as the insurgents did not fathom the plans DOVI-: COTE DAYS. I 33 and make counter dispositions there was little to dread. "You shall join your beloved battery if it comes to fis^hting," said the chief, with a smile, to Mr. Barriger. "But meantime I need you." And only Kitty rebelled at the distinction ac- corded him. One January evening when not a breath of air seemed stirring, after their daily drive and late dinner they were seated on the rear gallery watching the brilliant searchlights of the fleet and the varicolored signals twinkling across the moonlit liay. Kitty sat with her husband's hand in hers, looking up into his face and softly cooing, as became a dove of high degree. .\ few paces away. Constance reclined in her easy chair, with Adair l^ending eagerly t(iward her, yet saying little. The soft plash of the wave- lets was almost the only sound to break upon the stillness of the night, and even they seemed to be saying only. "Hush! Hush!" in sooth- ing monotone. Visitors came and went, and at last the ships' bells had tinkled in dcniblets the si.x silvery strokes that told 'twas eleven o'clock. Adair knew he should be going to barracks, yet lingered. B(nh oflicers were in 134 DOVE COTE DAYS. kliaki, for calls to arms had been fre(|iient, and from the left breast-pocket of Barriger's coat protruded about one-fourth the length of a Russia leather case, a flat pocketbook. "Can't you stow that inside?" Adair had asked. "These stiff-legged ponies will jolt it out some dark night and you wouldn't like to lose that defense plan/' "I always button it inside when I buckle on my sword belt/' said Barriger. "Then it can't work out. Besides, I know it all by heart, and can put every company just where it belongs. Let's see," and he began to tell them off. "First Brigade, First Battalion, Washingtons. from tobacco warehouse march to Paco Bridge. Second Battalion, Bishop's Palace, cross bridge into East Paco, mass in churchyard. Third Battalion, with brigade commander. Block House ii. First Idaho, six companies, march to Paco Bridge, two com- panies Malate, local guards. Both batteries to Paco cemetery and await orders. Cavalry to maintain order in town. Mounted patrol through suburbs. Second Brigade, Four- teenth, at Singalon front. North Dakotas hold Malate front — " DOVt; COTE DAYS. Ij:! "Well, that's ajl very well." said Adair. "What I'm thinking of is its falling into native hands. They can have it translated easy enough. Where do you keep it at night?" "With my pistol under my pillow. Hullo! There's a fire!" Springing to their feet and leaning out over the garden they could hear shouting to the S(mthward and the rapid clang of a church bell, ringing after the American village fashion in rapid alarm. Sentries had by this time been forbidden to shoot — the customary garrison alarm — for the frail bamboo and nipa huts were forever taking fire, and hardly a night passed without a blaze somewhere about Manila. The rising glare showed it to be toward the Cuartel de Malate. and with hasty adieu Adair sprang down the steps to join his troo}). In ten minutes the tire had practically burned itself out and in twenty all was still again. Before midnight the dove-cote was dark and silent: Barriger's little household had sought their pillows. .\n hour later came a clatter of hoofs and a banging at the barred doors below. Mr. Barriger was wanted at di- vision headquarters at once. The orderly had 1^6 DOVE COTE DA VS. broug-ht a spare horse. Kit clung- to him tear- fully as he buckled on his revolver, and col- lapsed in her sister's arms when he galloped away. For half an hour they watched and hstened on the front gallery, but even the snarl- ing native dogs were still. The night was without a sound. At one o'clock Constance saw the little matron once more snugly stowed in bed and soon dozing off to sleep. Less than an hour later she was aroused by an awful, agonized, terrible scream. Spring- ing from her own bed and seizing a pretty nickel-plated revolver, barefooted as she was, Constance darted through the darkness to Kitty's room. Striking a light, she found her sobbing and shivering by the bedside, her M'^atch, her locket and one ring gone, also a little sum of money from the bureau drawer. All she could tell was that a stealthy tugging at her finger had suddenly aroused her. Then a hand had been spread over her mouth, and with one desperate effort she had hurled it off and screamed for help. A dark figure had bounded out of the side window. Then came Constance within and the rush of the guard without. DOVK COTE DAYS. 1^7 Some of these latter were still searching about the premises when Barriger came gallop- ing- back full speed, threw himself from the saddle and rushed upstairs. One glance told him what had occurred. One glance told Con- stance there was something worse than-^they had yet discovered. He took his wife in his arms, but his eyes summoned her sister and his white lips framed the question : "That pocket- book — with the papers — is that safe?" The Russia leather case was gone ! One week later Ypolito. who, the night of the robbery, had been found by the searching guard to be placidly sleeping in his own particular dove-cote at the rear, announced with tears that his brother had succumbed to his long ill- ness and was to be buried forthwith. He de- sired a day in which to pay his last homage, another in which to bedew his grave with tears. He would then return. Nothing could exceed the concern with which he and Manuel had heard the recital of that robl)ery. Nothing could exceed the zeal with which they had joined in the search. Little Carmencita was inconsolable. Captain Vsidro Medina called twice to ])resent his fluent compliments and to 138 DOVE COTK DAYS. tender his services, to place his heart at the feet of the ladies, to pray them to be tranquil. The bosom of the Fili])ino heaved with abhorrence at the outrage to which they had been sub- jected, and never would he rest until he should discover the thief, recover the ravished gems and lay them. v. ith the ears of the perpetrator — and again his heart of hearts — at the feet aforementioned. Ten days later, one lovely starlit February evening, on a sudden the bugles rang all over Manila and a crackling flame encompassed it round about. The storm had burst and Aguin- aldo's army leaped to the assault of the thin, unsheltered lines in blue. With half his little force far extended on the fighting front, the American leader contested the ground from without. With the other half dispersed in small detachments over the wide area of the city and suburbs, he watched for the threatened uprising within. Along the river front launches, cascos, even slim, canoe-shaped ban- cas, were filled with pallid, silent women and children, the families of American and foreign residents, who were hurried out to the fleet of transports in the bay. But at half-past ten, DOVE COTE DAYS. 139 nearly an hour alter the alarm had sounded, the sisters still clung to each other in the dark- ened dove-cote alone — just one American sen- try on the pavement helow to interpose between them and the rage (jf a thousanil natives should the Tagals rise. Obedient to some signal from the flagship, just at sunset, the Biltmore had steamed away toward old Cavite. Xo rescuing boat appeared upon the face ui the waters. Barriger had been summoned to his guns at four o'clock and was even now thundering away somewhere out < 'U the threatened front. Adair, with his troop, had been scouting on the northern side ever since the previous day. Every mun in iNlanila had his work cut out for him and the sisters were practically neglected. At half-past ten, as the sullen boom of the distant cannon told that it was no casual skirmish, but an attack in force.' Kitty knelt, shivering, with her fair head pillowed in her sister's lap. while Constance, facing the door, sat with her finger on the trig- ger of Adair's Christmas present. And so she sat as through the darkness two white-robed form? stole noiselessly up the spiral stairs, and through the gloom the <l'!<l<.\vv ^nrctrt's came I40 DOVE COTE DAYS. gliding over the polished hardwood floor until, not five yards away, the straining eyes of Con- stance made them out. and without a tremor in her tone she challenged, "Who is there?" The answer was a laugh, the snap of a parlor match, the touch of the flame to a kero- sene lamp, and there in the gloom, grinning, stood Manuel with gleaming knife in hand, while Ypolito, the saintly, the sorrow-stricken, with a grin upon his black face, advanced upon them, his blinking eyes fixed on Kitty's jew^eled hands, his long brown fingers clutching. Her scream of terror rang out on the night, accom- panied by the instant bang of the revolver, a yell of dismay from within, a shout of alarm from without, then a rush and scurry of feet, a battering at the door below, a clattering up the stairs as of spurred heels, a dash to the window of flitting ghosts. All on a sudden the situation changed, and while two or 'three troopers hurled themselves through the rooms and over the sills in pursuit, Dave Adair, breathless but glowing, bounded forward. "You are safe? You are unharmed?" he cried. "Oh, thank God for that!" And God's mercy it was that led him in the \\ III \ < 111 I I .i>t \ ■ Ml r ^111 !■ ■ nil .1 1' III DOVE COTE DAYS. I4I nick of time, not to the fn-nt entrance, which was heavily barred, but. with a launch bor- rowed from the captain of the port, to the shoal water at the rear. There was no time to lose. He and his men were needed at the front. The doors were unbarred. A brace of prOvost guardsmen hurried uj) from below to take charge of the premises, and then the sisters were led down through the gardens to the steps of the sea wall. There, fifty yards away, the night lights of the Ceres were dancing on the tide. Thither, "cat's cradled." two sturdy troopers splashing waist deep b<:ire Kitty, still tremulous with fright, leaving Adair and Con- stance for the moment at the steps. Out on the Calle San Jose a cavalry trumpet sounded a sudden peal — a quick, imperative summons. "They are calling me, Constance," he mur- mured. "W'e are needed, and go I must. Quick! Will you trust y.-nrsplf t. • mc — alone?" She was standing on the second step, he up- on the strand. Her answer was to look down in his upturned face, then to place her white hand ui)on his shoulder. Instantly his left arm 14- DOVE COTE DAYS. circled about her knees, his right arm about her waist, and swept her from her feet. The slender white hand stole about his neck, her head sank almost to his shoulder and without a word, but with his heart hammering in his breast, he plunged into the sea. \\'ith long, sweeping strides he bore his precious burden deeper, deeper into the foaming waters. The little surges lapped his knees, his waist, and he raised her higher, drawing her yet closer to his breast, lest the water should reach her feet. Ten paces from the dancing craft his troopers met him and sought to aid. "No ; hurry to your horses! Say I'll be there in a moment," were his impatient orders. And then for one blessed moment she was his — alone ; and her lovely face, upturned, lay so close, so close to his ! The warm breath from her parted lips fanned his rough, unshaven cheek. With sudden impulse he bowed his head. *Tf it is the last word I ever say, Constance, I love you — I have loved you ever since you came." he murmured. "God grant 1 may say it again to-morrow!" One instant of silence, then a tightening of DOVE COTK DAYS. 1 43 the clasp ah(mt his neck, a murniur soft as that of the siininier sea about them. "Amen — David." When the guns had done their work from Battery Knoll next day, and with bated breath Sam Barriger stood in the drifting smoke and watched the fierce rush of the brigade, he saw- soon the stretcher bearers trudging back with their burdens, the sorely wounded, and mar- veled at their number. A staff tjfficer came galloping over from the highway, a flat, red Russia leather pocket-case in his hand which he waved triumphantly aloft, then tossed to Sam. "Where was it? — where'd you find it?" was the eager i|uestion. "1 didn't. It was Adair. He shot that fel- low Medina, of Pilar's staff. He had it. "You're entitled to two hundred dollars, Me.\., and no (juestions asked. Adair," laughed Barriger. ten minutes later, grasping the ex- tendetl hand of his comrade in both his own and looking up with shining eyes, "to say nothing of all I owe you for — last night. How'll von have it?" 1 44 DONE COTE DAYS. Adair bent low in saddle, his own eyes kind- ling. "You might put it — in a wedding gift, Sam." he said. The hand clasped tightly. "You're the luckiest man, and she's the best, the dearest woman that ever lived — except one." He broke from rluni to clasj) Ktlicl in his arms. A RIVAL ALLY. They had met fur ilie first time at the grounds of the Tennis Chih beyond the Calle Marcel ino — she a thorough-going Enghsh girl much given to open-air Hfe with concomitant heahh and freckles ; he an Ensign of His Maj- esty Uncle Sam's warship Biltmore. doing duty in Manila Bay, and the devoted to every reach- able pretty girl in Manila- balconies. Many were i)retty, but few reachable. Belles of the Spanish i)ersuasi('n had remained in haughty seclusion ever since the first of May, when their flag had gone down in smoke and flame off Cavite. American girls were only just begin- ning tf) arrive and turn the heads of all manner of men. and even those of the disdainful daugh- ters of Castile and Aragon. who gazed in wist- ful longing at tb.c dainty toilettes appearing every evening on the Luneta. English, French an<l Fili|)ino girls there were, most of whom 146 A RIVAL ALLY. were born 111)011 the island and knew no other clime than that of Luzon. Middies from the broad decks of H. M. S. Wonderful, and young swells from the wardroom and steerage messes of the French Jean Baptiste and the German Hohenfriedwurst were much in evi- dence, in their natt}' white summer dress, every tennis afternoon, but Yankees had been few and far l)etween — something was always going on to keep them going off — expeditions to Negros, Hoik) or Cebu — mysterious missions along the vague, lightless coast ; landing parties hither and yon in search of contrabands of war alleged to be ever slipping in from Hongkong or Shanghai, Yokohama or Nagasaki. Among men their absence was not much regretted, for, having but recently blow-n IMontojo's fleet to flinders, the Yankees were necessarily interest- ing, and, being by far the best dancers on tiie station, were correspondingly first favorites with the women folk. The English Club had opened its doors to them, but held it bad form for girls to open their arms even to the extent of an innocent valse, a thing the average Briton could only execute in one way, or a catchy two-step, which he couldn't do at all. It A RIVAL ALLY. 147 SO happened, therefore, that Ensign Percy Breese was looked to l)e in big luck when sent ashore for a month of some duty in or about the busy office of the Captain of the Port. Life aboard ship, even in December, was something of a broil, despite electric fans and cooling shower-baths. The sun beat untempered on the armored sides, even though awnings shielded the crowded decks, and ships' interiors were ovenlike in temperature, and men grew curt in speech, intolerant of differing views and irascible at opposition. It was the opinion of his fellows of the flagship that "Breezy" had been chosen for this particular duty because of an equanimity of temperament that had stood proof against a 'tween-decks temperature, whereas his messmates on the cruiser swore it was all along of "Breezy's" cheek — he was no better natured than the rest of them, only he looked it. At all events, here he was "gettin' shore duty on sea pay." said an envious brother-in-arms who loved the epigrammatic even at the ex- pense of veracity, and Bob Bruce, of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, had taken a liking to the blithe young fellow, and later took the 148 A RIVAL ALLY. young Ensign himself to the tennis court and presented him to the maids and matrons there assembled, among others to Miss Ethel Wins- ton, in whom was centered Mr. Bruce's uni- verse. This proceeding, said Bruce's crony — one of the invaluable, if unvalued, class of friends ever ready to tell us the truth about our- selves, — was as asinine a thing as even Bruce could have done. This was strong language, but not entirely unjustifiable. Bruce was summoned over to Hong Kong soon after Christmas and left the Ensign taking tennis lessons of Miss Ethel. He was gone only as long as the Esmeralda's round trip, ten days or so, but when he returned Breese had become tutor and Ethel Winston pupil. The game was no longer tennis — it had turned to hearts. In justice to Breese it must be said at once that he had no knowledge of Bruce's hopes or intentions, but could as much be said of Miss Winston? Probably not. Few girls are so blind as not to see when a man is really in love. Some are gifted with such keenness of vision as to see it before the man himself, while an irrational few can discover evidences of a ten- A RIVAL ALLY. 149 der passion where its absence is not even a matter of doubt. Miss Winston well knew that big Bob Bruce was ready to place his broad hand, honest heart and solid bank ac- count at her service. She well know that a little encouragement would precipitate prompt avowal, but up to the time when Breese was blown across her path she couldn't see her way to holding out a hope, and after that she wouldn't. Perhaps it was as much because the women took sides with Bruce against Breese that her sym[)athies were enlisted for the latter. Even girls who were secretly glad she didn't want Bruce, and thereby left him in the market, de- clared her conduct heartless. There were barely half a dozen in English-speaking Manila society at the time, to be sure, and there were many more men than women. Therefore, said the matrons, it was bad judgment on the part of Bruce to bring in a rank outsider who had good looks and good manners, but neither money nor prosi)ects outside of his uniform — the very kind of man a girl should not succumb to. and the very kind she so often does. Be- yond doubt, had Miss Winston's parents been 150 A RIVAL ALLY. alive to her predilecticjii they would have brought her to her senses and back to Hong Kong, but Miss Winston's father had died long years before, leading his Tommies in a daring dash on the mountain tribesmen of the border, and his disconsolate but charming widow had eventually remarried. Miss Winston was mistress of her own means, which were sufficient, if not super- abundant. Pier stepfather was not altogether to her liking. He had w^ealth, a hearty ap- petite, and entire willingness that the lovely daughter of his lovely wife should speedily find *a mate of her own, and to this end, knowing Bruce and Bruce's prospects, had rather strenu- ously urged upon his better half the advantage to accrue in accepting the invitation of Mrs. Bryce-Foster that Ethel should spend a few weeks with her in Manila. The war between Spain and the Americans was over. Business was brisk. The city was crowded with Ameri- cans, to be sure, and some few of them weren't half bad. Mrs. Bryce-Foster had spent a fort- night at the Hong. Her husband was one of the heaviest customers of the great banking corporation. Ethel went, glad of a change, and A RIVAL ALLY. I5I witli no idea how marvelous that change would he. She had known Bob Bruce two years and couldn't love him ; she iind known Percy Breese only two weeks — and couldn't help it. It was the quickest thing that season, said the men who saw it, and a feeling grew up against Breese. especially after Bruce came back and f(-und himself supplanted. Big Bob took it very much to heart. You couldn't blame him. He had long loved this winsome English girl. He could give her as charming a home and as complete an establish- ment as could l)e found in all the fair suburbs of Manila, and Percy Breese hadn't a stiver outside his pay, and didn't hesitate to say so. But B.)b was manful alx>ut it and made no moan. It was Mrs. Bryce- Foster who made Plthel's life a burden. She raged in her heart at the failure of a cherished plan. She had set that heart on a match between the girl and that big. burly, whole-souled fellow who seemed so thoroughly at home in boating or cricket cos- tume: so utterly at sea in a parlor. ''Bob has t'">o big a heart for the business" was the only thing his superiors could say to his detriment, and there was no doubt the big heart was sorely 152 A RIVAL ALLY. wounded now. 'i'lic women said Ethel Wins- ton had cnconraged him in every way, which wasn't true and Mrs. Bryce-Foster knew it wasn't true, yet dinned it into Ethel's ears day after day, to the end that the girl begged hard to be sent back to Hong Kong, and nearly cried her eyes out when told that she must stay until sent for, like some obsolete bit of household furniture for which no place was held at home. WHiat made matters immeasurably worse was that Mrs. Bryce-Foster turned her vi3cal guns on the dashing Ensign. I think the only reason she did not forbid him the house was that then she would have lost the joy of be- rating him. And Percy Breese, who, said she, should in all conscience have resented her words and proudly withdrawn and refused to set foot within her doors again, did nothing of the kind. Like a little man he stood by his sweetheart. "I'd take the double of it all," he simply said, ''if I thought she would spare you." And then he bent and tenderly kissed the red and swollen eyelids and a very pretty, pathetic little rosy mouth, and comforted her infinitely, though she really couldn't say why. The outlook was just as blank as ever, yet with A RIVAL ALLY. OJ Percy l^y her sitle. and so fond and so good to look at. uulI so sympathetic and caressing, she couldn't feel utterly miserable, as she knew she ought to feel for all the troubles she had caused. But this state of things couldn't last, and Breese knew it. He had written to the com- mercial magnate at Hong Kong, apprising him of his love for Miss Winston and of their plea for his and her mother's consent and blessing. 1 le had met Bruce twice and met him fairly and squarely — rather a difficult thing to do when a rival has not formally declared himself, if in- deed it be not trying at any time. The two had even shaken hands, for Bruce loved fair play, and how was Breese to know', he asked himself, timt he cared so much for Ethel Wins- ton? All the same, Bob couldn't be congratu- latory ujx^n Breese's apparent success, and he was not. "I had no idea — of — interfering with — any- body, you know. Bruce." .said Percy. "It all came about so sudden." Whereat Bruce drojJi)ed his monocle and looked vacant and dazed a numient: then submitted the sudden and irrelevant (|uery : "D'you ever peg?" which being interpreted meant would Breese 154 A RIVAL ALLY. have some Scotch and soda, a thing Breese hated, yet took witli alacrity — some form of atonement and sacrifice seeming appropriate to the occasion. "Look me iij), you know, whenever 1 can be of any service." said Bob, and the two shook hands and parted, each in his own way thank- ing God the thing was over. Breese drew a long brenth the moment he reached tlie open street, jumped into the waiting carouiatta and bade the driver speed to the Luneta. where she would be sure to appear by the side of her host- ess in the invariable evening drive along the bay, the one open-air recreation known to cos- mopolite Manila. "I hope to Heaven I'll never have to look him up, good fellow though he is." muttered the Ensign to himself, mopping his wet forehead as the sturdy little pony darted away with the high-wheeled, covered cart.' The situation and the Scotch combined had started the perspira- tion from every pore. "The idea of having to look up a fellow when you've — " But Mr. Breese couldn't find words in which to finish the sentence. No ! He distinctly wished he might never have to see Bob Bruce again, A RIVAL ALLY. 1 55 which was most ungrateful when you remem- ber that it was Bob who introduced him to his sweetheart, now anxiously peering at every passing cab and carriage in hopes of seeing and signaling to Percy Breese. She had need to speak with him. They met at last. The band of the Twenty- third Infantry was playing delightfully at the kiosk. The parallel roads on either side were blocked with carriages of all kinds known to Manila. The walks were crowded with offi- cers and soldiers in cool unifonns. The sun had sunk to rest beyond Cavite. The electric lights were beginning to sputter and flash all along the famous drive, and to sparkle from the decks of a score of transports and warships anchored on the broad bosom of the bay. .\long the curb and about each carriage-load of women. English or American, were little groups of officers and civilians of their race, and their merry chat and laughter made marked contrast with the silence that hovered every- where over the Spanish or native occupants of similar vehicles. Disquieting rumors were afloat. The Fili- pino leaders, despairing of winning control of 156 A RIVAL ALLY. Manila and the island in any other way, had planned a general uprising of the populace within the old walled city and throughout the surrounding districts and suburbs, some of them teeming with insurgent families. A gen- eral massacre of Americans had been decreed and planned. It was even hinted that no man of foreign birth would be spared, and English residents, long habituated to the fitful changes in the political sky, found reason to look grave and concerned when chatting in low tones among themselves. It was known that the in- surgent army now encircling Manila had with- in a day or two turned back all American offi- cers who had essayed to ride or drive beyond the limits of the city, that earthworks and en- trenchments were being thrown up every- wdiere, and Krupp guns trained on the block- houses occupied by American soldiery. The clash was sure to come. The question was how and when. As the brief twilight of the tropics faded swiftly into night, the eyes of all men seemed to turn seaward, for, early though it was, the flagship off the mole and the fleet across the bay at Cavite were exchanging rapid signals. A RIVAL ALl.V. I 57 The brilliant red and green and wliite lights flashed in (|uick succession. The band, having carried out its program, struck up the Star- Spangled Banner, whereat every soldier in the garb of Uncle Sam whipped off his headgear and sprang to attention, while sympathetic Britons lifted their hats. Only Spaniards and Filipinos remained sitting and smoking in sul- len disregard. The strain ceased : the band crime scuttling down out of its kiosk and sprinted back to (juarters. The crowd began to scatter, the throng of carriages whirled away, and in the midst of it all Mr. Breese had sprung from his two-wheeler and was eagerly and in low tone talking with Miss Ethel, while a comrade engrossed the attention of Mrs. Bryce- Foster. \\niatever his quest or proposition, it failed, for the girl sadly shook her head and Breese intently listened as she bent and hur- riedly whispered : "What arc we to do. Percy? She has ac- ce{)ted the MacLeans' invitation. We move out to Santa Ana to-morrow." The lad's face fell. Whether it meant that Mrs. Bryce-Foster stood in dread of the pre- dicted outbreak and wished to seek a place of 158 A RIVAL ALLV. safety, or whether it was only a scheme to break off their intercourse, the proposed move prom- ised to be effectual. Santa Ana lay on the left bank of the Pasig, less than a mile beyond the dividing-line between the territory occupied by the American garrison of Manila and that of the encircling insurgents. It was the head- quarters of Ricarte's brigade of the insurgent army. Their Krupp guns, captured from the Spaniards, were trained on the flimsy wooden blockhouses occupied by the Americans, and their outposts were distributed in force all along the winding estuary of the Concordia and the Tripa de Gallina. Across the Concordia bridge on the Santa Ana road, across that narrow stream or farther up the Pasig than the mouth of the cstcro, no Americans now could \enture. Leveled bayonets and stern commands to return rewarded every attempt, even while the insurgents demanded — and, odd as it may seem, were accorded — the right to wander at will within the lines of the Stars and Stripes. Breese saw in a glance that the move to Santa Ana was a menace to their future meetings, and yet he did not despair. Had not Pio del Pilar assured the English resi- A RIVAL ALLV. 159 dents of Santa Ana that Ricarte's men were ordered to show them every courtesy and at no time to impede their coming or their going? Would not civihan garh and a monocle trans- form our Ensign into a very presentable, or at least passable, young Briton? He tried it. un- beknown to the Captain of the Port, one bright January aftermton. driving out in MacLean's victoria, whirling unopposed past the American sentries at the west end of the Concordia bridge and the Filipino guards at the other. He tried it a second time, and again with success and subse(;ucnt bliss, for Mrs. Bryce-Foster could not openly assail him in presence of her host- ess, and did not, at least, prevent his having a sweet, whispered tctc-a-tctc with his lady-love in the garden while the Yankee bugles at Paco were sounding tattoo and their signal for 'Lights out." Then he tried it a third time and on the third of February, and there were evidences of ex- citement and stir everywhere at the front. Whole battalions of blue-shirted infantry stood silently leaning on their arms along the Calle Re^l and the guards at Blockhouse No. 1 1 were doubled. So. too. he found strong l6o A RIVAL ALLY. detachments of swarthy Filipinos along the highway across the stream, and the plaza in Santa Ana was crowded, but their officers still touched their broad-brimmed straw hats re- spectfully to his host, even though some of their number eyed his young companion suspiciously. "They're catching on to you, Breese, as you Yankees say," said MacLean. "I fancy you'd l^etter not try it again." But he did try it again, for the next was Saturday evening and the Captain of the Port went out to dine on the Olympia, and Breese got away soon after five and caught his host at the English Club away down in Ermita. MacLean looked grave. "I really think you'd better not risk it, Breese," he said. "Little Sandoval, Ricarte's aide-de-camp, told me this morning they knew you were an American, but wouldn't interfere so long as there w^ere no hostilities, but any moment now they may break out. I — I wish you wouldn't." "I won't, if you say so — after to-night," was the answer; "but I must see her for a few min- utes, just because the thing is so sure to come to a head. Then, of course, I'll have to be at A KIVAL ALLY. l6l my station. It woiiUl mean court-martial if I wasn't, for. of course, the Captain doesn't know t>f my running it out to Santa Ana in plain clotiies." "It will mean something worse than court- martial if they catch you on the Santa Ana side. Th.ere's g<-»ing to be no end of a fight at that bridge, and your fellows won't get it for nothing, let me tell you. T know these little brown men, and know how game they are. Indeed. Breese, I wish you wouldn't come — to- night." But the Ensign was too deeply in love to be reasonable. He went, was again passed by the guards and patrols along the Filipino side in deference to his friend and conductor. They dined in some anxiety, for strong battalions of insurgents had marched in from the neighbor- hood of Santa Mesa to the north, and had been busily ferrying across the Pasig long hours that afternoon. The plaza, the native houses, the great churchyard and the side streets were thronged with native soldiery. Ethel was pale and troubled. At nine o'clock Breese led her out to the ter- race overlooking the placid river, and in the 1 62 A RIVAL ALLY. hush of the lovely evening sought to comfort and reassure her. They were seated in a little arbor, her fair head resting on his shoulder, her slender hand clasped in his, when, noise- less as a shadow, a native canoe came swiftly, suddenly gliding under the bank and was skill- fully paddled to the stone steps at the water's edge. Two men crouched amidships, who, at a whispered word from the boatman, cautiously stepped ashore, and, bending low, came up the stone stairway and i^eered about the garden. Breese felt that Ethel's heart was fluttering like that of a captive bird, but she sat upright, gaz- ing at the shadowy pair. Both wore the uni- forms of officers of the insurgent army. The scabbards of their swords gleamed in the star- light. They were muttering excitedly in the harsh language of the Tagals, and in one of the two Miss Winston presently recognized the young staff officer of Ricarte. \\'hat could be the object of their cautious and secret visit unless it involved in some way the life or safety of her lover? From the upper story of the mansion the sound of soft laughter and the rippling note of a piano came floating upon the still night air, and tiptoeing, the two intruders A RIVAL ALLY. 1 63 crouched slowly up the pathway and were lost to view in the shrubbery near the heavy stone walls. "Percy," she whispered, clinging to him in dread, "can't you bribe that boatman ? It is your only chance. He can land you at Panda- can beyond the lines. They can't see that shadowy thing in the dark. I knozc those men mean harm to you. Oh, you must get back — you must get back, and the river's the only way !" But he had sprung to his feet, and with in- tense eagerness in his handsome young face was listening to some far, faint, crackling sound that, suddenly breaking on the night, was just audible above the plash of the swift waters. "Hark!" he whispered as she crept to his side and would again have spoken. Breath- less they crouched and bent their ears to the sound — a low. rapid sputter, a quick, irregular throbbing that seemed with every moment to spread and grow louder and to come slowly creeping southward, and then the silent watcher in the canoe sprang noiselessly to shore, and stooped at the head of the steps and whistled low. Then as no answer came, trampling the 164 A RIVAL ALLY. rope underneath his feet, he clapped his hands thrice and loudly in evident and irrepressible excitement. Back from the shadows of the mansion came the two slender forms in Fili- pino uniform, springing down the pathway. One moment they paused to listen at the bench. Then in eager tone they gave some order to the boatman. The canoe was hauled close alongside. The three slid noiselessly aboard, and away shot the fragile craft into the black- ness of the night, down stream, just as the Filipino bugles at the barracks below and on the broad plaza without pealed forth the stir- ring notes of the alarm. Somewhere over on the east front of Manila, toward Santa Mesa or the water-works, the fierce volleying had be- gun, and right and left, north and south, the fight was spreading along the circling lines. Then down came MacLean, pale but com- posed. "You're caught, Breese, old chap. There's no getting out now. Ricarte's fellows are forming for the attack, and every inch of ground is covered. The best we can do is to hide you somewhere in case they insist on com- ing in the grounds." "Hiding won't help, man!" was the impati- & A RIVAL ALLY. I 6^ ent answer. "My post is tour miles away, downstream beyond tlie bridges, and it's disgrace and dishonor if I can't get there. Haven't you a boat — a canoe of some kind?" "Not so much as a tub. and you couldn't slip by those lynx-eyed fellows if I had." Every instant the sound of volleying grew louder, and the sputter and crackle of musketry crept on down the banks of the San Juan. A servant in snowy linen came rushing out in search of his master, and in the Spanish tongue informed him that he had closed the great iron gates in front, as ordered, but that the Com- mandante and other officers were there and de- sired to see Sefior MacLean on most import- ant business. "Stay where you are. Breese. You're safe here if anywhere. I'll have to meet these fel- lows, you know. Our relations have been very cordial. Perhaps I can stand them off." He was back in five minutes. "It was Per- alta. Major of the Artillery." he said. "They came to warn us to get under ctjver. They open with their Krupps in a few minutes, and of course your fellows will answer." ".•\nswer? They'll blow the whole shooting- 1 66 A RIVAL ALLY. matcli into the Pasig ! Dyer's battery is on the knoll south of Paco, and Harry Hawthorne is back of Block House 1 1 with the Hotchkiss gims — all Regulars." "Ricarte knows all about that, but he says his infantry can sweep the men from the guns. He can fire from three sides on Concordia Bridge, and from right and front on Battery Knoll. Listen!" Far to the north the boom of a heavy gun punctuated the rattle of musketry. Across the Pasig at the east and north of Manila the lines were sharply engaged, but as yet Pilar's Di- vision faced that of Anderson's in silence. Something held the insurgent leader in leash. It came at last — well along toward morning. All on a sudden the bugles rang in front of Santa Ana, and with exultant cheers Ricarte's big brigade blazed on the American salient at Blockhouse ii. Then came the roar and crash of the Krupps in the river redoubts, and then, a little later, the reply. Breese. an unwilling prisoner, wild with excitement, had clambered to the roof, from which point the flame of the battling lines could plainly be seen. The tri- umphant dash of the insurgent battalions had A IM\AL ALLY. l6j met with stern and sudden check. Only to the banks of the cstcro had they charged. Beyond that. Hke a wall of steel and flame, the blue line stretched across tiie riccfields and never budged an inch. Fre(iuent now were the calls and demands at the iron gates, for every few minutes some well-known officer was borne in from the front, sorely wounded and seeking the shelter of the massive church or MacLean's heavy stone walls. Then in squads or detachments little parties of Filipinos, crouching close along the walls, came drifting back from the front, silent and dispirited. And then a battalion that had lined the earthworks across the open ricefields close to the highway, unable longer to bear up against the pitiless storm of Yankee lead, suddenly broke for the shelter of the walls to the rear, and came stampeding back into the plaza, sweeping their shrieking, sword-brandishing officers with them. They would have surged into the MacLcan grounds had not the iron gates been sternly barred against them. And tlien there aro.sc a cry at sound of which the women clung to each other in dismay and ter- 1 68 A RIVAL ALLY. ror aiul Maci.can went white with (h-ead. In rage and exasperation over their baffled hopes and heavy losses, the fierce Tagals clamored for vengeance. Battering at the gate, they yelled for the "Tcnicntc Aincricano." Some one had told them Breese was still there in hiding, and all the devil in the Malay nature was aroused. Fiercer every moment rose the yells and im- precations. Then a young officer, hoisted on their shoulders, clambered to the top of the wall and began a furious harangue in the Tagal tongue. In the midst of it all MacLean rushed aloft and found Breese just descending, pale and resolute. "Take me out to them," he calmly said. "They won't murder an unarmed man, but they'll burn and wreck your home otherwise. Hello! Why, here's Bruce!" Bruce it was. He came bounding up the marble stairs three at a spring, and lost no time in ceremony. "Come instantly," he panted, laying a broad hand on the Ensign's shoulder. "Your uniform and sword are in my launch." "Bob! How^ did you get here?" interjected MacLean. V <^' I'cnii-ntc Americano." A RIVAL AIJ.V. 169 "Kan it — full steam — all lights out. Quick, man. come ! Those devils will rip you to pieces if they catch you. It's your only chance." Down the stairs, between them, they hurried the boy. One instant he broke from them to clasp Ethel in his arms and print a kiss upon her forehead. She dropped, half fainting, on the stairs, as between them again they rushed Breese to the river bank and bundled him aboard. "Cast off." said Bruce. "Good- night to you, Mac. Tell Ricarte blood's thicker than water and John Bull's got his pris- oner, (jive me the wheel, Manuel. Now, full speed, and lie flat!" Straining eyes and ears. MacLean. hanging to a ring in the stone post on the bank, gazed after them and listened. The Krupps were silent. Yankee gunners had proved too much for Tagal cannoneers, but both hanks were lined with riflemen all along the big bend to PanVlacan. The sparks pouring from her fun- nel plainly showed the ctmrse of the Hying boat. Within a minute of her departure the rilles be- gan to crack, the banks to blaze with spiteful flashes. But nn went that meteor of the night, on until it sud»len!y dove out of sight and into I/O A RIVAL ALLY. safety beyond tlie dense fringe of bamboo along the Concordia, and thence went careering on to Manila, her tiny whistle shrieking triumph and defiance as she sped on her way. And then MacLean drew a long breath and strolled out to the gates and faced the furious throng. "Senor Capitan,'' said he calmly to the nearest officer, "will you and your brother officers come in and join me m a glass of wine? There are no Americanos here to spoil our pleasure." That was last February. They call Bruce Quixote at the English Club now. and "Bob" aboard the whole American fleet. Jackies ashore whip off their caps and grin delightedly at sight of him. Naval regulations were powerless to prevent the mighty, full-throated hurrah that went up the evening Bruce first came aboard to dine as a guest of the ward- room officers. The one thing Ethel Winston was said to have cried over was the beautiful wedding gift he sent her last September. She said it was more than enough that he should have given Her a husband. '.^<) 'A moment of odd silence and constraint." THE SENATOR'S PLIGHT. The day was hot, the debate even hotter. The question was on the amendment, and the gentleman from Jersey had the floor. There had been strikes, riots and demoHtion of rail- way property. The mobs had sore smitten the so-called "minions of the law." and. at last, re- luctant civil officials had appealed for aid. A poll of the mob would have revealed few voters of any persuasion other than that of the party then in power. Marshal and sheriff, mayor and chief of police were to a man of the same political complexion, and a stanch exponent of party principles abode in the White House. Yet it was they who asked and he who ordered the regulars to the scene, and. now that danger was at an end. it was their own associates in 1/2 THE SENATORS PLIGHT. Congress assembled whu were abusing the reg^ilars for going. The gentleman from Jersey was vehement if not convincing, and while making a stirring appeal against "these heartless oppressors of honest labor, these liveried hirelings of soul- less capitalists and corporations, the menial men-at-arms of plutocracy, miscalled the Army of the United States," he leveled his shafts more especially at the name and reputation of a man he had never seen — the officer whose misfortune it was to be ordered to do his duty in wdiat at the start, at least, was an unpopular cause. It must l)e admitted that the strikers had been ''squeezed" by a corporation, and that many of the papers and most of the people thought and said no. Public sympathy had been with the operatives and might have pre- vailed, but for a certain impulsiveness that prompted the bombarding of passengers and passenger trains with brickbats, the conversion of some miles of freight, freight cars and houses into ashes, and the unfortunate slaying of a few of the minions aforementioned. The major commanding the 1)attalion of in- THE SENATORS PLIGHT. I 73 fantry sent to protect a mammoth manufactur- ing plant was a veteran of the civil war. with a riot record covering several states. He reached the scene after a hot, dusty, trying march, and reported, as his orders demanded, to the mayor, at a moment when the uproar was at its height and the lives of the officials themselves were in jeopardy. In the pres- ence and hearing of scores of eager newspaper men. the mayor told the major to "fire blank cartridges at the mob and scare them." The major said blank cartridges never scare a mob and he didn't bring them on such business. Then said the mayor, "Fire a volley over their heads." Then replied the major. "I won't. That would be killing innocent spectators a mile away and sparing scoundrels who richly deserve it. Don't tell me these are working men, — that gang. They are toughs and thugs from half a dozen cities. They stoned us all the way frc>m the station. Now, Mr. Mayor, if you want these- yards cleared say so and leave the method to me." Instantly a dozen listeners slipped away, and in a niDment more were mingling with the mob. "It's all up. lx>ysl" "Slide, fellers. These 174 THE SENATORS PLIGHT. ain't no tin soldiers." "Look out, the regulars will shoot!*' were the words passed from mouth, from man to man, and when the silent, sturdy column in blue and drab, covered with dust and sweat, swung sharp and sudden into line to the left, and the shod musket butts came down with simultaneous thud, and, three hun- dred strong, the little battalion faced the jeer- ing, yelling, taunting, cursing thousands, the ring-leaders dove into the depths and sneaked out of harm's way. Dusty and tired, stern and silent, with dripping brows, the regulars stood and glowered straight into the faces of their howling fellow citizens, the mob. Little by little the uproar hushed. Officers and men those regulars looked so hot, yet were so aw- fully, preternaturally cool. "The jig is up," said the "labor leaders". The strike had failed, and then began the news- paper abuse of the troops at the scene, especi- ■ ally the major in command, concerning whom there were journals that exhausted their stock of calumny and vituperation. There are times when truth is indeed crushed to earth and the soldier finds neither friends nor mercy. Among the constituents of the Hon. Mr. THE senator's PLIGHT. 1/5 Lansing were hundreds of the operatives of the great foundries and the railways. He and his party had lost caste among them because of the coming of troops to stop the riot and spoil the combination. Another election was due in November and something had to-^be done to restore his lost prestige. Here was the gentleman's chance and he took it. After scathing denunciation of capitalists in general, and the great moguls of the railway in par- ticular, he turned to the Army as the unscru- pulous tool of the tyrant Gold, and with the highly colored stories of the local papers as his sole authority, drew a picture of the bloody- minded ruffian in command of the regulars that fateful day. "A being," he said, "be- sotted with rum." (Two papers did say the major was drunk, though he hadn't had a drink in a month) "bloated beyond all semb- lance of honest manhood," (the major did look red in the face) "bereft of the last vestige of what we understand by the term 'officer and gfcntleman', — bereft of honor, decency and hu- manity, a creature to be shunned nf honest men and scorned by Christian women. Sir, mav mv hand shrivel to the Ixme. mv tongue 176 THK SEXATOk's PLIGHT. rot to its roots ere ever 1 write the line or say the word that shall even inferentially support such utter misuse of the national arms, or sus- tain an official who, disdaining the counsels of the civil authority, dared with bullying word and brutal emphasis to threaten the lives of honest and indignant laboring men, clamor- ing only for justice — an officer who has dis- graced the uniform of the United States and dishonored that sacred emblem." And here in thrilling peroration the gentleman apostro- phized the striped and starry folds festooned above the head of the speaker pro tern and took his seat amidst a ripple of speedily sub- dued applause in the galleries, a yawn and rustle of papers about the house, and then, a motion to adjourn. Laughing and chatting the members came clattering down the marble corridors; correspondents W'Cnt rushing pell- mell with their ''copy" ; and the chairman of the committee on Public Moods and Morals, accosting Mr. Lansing, who was chaffing the champion of the bill, gravely said : "Lansing, did you happen to notice a mighty pretty little girl that left the gallery just as THE SENATORS PLIGHT. I77 you finished, with a gray-haired, fine-looking man of fifty?" "I saw the giri. Jefifers, — iH(hi"t happen to notice the man. Why?" "Oh. nothing much," answered Jefifers, with a wliimsical grimmace. "she happens to be from my home, and the man is her father — Major Harold, of the Army, the gentleman who has 'disgraced the uniform and dishon- ored the sacred emblem' — over the speaker's desk. Thought maybe you'd like to meet them." Xow. Lansing liked Jeffers. They both liked the chairman of the committee on mili- tary affairs, who knew beforehand just what Lansing would probably say. and just what it would all amount to. In the language of the day, if not of the House, the gentleman from Jersey was only "talking through his hat." He knew perfectly well the bill would pass. He wouldn't stop it if he could. It was just what the country needed — only some of his consti- tuents couldn't see it. All that tirade was for their benefit — or blinding, and there wasn't a man on the floor of the House that didn't know it. Manv of them, in one wav or an- i;-8 Tin-: senator's plight. nther, niigiit have to dn the same thing-. That speech, .together with three or four tremend- ous tirades delivered at home made him soHd again with the electors of the Twentieth Dis- trict and in the fullness of time the Hon. Mr. i.ansing had forgotten the whole affair. But not so the major. When a man has fought through such a war as that of the great Rehellion. and won the enthusiastic praise of soldiers such as Sher- man. Sheridan and Thomas, as had the major before he was twenty-three; when a man has twice been nipped by Southern lead and has followed u]) these trifles with years of tireless, ])atient and at times heroic service on the In- dian frontier — he has some right to think he deserves well of his country, and even of his country's Congress. A tiptop soldier was Harold withal — modest, gentle and courteous to a fault among his kind, almost idolized by liis men and entirely idolized by his family — ([uite a model husband and father in fact. J*rou(l of his profession, and sensitive, he was a man who would go to the ends of the world to undo a wrong, and did we but still live un- der the code that held a gentleman responsible THE SKXATOR S iMJi;HT. I 79 fur his words, would lia\e ^oiie almost as tar to redress one. Scrupulous to a fault, it \va^> told of him that he had once ridden all the way from Cheyenne to the Chugwater to apologize to a hin- lieutenant of cavalry on learning that it was the lad's captain and noi the lad that was responsihle for an affair that had called down his reprimand upon the boy's bewildered liead. The soul of honor and justice, he was hke Thackeray's noble old Newcome, intoler- ant of falsehood in any form, and furious if anyone took a liberty with him. \'isiting Washington for the first time since the sixties, bringing a beloved daughter to see her mother's kindred a year after that beloved mother's death, he had taken his child to hear the debate on the Army Bill, with the result described. That evening they were to have dined informally at the Jeft'ers's. Init when that honorable gentleman reached h- inic there was a note by special messenger, regretting — They had decided to leave Washington that night. Jeffers saw the trouble in a moment: drove si>eedily to the Shorehan and >ent up his card. In the hallway he met I'oster. lieutenant colonel in the a<ljutant general's department. l80 THE senator's PLIGHT. a man he well knew. '"What's wrong with Harold?" asked the member from Michigan. "All broke up," said the War Department official. "Fve been trying to make him un- derstand it, but — it's no use. Lucky for Lansing these are not the days of Jefferson and Jackson he loves to tell about. It would be a case of Bladensburg at sunrise or universal contempt for him before sunset." "Oh, pshaw, Foster! You know well enough Lansing didn't mean a word of it ! He's one of the best fellows in the world — when you come to know him." "Oh, of course, I know. but. you see, Har- old has spent his whole life in the line, where men say what they mean, not here where they — don't. Harold thinks he's disgraced, — dis- honored in the eyes of the whole nation, in- stead of being supported for doing his duty like a man and a soldier. Why, every paper in the land will have it in the morning. As for that little girl, she'd be crying her eyes out, only she's doing her best to comfort him. Go in and do what you can — I'm useless." And the colonel turned away with a shrug. "Oh, come back, Foster," cried Jeffers, with THE senator's PLICIIT. i8[ a grab at his arm. "I've got to square the old chap someliow, and y(^u can help — You're a soldier and I'm not. Why, Lansing's one of the best friends I've got in the House, out- side of politics. We're always sailing into each other on the floor, of course, but if I wanted anything for Harold next minute, he'd canvass the whole capitol for mc. W hy, next time he sees Harold he'll tell him so — tell him he knows he's just one of the best soldiers and squarest men in the whole service. You see if he don't." " — And mean it just as much as what he said to-day, I presume," answered the colonel, dryly. "That may comfort Harold a lot — I do)i't think. You go in — I'll wait." It was something Jeffers never forgot — the picture of his old friend as he entered the room. Harold was pacing the floor, his twitching hands behind his back, his deep-set eyes glowing, his thin, weather-beaten, sol- dierly face quivering with wrath and sense of wrong, and in spite of the. tan of years in sun and wind, gray almost as the gray mou.>tache and hair. He whirled on Jeffers. with chal- lenge in his eye and V(^ice like a sentry guard- iSj THE senator's im.ight. ing an imperiled post. Morence. a tall slip of a girl, just fifteen, was standing at the table at Jcffcrs's entrance, and stejiped (juickly to her father's side, her fond eyes full of love and trust and trouble. Harold turned and kissed her w ith trembling lips. "Run into your own room a moment, little daughter." he mur- mured. "1 must speak with Mr. Jeffers." She obeyed silently, for such was her habit, l)ut with infinite reluctance. Then Harold turned on his friend. "Of course you heard — " "Of course I couldn't help hearing, Harold, old chap, and of course I saw Lansing at once. Whv, you never saw a man so cut up! He wouldn't have said it for the world if he'd known you were there. He don't mean it! Lord love you, Harold ! Why we — we say ail sorts of things of each other, just that way. It's all for — for — " Well, just what it was all for according to Jeffers remained unsaid. The passion of wrath in the soldier's face amazed him. "Don't go away feeling like that, Harold." he stammered. "Just hold on a day or two — till this thing sort — sort o' blows over, and — vou mark what T THE SKNATOR's I'LIGHT. I 83 say — Lansing will come t«> you niorc'n halt way. and if ever you want a Idessed thing here in Washington, why. that man will just see that you get it. and he can do it — he as much as told me he would. He told me — " "Told you, did he? And you — whom I have kncjwn since we were lK)ys — come to me with such a message!" And the very table on which he leaned shook with the violence of the veteran's enK»tion. Up went the hand to the length of his arm. as Harold (juivered to his full height — he wasn't \ery big — 'A'ou say to him for me, that 1 say he's one <)f the two-faced curs I've been taught all my life to despise, and he's a man — no, God for- Ijid 1 shiiuld insult the rest of our kind by call- ing him line — that he's one of those sneaking cads who would come privately to a man and declare his friendship even while he is iloing everything in his power, secretly and publicly to (kunn him. \'(*u say to him that he may thank Goil a gentleman has no longer a way to wring apology from a blackguard, and that be- fore I would be indebted to him for any favor, big or little, here or hereafter. I'd (|uit the army in disgust, and if ever he dare (^tifer me 184 THE senator's plight. his help or his hand, he'll get mine — clinched — full in his cowardly face!" Two hours later the major left Washington and from that day to this has never cared to see it again. Four years later, there or thereabouts, at the head of a gallant regiment, a keen-eyed, white-moustached colonel landed on the Cuban coast, and w'ith the flag he w'as alleged to have dishonored high waving in his sinewy hand, led the charge on a fire-spitting ridge and planted the colors on the Spanish works. The shoulderstrap, torn away by one Mauser bul- let (while a second bored through the arm be- neath), was speedily replaced by another, the silver leaf by a silver star. Older, grayer as to face and whiter as to hair. Harold was to the full the same highstrung. heroic soldier, l3rimming with energy, pluck and purpose. Life had been sore indeed for long months after that Washington episode. His morning mail, just as for \veeks after the riot, had been filled with marked copies of certain papers and witli many a letter of abuse. These had gone into the wastebasket. but the speech of the Honorable Mr. Lansing, the new Champion of TilE SEXATOR's plight. I 85 Labor, so-called, had entered like seething lire into his soul. Jeffers. of course, had never delivered that message. The War Depart- ment had declined to listen to the Major's plea for a court of inquiry, because, as said the Honorable Secretary of War, Major Herold's conduct on the occasion referred to had re- ceived the highest commendation of his supe- riors, and he needed no other vindication. "An officer cannot seek redress for words uttered in debate." said the adjutant general, a warm personal friend. In fact there was nothing, — there is nothing for the soldier, wronged either by the politician or the public press but silent sufferance. Harold had buried himself in the duties of his profession in the far West, whither his promotion to the lieutenant colonelcy took him within a month of that memorable visit, and officers and men who loved and honored him lieard no further mention of the matter from his lips. It was something of which he simply could not speak. Florence in the course of tour years came back to him from school, "for good," as she happily said, and young fellov.s i86 Tin-: skxatok's plight. in tlic rcj^imcnt were lnoking and wooing all in vain when the Spanish war broke ont. Three months sufficed to mend him of his Santiago wound, and then, leaving his beloved daughter with army friends at the Presidio, Harold, now a brigadier-general, with two gal- lant boys in the line, one a subaltern in his own brigade, took the field in front of Manila, and entered into the thick of the stirring cam- paign of '99 to win new laurels in Luzon. One l)listering morning in May when the rails of the Dagupan road seemed ready to curl in the scorching sunshine, MacArthur's stanch division was deployed for attack, w'hile on the far right llank a picked regiment was sent in to find the insurgent left and double it. With these, wading a muddy stream, waist deep, went the brigadier, and then, some- where in the thickets and close to the railway, the ad\-ance ran slap upon a concealed force, with a stifif little blockhouse at the edge of the timber. The fierce volley that greeted them in the sharp staccato of the ^lausers would have been more than .sufficient to drive untried men to instant cover, and Harold for just a mo- TiiK senator's pi.ic.h r. 187 ineiit felt a thrill of anxiety as to the result. S])iirrini|^ eagerly forward, iir^in^^ on the sup- ports, he burst through the intervening tangle of brush and bypath and out upon the open fieUi. more than half expecting to find his skir- mishers flattened in the nnid like hunted scfwir- rcls, or skimming back for cover. This in full view of half the division on the southern bank would never do in the world. One quick glance over the fiat, rain-soaked, abandoned ricefield sent the blood leaping through his \eins, and soldier joy and delight to his flash- ing eyes. Recoiling? X^ot a bit of it ! With instant cheer the line had answered the chal- lenge, and, thongh half a dozen lads lay stretched among the dikes, following the lead of a lithe young officer, conspicuous in his trim •^uit of khaki, the rushing rank of blue shirts had dashed straight for the opix)site timber and centered on the blockhouse. Bring up the sup])orts, (|uick now!" shouted the general to an aide-de-camp. "Come on, everybody!" and with one staff officer and a brace of orderlies at liis back ajid the swift on- ct^ming dash of tlie deploying scjuads bursting through the brake behind him, aw ay he spurred 1 88 Tiin senator's plight. toward the ])oint of the timher where the Fili- pino c(>lors were floating" over tlie lire-spitting tower, and was up among the very leaders as his men drove in with gleaming bayonets, straight to the teeth of the foe. Risky work that, dare-devil work, hut work that carried terror and conviction with it. "What manner of men are these." said Tagal prisoners, "wdiom shooting cannot stop? When we fire at the Spaniards they lie down. When we shoot at Americanos you jump up and run at us. It is not fair." ''What queer notions of the combat have these Yankees, whose colonels leave their regiments behind them and ride up into our trenches and shoot us with pistols, as does this Senor Coronel Bell, or swim rivers naked or crawl bridge timbers on his belly as does this Coronel Chiquito — Funston ! It is not the practice of the grandee — the Castilian. What means it that a General should come charging trenches with a squad of skirmish- ers? It is beneath the digTiity of such high of^ce," saith the Spanish taught native. But it is woefully demoralizing to the little brown men. With barelv a bakers' dozen from the right THE senator's PLIGHT. 189 of the line, that tall young lieutenant uf regu- lars has darted into the block-house and pistoled the foremost defenders, while the others, amazed and overawed, drop their guns and crouch to the floor. Down comes the ban- ner of the blazing sun and up goes a cheer for the General riding joyously over to say a word of praise to the gallant fellow, who, now that his work is done, stands panting at the door- way, one hand pressed to his side, and dumbly asks an anxious-eyed sergeant for water. A faint flush rises one instant to his paling cheek, as he hears the voice uf the brigade com- mander : — "Magnificently done, sir!'" Then, with in- stant concern — "Why, my lad, you're hit." A half smile, a nod as the brown gauntlet reaches the brim of the campaign hat in effort to salute. Then hat and head drop together, the knees give way, and the brave boy is caught by strong, supporting arms and low- ered senseless to the ground. The General is off his pony in a second. The reserves are rushing by in pursuit of the scattering foe. "Call Dr. Forney here," he cries, as he kneels an instant at the side of the stricken officer. 190 Tin-: SKXATOR S PLICHT. '■There's nothing on earth too good for this lad. W'hii is he. (iray?" and lie glances up at his adjutant general. A queer look comes in- to the captain's face, and a half falter marks the answering words : "Mr. Lansing, sir. — th Infantry." :*; :■; ^ ;•: :^; :!: ^; ^ ^ :^c ^ There is a brilliant scene a few months later in one of the great lake cities. A social crush has resulted from the visit of a sailor hero of the nation, and fair women and brave men have thronged to greet him. Glad and cor- dial as is his manner to all, the Admiral has hailed Avith especial joy a thin-faced, soldierly looking \eteran whose snowy hair and white moustache are in as marked contrast with the tan of his complexion as is his simple evening- dress with the glittering uniforms about him. But even the button of the Loyal Legion at his lapel is not needed to stamp him as a sol- dier. 1^) many men and women his name and fame are well known, and many a word of welcome has greeted him and the beautiful girl who clings so proudly, yet almost protect- ingly. at his side, for serious illness has fol- lowed on the heels of a severe campaign under THE senator's PLIGHT. I9I tropic skies, and the General so warmly hailed by the <;uest oi honor is bnt slowly recuperat- ing in his native land. Ouite a crowd sur- roumls them both and the little group of fair women who arc "receiving'", when, toward eie\en o'clock, in the procession of arrivals, there appears a tall, distinguished looking man lor whom the floor committee seem anxious to clear the pathway — a personage whom, a mo- ment later, the Admiral spies and steps fi)r- ward in hearty sailor fashion to greet. •'Why. Senator." he cries. "This is glori- ous! I had no idea you were here!" "Admiral." responds the new comer, in the resonant tones of one to whom i)ublic speak- ing is an every day affair. "1 am here because yuit are here. 1 heard, sir. of this reception in vour honor, as 1 was on my way to a con- ference in Chicago, and I stopped over pur- posely to join in the demonstration in your honor." anil as he shakes the Admiral's hand the senator glances benignly round about him that all these his fellow citizens of a Western metropolis may view the lineaments and realize the presence of a statesman from the .Atlantic seaboard. igZ THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. "So good of you ; so very good !" responds the sailor, to whom all countrymen seem as friends. "By Jove! I'm glad you're here. I want you to meet one of the men who made history in Luzon. General! General!" he cries, summoning his soldier comrade from the midst of a bevy of purring, sympathetic folk, "General, 1 want you to know one of my particular friends. Senator Lansing — General Harold." "General Harold," says the statesman, in prompt, full voweled words that tell on every ear, "This is indeed a delightful surprise. I rejoice in this opportunity, sir, of meeting a soldier whose career we have all watched with such pride, and especially, sir, do I desire to thank yon thus publicly for your tribute to my son — a brave boy, sir, though I do say it, as indeed you have, so handsomely — and that boy, sir, well-nigh worships you." There is instant murmur and ripple of ap- plause in the surrounding throng. Then, a moment of odd silence and constraint. The cordially extended hand remains extended yet unclasped. The thin face of the accosted Gen- eral has ffone well-nigh as white as his thick THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. I93 moustache. His steely, deep-set eyes are gaz- ing straight into the broad, beaming features of the magnilo(iuent statesman, but every mus- cle for an instant seems to be twitching as fruni some strange, uncontrollable emotion. The thin, white fingers are working convul- sively. The deep chest rises and falls. With a half smothered word of alarm, a tall, lovely girl has sprung to his side and placed a hand on the father's arm. At which, as though conquering some physical [lain only by intense effort of will, the General takes the out- stretched hand one instant in a cold, nervous clasp, then drops it. and coldly, almost inaud- ibly. he replies : — •'Good evening, sir. Yes; Lieutenant Lans- ing is a most gallant officer. Now. excuse me. Florence — oh. yes, you're here." Then he bows. and. with her hand on his arm, turns abruptly away. "The General still suffers from his wound," savs the .\dmiral evidently disturbed. "His wound — yes — I see." says the Senator reflectively rubbing his chin. And as the diplomats say. for the time being the incident is closed. 194 'I'm^ SHXATOR S I'LICllT. But. before taking train on tlie morrow, the Senatt)r receives a letter in a hand he never saw before, yet knows at a glance. On the table lies another letter just received from his gallant boy. once again, after a few months' leave un- der surgeon's certificate, under orders to join his regiment in the I'hilippines. This letter ran : "Dear Old Dai:) — Yours to the mater came last night. Lakewood has done her a power of good and I'm sound as ever in lung and limb, but I've lost one thing that she found out four weeks ago and you've got to be told of now. You know I was laid up at the Pre- sidio a month before they would let me come on East. You kncnv how kind the army wo- men were to yoiu" banged-up son. You kno^v what I think of old Blue Blood, my hero Gen- eral — God bless him for the bravest, squarest. truest, tenderest-hearted old soldier that ever fought. You don't know how surprised and how lucky T was to find among the girls at the Presidio a certain Miss Florence Harold, for he never spoke of her to me, e\'en when he came to say good-ln^e and good luck. But she's home now. and he — and 1 want vou to THE senator's PLIGHT. I95 see him on your Westward run. meet him, know him and — lielp me all you know how. tor. Dad. with all my soul I love his daughter. Vtuirs ever affectionately. "Richard K. Lansing." And now. full of thought over this letter from his only son. the senator turns ruefully to the other, which he feels must be from the "squarest, truest, tenderest-hearted old." etc., etc. He knew it before he had seen more than the mere superscription. "Sir : Five years ago this month you did me the honor on the floor of the House to publicly proclaim me a disgrace to my cloth — a crea- ture to be shunned of honest men and scorned by Christian wc^nen. and a l)eing bereft of the last vestige of what is understood by the term officer and gentleman. "Last night in a crowded assemblage, with fuls<jme words, you almost as publicly tendered vour hand. It would have served you right had I then and there refused ii, but the man you had so wronged and outraged was at least too much of a gentleman to permit himself to 196 THE senator's PLIGHT. luimiliale you at such a time and in such a presence. "This is to notify you, however, that your affrontery will never again be overlooked. Under no circumstances will I recognize or receive you again. Thomas Harold." "Good Lord!" says Lansing; "I'd almost forgotten it entirely, and now my boy's life and happiness are bound up in this man's daughter." And so, a month later, when gallant Dick Lansing goes back to Manila it is with a sorely wounded heart and Florence Harold's "No". This, too, when he had good grounds for buoyant hope. The winter is gone, the spring has come. May with sunshine and blossoms and balmy breezes brings new life to the veins of the vet- eran soldier, now honorably retired from ac- tive service, yet living his soldier life again in the glowing letters of his boys, both now fighting in the far Philippines. He could be happy as he is proud, but for one thing. While health and strength have returned THE senator's PLIGHT. I97 to him and honors have come to his soldier sons, he has seen, with growing dis- tress, that, brave and bright as she ever seemed in the long hours of the restful days they spent together in the South, his precious child has been visibly drooping. Twice he has sur- prised her in tears. Between them before he left Detroit there had been one memorable talk upon the sub- ject on which for at least four years, and even to her. his lips has been sealed. That hapless meeting with his defamer had rekindled all the old wrath, reopened the old galling w^ounds, and her fond caresses could not banish either. All that night he had paced the floor. He could not sleep. All the love and loyalty and devotion in her fond, pure heart went out to him in sympathy and support, even though she, too. was thinking of a never-to-be-forgot- ten night — an August evening at the Golden Gate — the last evening Dick Lansing spent at San Francisco before his start for home. There had been frank, full avowal on his part. There had been no promise on hers, for she knew her father if not his. and while she could not — would not — tell him <>f the painful episode 198 THE SEXATOKS PLIGHT. that might still hear so lieavily upon their hopes — she well knew her very manner had given him cause to hope — and that her cold, constrained letter, written at her father's bed- side during the relapse that followed his meet- ing with the senator, must have cut him to the t|uick and made him think her heartless. But here, with this wronged, wifeless old soldier lay her duty now, and no earthly consideration should take her from him. But oh. the pity of it ! A brilliant May day was ushered in. the an- niversary of the blistering morning of the Santa Rita, and with her slender hand in his, the general sat blinking out over the sparkling waters of the Tappan Zee, as the day boat bore them up the Hudson, bound for a brief visit to his beloved shrine, the Point. A young ofHcer of the corps of instructors at the Academy, recognizing him. had found chairs for both upon the crowded deck, and then witb deep intuition for one of his years, had left them to each other, for here was a clear case, said he, of "Dad and Daughter Spoons." But the beauty of that girl's face was a thing that drew many a glance from his appreciative THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. I99 eye>. and ott Croton Point he ventured to ac- cost them, newspaper in hand, sympathetic in- terest in his young face. "Hard luck your old friends t.)f the — th liad yesterday. General ! They were with you last year, as I remember." "Hard luck! How? 1 hadn't seen or heard." and with an.xious eyes the <»ld .soldier turned upon the subaltern. "Up against too big a gang in thick bam- boo." was the answer. "Quite a number killed an<l wounded — and they've finished poor Dick Lansing this time." "O my God!" cried Harold. But warn- ing came tO(i late. Florence was hanging limp and senseless over the arm of the chair. I^jur weeks later, when the Hancock steamed away for Manila, among the names re- corded on her limited passenger list were tho.se (.f General Harold, U. S. A., and daughter. The full story of that stiff brush in the jungle had l)een long in coming. Swamp and thicket had delayed what was to have been a simulta- neous tknk attack, and the dash of the direct assault was met by withering fire fr'>m in- 200 THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. visible foes. They did their best, poor lads, but were driven back with cruel loss, leaving their gallant leader and perhaps half a dozen other wounded in the hands of the Tagals. Instantly another and stronger column was rushed out to repair the loss, and after long- pursuit and almost incredible exertion, they re- captured the prisoners, with Lansing still alive, but very low. On the heels of this news came the report that Lieutenant Ben Harold was down with typhoid, and a white faced veteran wired from West Point for permission to take the first transport, and before Florence was well enough to start on so long a journey a card was brought to the shaded room wherein she lay, and Harold's voice trembled as he said, 'T will see him — here." They showed him in, and for a moment the new comer's eyes were baffled by the dark- ness. He stepped at once, however, to the sol- dier who had silently risen. No hand was extended. Lansing stood and bowed his head. "I have come,'" said he. ''to say that which I should have said years ago. I wronged you utterly. For the sake of this dear girl, for THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. 20I the sake of — my dying boy — my all — can't y<m forgive a broken-hearted man?' ♦ ::^ ******** * There have been some rapturous meetings on shipboard oft' the mouth of that grass- green, flooding Passig, but this — this- was something which a veteran mariner, long used to the language of the bridge and the fo'cs'le, declared '"just blew me oft' soundings." From the day they left the Farallones to that of casting anchor off Manila, a full moon later, no word as to loved ones lingering between life and death had reached them. But an aid of the commanding general came scrambling abixard with glad tidings for Harold before the chains ceased clanging through the hawse pipes. His soldier l)oy was rapidly convalesc- ing at the Second Reserve, and, as for Dick ! There is a pretty room well forward on the Hancock, opening into the captain's sanctum on the ujjper deck. In old days when, as an Atlantic greylvanid, she bore the record and butted icebergs between Sandy Hook and Oueenstown Lights, they called it the Ladies B<'U<li'ir. In 'oS they refitted it fur the coni- mantling (»}"iicor of the troops ab(»ard. A p( r- 202 THE SKNATUR S PLIGHT. tiere hanging iron^ :? l)razen rod at the en- trance, swung loosely in the breeze, and be- liind that ]iendant screen this gorgeous summer evening, just as the sun was dipping behind the grim barrier of the westward mountains, a bluff old skipper was taking a parting sip of champagne with the glad-eyed soldier for whose convenience the white launch of the C(jmmanding general was already cleaving a way through the sparkling waters. With them, in cool white raiment, a fragile hand upon her sturdy father's arm, stood the fair girl whose devotion to that anxious veteran, despite her own deep dread, had won the hon- est sailor's enthusiastic admiration to the full as much as had her delicate beauty. With raised glass he was talking to the General and looking at her when suddenly, in the midst of the joyous chatter on deck there was heard the unaccustomed sound of a crutch and a hail of welcome to some unseen "Dick" ; whereat Miss Harold seemed suddenly to lose all color — all breath, all sense of what her nautical ad- mirer was saving; and when, an instant later, there came a tap at the open door and a thin white hand at the curtain's edge, the lady as THE SENATOR S PLIGHT. 203 suddenly spun about, with a lialf stifled, yet intense cry of joy intolerable, dropped her fatlier's arm and was caught and clasped by two others that held her close — closer still in spite of falling crutch and failing leg. Then inarticulate wonls and sobs and — other sounds that were never adequately de- scribed and never can be really imitated — warned the wondering mariner that a listener was lost, though a cause was won. One in- stant he gazed in semi-stupefaction, then drew the General forward into his own little den. and another curtain fell upon the scene. Ol> ' / /'I " Pertnit iiK- ti) restore missing property." THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. The Limited had stopped just long enough to change engines. Mr. Warren, the occu- pant of compartment Xumber Three, had stepped out to stretcli his legs and was inter- ested to see a very pretty girl board his car, followed by a youth burdened with a military overcoat and her hand luggage. Mr. War- ren's legs were long and the stop was short. In three minutes more the train was wdiistling through the suburbs and speeding away into the night. The mountains were just ahead, the dining car just behind. Warren stepped therein one moment, found every table occu- pied and decided to wait for the pretty girl. Most of his fellow passengers of the palatial Sublima were gone, presumably to dinner, when he strolled back to his seat. Two — three compartments that had been inhabited as he went out were now vacant as he came in. but 206 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. his own that was vacant when he left it. was now inhabited. The door was closed, yet not until just as he neared it — closed obviously at the moment of, and possibly because of, his coming. He caught a glimpse of a slender, daintily gloved hand, the hand of a girl. What on earth was it doing there? To be insured aganist error he glanced up at the number on the glistening little plate above the door. Three beyond all shadow of doubt. He ventured to turn the knob and the door was bolted wathin. Then he sought the porter who for his part had sought a friend in the Alberta just ahead, and the porter was puzzled. "/ ain't ])ut any lady in there, sir," said he. "The young lady that just got aboard at 'Toona she belongs in the drawingroom. But I'll go and see if you like, sir." Thev went together and Number Three's door was wide open. Number Three was empty. Everything was as he left it, yet he could have sworn to the facts above stated. Then he sauntered back to steal a peep, if pos- sible, at the hand of the young lady who be- longed in the drawingroom and got it. despite THE LUCK OF THF. HORSESHOE. 20J the fact that its door seemed closed as he neared it. This time it opened — opened ohvi- ously at the nioment and possibly because of his coniins;: — and a slender, daintily-gloved hand, the hand of a girl, beckoned to him, and a silvery voice said. "Xed. come here. f|uick !" And Xed being his name and action his nature he obeved. entered and found a pretty form, back toward him now. bending over a handbag. "Where on earth." said the silvery voice, "did V. lu put my portemonnaie?" And all manner of trifles but the purse came dying out up(Mi the seat. "Xowhere. if 1 may hazard the statement."' said Mr. Warren, with grave courtesy, yet with certain assurance, if noi reassurance, in his tone. Instantly and anything but placidly, the lady whirled alxnit and a pair of the big- gest, bluest eyes in Pennsylvania stared at him astonished. ••| — I hegr pardon." said she. "I — I called Xed." "I beg \'Oiir pardon." said he. "that's why I came. I'm called Ned." ••I — m — mean my brother." she began, with returning composure and dignity. 208 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. "And I'm mean enough to rejoice that, though Ned, I'm not brother," said he, with a symptom of an unrequitted smile. "But you have lost your purse and Ned. Let me help you find them — Ned first in relative order of importance. Porter, where' s the gentleman who came with this lady?" "Got right off again, sir; — said he forgot something. I tole him he hadn't time." "Why, the gateman said there was plenty," cried the damsel, in deep distress. "It was only a — friend he wanted to see — just a min- ute." "He may have caught the rear car," said the porter, sympathetically. "I'll run back and find out." "If he hasn't we'll get a wire from him somewhere, and meantime please don't worry. I can't replace him," said Warren, "but, per- mit me, I can the purse." "But my tickets, baggage checks, every- thing were in it, and it's gone," cried the lady, tears starting to the beautiful eyes, "all be- cause that stupid boy would run back to speak to a girl." "They do make a lot of trouble," said Mr. THE LUCK OF Tllli: HORSESHOE. JOQ Warren, reMectively. "Vet we must have them." and Mr. Warren's sensitive hps were twitching under his sweeping moustache. He was getting too much fun out of the situation to suit her. ''Boys, you mean." said she. "Girls I meant." said he. a quizzical smile beginning to dawn upon his face, a smile that instantly vanished at sight of the vexation if not actual worry in hers. "Forgive me. I am almost old enough to be your father," said he — He had just turned thirty-five — "The por- ter will find your brother, if not. the next train will, and meantime remember that you are neither purse — nor Xed — less." The Limited was scjuirming up the Alle- ghenies now, two monster engines panting in the lead. The Sublima was careening a bit to the right, as they rounded a sharp curve and the slender hand instinctively reached for something. \\'arren tendered an arm in sup- port. "These curves are sharp and sudden and numerous." said he. "We are coming to the Horseshoe. It will bring yi«u luck — Horse- shoes always do, you know." 2IO THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. '"Only if you pick them up on the road," said slie. "Well, didn't you pick? — no! Oh, here's the porter! Well, porter?" "Gen'lm'n didn't get aboard, suh. Waiter on dining car said he saw somebody make a run just as vve pulled out, but he was way be- hind. S'cuse me. This is Miss Brinton, isn't it?" "Yes," answered Blue Eyes, hopefully. "Yeas-sum. Conductor got a wire saying drawing room was held for you — everything else was taken. The Lieutenant has upper one. Best we could do for him." "Is the missing Edward an officer as well as otherwise in bonds?" queried Mr. Warren, sympathetically. "He's only just beginning," pouted Miss Brinton, "and going West to his first station, and was to leave me at Chicago, but he's left already — and so am I." School girl slang is unaccountably pardon- able when it falls from pretty lips. The gentle- man old enough to be her father wished he might hear more. "We have sorrows in common," said he. THE LICK OF THE HORSESHOE. J I I whimsically. "I. too, have a West Point brother-in-arms. 'Brother at once and son.' Mine's infantry in every sense of the word. And yours?" •"Tillery," promptly replied Miss Brinton, with proper pride in the superiority of her corps colors and total suppression of the first syllable. "What is your brother's name? Per- haps Pve met him." "Warren, F. F. — which. I'm told, means at the Point 'four files from foot,' otherwise Toots." "Tootsie Warren" cried Miss Brinton de- lightedly. "Why I know him — well ! You don't mean he's your brother?" "1 plead guilty," said the man of thirty-five. "And no one mourns it more than I — except Toots. He loves me like a stepfather. Tell me. Miss Brinton, is Toots ever going to amount to anything?" "Toots? Oh, why. Toots dances well, and draws nicely." "Draws," said Mr. Warren, reflectively. "Yes. he draws remarkably. He drew five hundred the eve of sailing for Manila. — one week's expenses in San Francisco — and I 212 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. fancy he must dance fairly well if he pays the fiddler at that rate. What 1 like about Toots is that he absolutely can't lie. It would ruin him in my business." "Politics?" guessed Miss Brinton, in flatter- ing interest. "Pork," answered Warren, sententiously, "and that reminds me. May I be pardoned for a suggestion? We'll soon hear from the lieutenant. Meantime you ought to be hun- gry. I, at least, am hungry as a bear. Now, ril be Ned, you be Toots and the w^aiter shall bless our compact before we lose the Horse- shoe." She hesitated — looked down — then up into his smiling eyes, and presently they went. Ten minutes later at a little tete-a-tete table he was making her forget her worriment in telling about Toots and Ned and Ned's Altoona sweetheart. Ned had met her at the Point, it seems; had been corresponding with her ever since, had coaxed his sister to stop over with him just one day on their westward journey that she might see his charmer and satisfy papa — mother they now had none, — and papa was to meet them at Chicago. What would THE LrCK OF THE HORSESHOE JI3 he say to Xed? When could a telegram reach her? Warren equivocated with the ease of «)ne long bred to the Board of Trade. He knew they made no stop until they rolled into Pittsburgh at nine o'clock, and with shameless tongiie he told her "the very next station." rightly reasoning that almost any answer would (k> until after dinner. Then their running restaurant leaned to the left. and. glancing out, he saw unfolding in their curxing wake the arc of twinkling lights across some deep, black gorge, and then the white gleaming electrics of a passenger train gliding down the opposite mountain side, al- most parallel with their present course. "It's the Horeshoe Curve," said he. "Look out and see it. and let us wish Xed and his Nanette real horseshoe luck." "And Toots, too," she said, beaming up in- to his genial, animated face. "Oh. what zcould I have done if I hadn't — taken you for Xed!" Then in sudden confusion — "I — I mean — " "Xever mind." laughed Warren, delight- edly. "\'ou'vc taken me for Xed. which 1 am. Mav vou never wish me anvthine — less." 214 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. And SO, joyously, the early winter evenin<^ sped away. The loss of a brother is soon for- gotten in the finding of a friend. They lin- gered in the brightly lighted car, shooting down the westward slope of the Alleghenies and following the windings of the Conemaugh, foaming far beneath them. She told him of her school days, barely over, and her home in Illinois, and of papa, a magnate in the business world well kn(own to him. She confessed to being nineteen, and then, as the conductor came through. Warren had brief conference with that official, assuming charge in the event of no telegraphic instructions from "The Road," inspired by the belated Ned, and fin- ally they went back to the Sublima a little while before the Limited brought up standing at Pittsburg, and never had there been in his life a shorter evening. Then and there the telegraph messenger came aboard with des- patches, and, as Warren prophesied, there was one from Brother Ned. "Go right ahead. Father will meet you. Coming next train. Conductor instructed by wire." "Go right ahead! The idea! How can I, — THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. _' 1 5 without money or anything? That sttipid boy's so desperately in love. He's just glad to be left with Nanette another day, — and my purse in his pocket all the time!" "Sure about that?" queried Warren, who had sisters of his own. "Sure? Of course I am! I meant tu put it in my bag. but Ned never thought to hand it back." "And vou're sure you never had it.-" \ou've looked — pardon me — in the other compart- ments?" "What other compartment? Why. this is the only one I've been in." "Then you weren't for a moment — in Num- ber Three?" "I ? Not a bit of it. I ran out in the vesti- bule to get a peep at Ned and Nanette. Why do you ask?" "H'm." said Warren, reflectively, thinking of the dainty hand at the door. "I probably imagined it." "Now. either Master Ned meant to get left or this little woman is egregiously mistaken," mused that gentleman, later. The draw- ingroom had been made ready for the 2l6 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. young- lady's occupancy for the night, and Warren, after begging permission to take her to breakfast in the inorning. had discreetly wished her pleasant dreams and wandered oft* to his own compartment. Altoona officials had verified Lieutenant Ned's tickets and wired the necessary instructions. That being settled Warren had curled himself in a corner of Number Three and given himself up to thought. There was something odd about this matter that he could not fathom. There were, to be sure, other feminines aboard — There was a very stylish woman of uncertain years, slender and presentable, in Number Five, for instance. She had come in to din- ner with her husband, a man turned fifty, but they kept to themselves. Their compartment was closed when he and ]Miss Brinton returned from the "diner", and, as he thought it all over, something possessed him to look out into the corridor. Compartment Five was closed now, yet a tall man in ti"aveling suit was gently trying the d(X)r. At sight of Warren he calmly sauntered away. The Ohio was left behind. The Limited was breasting the grades across the Beaver. THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. _' I 7 The porter came round to know if Mr. Warren woukl have his berth made down (or up). Warren said "presently", opened his bag for a book and caught sight of something stuffed into the crevice between the back and the seat — a lady's portmonnaie. It was of seaJskin, soft and fine, edged and bound with silver and embellished with the letters L. \'. B. — Laura \'. Brinton beyond a doubt. And yet she had declared she had set foot in no c».»mpartment but her own. The little — prevaricator ! It was too late to disturb her, Warren slipped the portemonnaie into a breast pocket and went for a cigar and a sip of Stout. It would hardly do to mention the discovery to the porter. He. too. had heard Miss Brinton's positi\e statement that she had entered no com- l)artment but her own. Under the circum- stances he couldn't bring himself to tell any- VkkW. It was after eleven when he returned and there v.as that tall man in traveling suit again, hovering about Number Five, and again the tall man strolled away. With the jiorte- monnaie in a waistcoat pocket under his pil- low. Warren went to sleej). "Til give it to her 2l8 THE JACK OK TJIK llUK^^hSllOE. after breakfast when nobody's looking," said he. He hated somehow to think how confused she would be. even though he need not tell her where he found it. They were in Chicago, with breakfast over, though still half an hour from the station be- fore opportunity served. He had been awake since dawn — a vexed spirit. He had vastly admired that blithe, beautiful girl, thrown by chance across his way. His life for years had been hard and practical. The death of his father, bankrupt after a squeeze to the Chicago market, had left him w'hen a boy of eighteen with the care of his mother, two younger sis- ters and curly-haired, merry little Toots, a mis- chief loving urchin of three. Valiantly had Ned ^^^arren buried every personal hope and ambition and sturdily had he gone to work to keep a roof over their heads and the wolf from the door. Never had he let himself think of himself. Life was all duty. Toil, frugality and stern self-denial had borne their fruit, and at thirty-five, home and comforts and fortune all had been earned for those the father had left helpless in the hands of the eldest son. Both girls were now well married and the THE Ll'CK OF THE liOKSKSl lOE. J 1 9 mother still lived to enjoy the handsome house he gave her. Toots had at last achie\ed his darling- ambition, and after five years of close shaves and narrow escapes had wriggled through the final exams at the Point. All liad had life smoothed and Messed for them. He alone. — the benefactor — was lonely. And as the Limited climbed and pierced and then coasted down the Alleghenies through the early hours of the December night just gone bv, and he had sat there in the warm, well- lighted, cosey dining car, with fresh flowers overhanging the dainty crystal and china and snow white napery. with that fresh, fair, smil- ing face beaming so trustfully up into his. a dream so long forbidden that, through force of habit, it had well nigh ceased to live, now stole over his spirit and would not sleep again. Stern slave of the lamp that he had been, he shut out every thought of love and home life of his own. but that face, that merry laugh, that sweet, low. musical voice had spurred his d<jrmant nature to instant and vehement life. He so loved what was gentle, refined, beauti- ful in woman. He so craved a heartmate, — a home — of his own. TT(> ^^ rH'""'"'''! ''^ '-very- 220 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. thing slic did and looked and said — everything except just one — just one. He who had so whimsically spoken of Toot's blunt propensity for truth as being disastrous to trade was yet a man to whom a lie was a thing abhorrent. And she had wilfully, unnecessarily declared she had never entered his compartment. Yet, had he not seen? — did he not know? Was not here, in her portemonnaie, the proof ? He could not bear to give it to her until the last moment. He C(juld not bear to see in that lovely, innocent face the blush of shame, or worse, the stony insolence of renewed denial that must follow his restoration of the porte- monnaie. She must know where he had found it. At Archer A\enue when they stopped a few seconds, a gray-haired, distinguished look- ing stranger boarded the train, and to his arms she flew, delightedly. Then with beaming eyes presented Mr. \\'arren. "I am under a thousand obligations." began Mr. Brinton. "I have had an anxious night since the coming of Ned's message," he began. "O, papa ! Air. Warren can fully sympa- thize with you. He's Toots Warren's brother. You remember Toots last summer at the Point THE LLCK OF THE HORSESHOE. 221 — Xed's classmate. .\n(l yoii must settle with Mr. Warren, please — Xed ran off with my purse — Antl you must tip the porter and you must ask Mr. Warren to dinner.'' And then Warren saw the way to restoring that i>urse. without giving it to her. Just be- fore they parted at the Canal Street station and while Miss Brinton was being placed in the waiting carriage with her array of hand lug- gage — her's and Xed's — Warren slipped the purse into the paternal hand. "Pray give it," saivl he, "after you get home. Miss Brinton thinks your son has it." And then Brinton pcrc was hurried in and the carriage off to make room for others. There was just time for a word. "The lloreshoe brought me the best of luck." cried the sweet, clear voice, as a beam- ing, wins'jme, beautiful face peered back at him. nt)dding, smiling, tormenting, when the carriage whirled away. And then Warren turned to his cab, too full of that face to note the next part}' lx)arding another carriage — a very stylishly dressed — indeed overdressed — woman whose face was closely veiled, a rubi- cund man of fifty odd, a tall citizen in heavy 222 TllK lACK OF THE HORSESHOE. ulster close following. It was that face, only that face that Warren took away to his busy oflice, that peered between him and the pages of his letters and ledgers all that day and the next. "I shall see it again," said he, "at dinner." But the week went out without the invita- tion. The Brinton's, who remained three days at the y\nnex, left without a sign. "She thought better of that dinner and worse of me," said Warren to himself, "when she found I had discovered her purse and her fib at the same time." And so, wounded, he had gone back to his work. When next Mr. Edmund Warren saw the Horseshoe he was again Eastward bound, and he looked with gloomy eyes. For once the grandeur of the scene had lost its charm. It was some months later, and though never once had he seen or heard of Miss Brinton, never yet had her face been forgotten. This radiant sunshiny morning as he looked out over the glorious vista of mountain and valley, he was thinking sorely of that evening ride on the Limited — of all the gladness that seemed to press into four blithe hours, only to be blotted THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. 223 out. And then the porter sauntered over for a word. ••"Member that last time you went West with us, Mr. Warren. — night the youns^ lady's brud- der got let" at Toona?" Warren wasn't thinking of anything else. "]\[\, but dat old gentlm'n was hot 'bout her pocketbook, suh !" •*How S"'"' asked Warren in sudden interest. •"All the money was gone when she got it back — over hundred dollars! Oh. I tole 'em \ou were all right — 't'want you, though you didn't tell mc you found it. It might have gone hard, suh, wid some of us. tho', for de Company just ramsacked everybody t'well dey found out 'bout dem crooks." •'What crooks?" ••Lady and genTman, suh. — had Number Five. Dey was •wanted' in Chicago and de- tective come along with 'em all de way from New York, 'n they never 'spected nothing t'well dey got r)ff de train. Dey had money to burn." • And they had robbed Miss Brinton?" '•Ve-cs. suh." chuckled the .\frican. "P.ut 224 'i'ilE LUCK OF TllJi JlUKSESllOE. Mr. — Mr. Brinton, first off, said 't'was you. You must have had the purse all night." "Merciful Powers!" thought Warren, "and all because I couldn't bear to confront her with the proof of her — tarradiddle." Little by little, between the conductor and the porter, he dragged forth the whole story. Brinton, senior, had forgotten the purse until Lieutenant Ned arrived on Number 21 at three in the afternoon. Within an hour thereafter the old gentleman appeared at the station, full of wrath, to declare his daughter had been robbed on the Sublima. There was time for only brief investigation before the Limited started out on the evenmg run back to New York. Both conductor and porter had stoutly declared their confidence in Mr. Warren's in- tegrity, but Brinton was still unconvinced. At the end of the week, when they again reached Chicago, the rest of the story came out. Three days after the loss the Company were after the couple shadowed by the tall detective — also the shadower, who had come aboard only just as the Limited left Jersey City on the morning of her start. Then the police ad- mitted that two noted criminals had been cap- THE LUCK OF THE IIORSKmioi,. --D turetl at a north side residence an iK.ur after their cominf^ to Chicago, and then Papa Brin- ton's investigation came to an end. Laura's money was doubtless part of the sum found in the possession of the pair. Then Brinton took his daughter home. That was December. Now it was nearly April, and one day there came a missive from Brother Toots, written in the mud and mailed at Manila. "De.\r Old Ned: — I gave all the news to mother, so see her letter. We go out on 'nother hike to-night, and Tve only time for a word. Ned Brinton says his father wants to see you next time he gets to Chicago — wants to explain some- thing — can't make out what. Ned won't tell, but it's something about some monev you lent that awfully pretty sister of his when Ned got left. He's rabid to go home and marry that Altoona girl, and he can't ask for leave until this business is wound up. Ned says his sister says you were "just lovely to her", and papa hadn't properly thanked you and it was partly her fault and — well. I can't make it all out. but Ned says she's written to him no less than three letters about it. and that's more thought than she bestows on any of us. Just send a line to the old chap, will you. and let him know where he can find you. When is that .March interest coming? Yours. "Toots." 226 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. \Varren's cheek burned. "She thought me a thief" he growled to himself, "and I thought her a fibber !" Next day he was away from Chi- cago again, bound northward, and on a soft April evening set foot at Melton Station. He went, too, unannounced. He had not sent a line to the "old chap," as Toots suggested. It was the old chap's business to send a line to him. if. as the railway people declared, he had ever said he believed Warren had purloined his daughter's money. That- matter was now easily explained. When Miss Brinton stepped out to the ves- tibule, leaving her satchel unguarded and un- locked, it was an easy matter for the enterpris- ing occupant of Number Five to seize the mo- ment when almost everybody was out of the car, and then the purse, — to dart into the va- cant Number Three, little expecting Warren to return at once from the dining car whither her male companion declared him to have gone. His sudden coming well nigh caught her, but she barred him out, rightly guessing he would go for the porter. Then she stuffed the ravished portemonnaie deep down in the crevice, and, richer by one hundred dollars or THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. J27 more, slipped back to her own seat, and was all demure innocence a moment later. But in tiiat moment's work she had thrown suspicion on two honest souls. Edmund War- ren supposed on 'Change to have no higher aim in life than the sale of unlimited pork, and Miss Laura Brinton who, prior to that even- ing's ride u}) Horseshoe Curve, had been as fancy free as a child. No. Warren sent no warning of his com- ing. In fact he was not seeking Brinton perc. He longed to see that other face again, and believed he knew a way. Inquiry of a business associate had developed the fact that it was Miss Brinton's almost daily habit to drive in to the post office for the evening mail, and he swung away at sturdy pace over the winding highroad in the direction of the Brin- ton homestead. It lay but a mile from the pretty town and on the borders of the great lake. His satchel he left at the station, his stick he swung in his hand. "Look out for a ])haeton with bay ponies," he told his eyes, but before he had put half a mile between himself and the station something glinted in the slant- ing sunbeams, and there at the edge of the 228 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. roadway shone a shapely little horseshoe. He stooped, picked it up. put it in his sack coat pocket and faced about. That shoe had told its story. The pony team had already gone to town. When, perhaps a dozen minutes later, he saw coming- toward him over a rise in the road a stylish pair of miniature bays, his heart gave a leap, and so did he, — to the shelter of some roadside shrubbery. Peering from this coign of vantage he saw that the off side pony was favoring his right hind foot, and that settled the matter. With the shoe uplifted in one hand, his derby in the other, Mr. Warren stepped out into the highway, the fair chario- teer threw her weight back on the reins, a small tiger sprang to the ponies' heads and took the bits under advisement. The lady, despite herself, blushed vividly with surprise and pleasure, but, "Why, Mr. Warren!" was all she said. "Permit me to restore missing property," said he. "Not the portemonnaie this time, but the portc-bonJieur." The blush deepened, "Who told you?" said she. THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. 22^ "The pony." said lie. "This cne," and re- placing his Derby, he gave the little fellow a reassuring pat. "I mean — about tiic portemonnaie." "What about it ?" "You've heard — about its — being — etnptied — before you had a chance — " "I did have a chance. I had it all night," and Mr. Warren's lips were twitching provok- ingly, as his eyes eagerly feasted on her sweet, blushing face. "I mean." said Miss Brinton. tlicking at the dust with her long whip, "to return it, of course. r"*apa made — so much trouble. I was afraid you heard!" "I did hear eventually — Xed and Toots — " "Oh, those wretched boys ! — what will they say next?" "They said I should sue papa for damages." "Mr. Warren! — You wouldn't — He's — " "Miss Brinton, I shall. I've decided once and for all. I shall bring suit — at once." **0, Mr. Warren ! It was all my fault. — my carelessness — my stupidity. I'm awfully sorry! Can't I settle it in some way? I've wantctl to say so ever so long." 230 THE LUCK OF THE HORSESHOE. "And I've wanted to hear you. In fact I wanted to have you — in fact I still want to have you — Indeed you're the only one who can settle it !" And then she looked up into his eyes, half startled, half joyous, and then — all seeing, the soft eyes fell again, and though his hands were trembling, he laid the little horseshoe in her lap and stepped quickly to her side. "You have not decided about the journey," he was saying, as he bent over that bonny, beautiful head one summer evening, a few months later. "There's only one point about it that I wish to decide," she answered, smilingly. "It isn't where we go. It's the way we come — home- ward. Ned, I picked you up, as you say, twice. Almost any day we can come past the old mile post here at home, but I want to come again — where I found my luck — by way of the Horseshoe Curve." ■- 1, flf 'M / A CAMERA CAPTURE. She was aboard the express steamer, Deutscher Kaiser, bound from Cologne for Mayence. the gay June morning he first set eyes on her, but she rewarded his gaze of un- deniable admiration by landing at Bonn. She was accompanied by a silvery-haired gentle- woman, obviously an invalid and apparently her n;iother, reinforced by a middle-aged per- son, half nurse, half general utility woman, and commanded by a fourth personage obvi- ously austere to the world at large and dom- ineering to her kith and kin. The girl was pretty (the prettiest things to be seen in the Rhineland are the .\nierican girls), the mother pathetic, the maid unsympathetic, and the maiden aunt — portentous. The run from the Dom-centering streets of the old Gemian city to the academic shades of Bonn is but a short one. but it was long enough to indulge Mr. MAP or FOLD -OUT here A CAMERA CAPTURE. Slie was aboard the express steamer, Deiitscher Kaiser, bound from Cologne for Mayence, the gay June morning he first set eyes on her, but she rewarded his gaze of un- deniable admiration by landing at Bonn. She was accompanied by a silvery-haired gentle- woman, obviously an invalid and apparently her niother. reinforced by a middle-aged per- son, half nurse, half general utility woman, and o^mmanded by a fourth personage obvi- f)usly austere to the world at large and dom- ineering to her kith and kin. The girl was pretty (the prettiest things to be seen in the Rhineland are the American girls), the mother pathetic, the maid unsympathetic, and the maiden aunt — portentous. The run from the Dom-centering streets of the old Gemian city to the academic shades of Bonn is but a short one, but it was long enough to indulge Mr. 2^2 A CAMERA CAPTURE. Lcc in a dclil^cratc study of Miss Beveridge, from the tip of the j.crt feather in lier tourist hat to the toe of her trim and dainty boot ; long enough to inspire iiim with more longing — with longing to know her. with interest in the invalitl. and with instinctive antipathy to the maiden aunt. He, too, was abroad for his health, recuperating from a wound received in front of Santiago the year Ijefore; a wound that, followed by malarial fever, had well-nigh wrecked him. Tw^ice had he caught the dam- sel's eye, a thing that rejoiced him unduly, for he did not see it was the little tricolored button in his left lapel, rather than the wearer, that attracted her. The second time she blushed, but it was from annoyance at being caught, not from maidenly confusion. He had been look- ing forward with eagerness to seeing the Sie- ben Gebirge close at hand and wondering what on earth the Deutschlanders saw in such diminutive upheavals to warrant the name of "mountain ;" but he turned from them in dis- appointment and did not even rally as they neared the confluence of the Moselle, with mysterious Ehrenbreitstein frowming on them on the one hand r.nd Coblent/' nestling like a A CAMERA CAPTl'RE. J^^ toy town on the opposite shore — and all be- cause Miss Beveridge had left the boat at Bonn. She was aboard a wheel the next time he saw her and they met face to face on a terrace overlooking the Rhine. She had a camera slung over her shoulder, and the middle-aged maid wobbled unsteadily on another wheel a few yards behind. Lee had a camera over his shoulder, but no other incumbrances. The recognition — of the girl on his part, of the button on hers — was instantaneous. He sprang to his feet from his seat on the waist- high wall and whipped off his tourist cap. She bowed gravely in return, and her glance was at the Initt.ui, n..t at him. and this time he realized it. She wheeled onward to a point where the road began a zigzag climb. There she dis- mcmnted. light as a bird. The maid followed suit, light as a cow. and together th.e two ascended the steps to a platform above, leav- ing their wlieels at the roadside under the dis- tant and martial eye of a smart little Prussian, picklchaube-crested sentry at an elongated box 234 A CAMERA CAPTURE. Standing on end and striped like a barber's pole. Lee had felt unequal to a climb even to see the sights of Ehrenbreitstein. Now he decided that duty, as a discharged volunteer staff offi- cer of Uncle Sam. recjuired of him study of permanent fortifications. Technically he didn't know a demilune from a ditch, but neither did she. When Mr. Lee reached the upper platform and saw the blue Rhine twisting through the southward hills, spanned by the graceful rail- way bridge above Coblentz and dotted with boats and barges of every kind, he bethought him of his camera as an excuse for being there, and took two snapshots up the world-renowned valley, hardly taking his eyes, however, off the girl. Then he noted that a picturesque party of officers, just in from drill of some kind, was filled with interest in Miss Beveridge, who, un- conscious of their voluble admiration, was lost in contemplation of the legend-haunted stream. It is believed that in love and in war most Con- tinental militaires consider themselves invin- cible. There were six in this squad, slim- waisted, sandy-haired, straw-mustached young A CAMERA CAPTrRK. -0^ fellows — tip-top soldiers, too. ready to drink or die for their X'atcrlantl at drop of the hat, but a bit asinine, none the less, where pretty girls were concerned. They assumed her un- consciousness to be feigned, and. halting at the turn of the roatl. regardless of the indigna- tion in the eyes of the dragon, her attendant, began audible attempts to attract her attention. Lee was fifty yards away, but he could hear, and. firing up like the scion of three genera- tions of Yankee soldiers that he was. started for the group, stick in hand and blood in his eye. They were standing, as luck would have it, at the foot of a flight of steps leading to still another level. The sun, well up in the south, shone full upon their burnished helmets and shoulder scales and on the massive wall at their back, over the crest of which jieeped the black muzzles of certain of Krup])'s masterpieces. Miss Beveridge, twenty paces beyond them, could not but hear their deuKMi- strative coughs, could hardly mistake their ob- ject, yet placidly she contiiuied her survey as though deaf to every sound. Then suddenly, before Lee could reach them, the clatter of 236 A CAMERA CAPTURE. scabbards, the sputter of shod hoofs smote up- on the car. and coming at sharp canter round the turn of the road was a general officer with a group of aides and orderHes. Instantly the sextette shriveled into statues. Six white- gloved hands went up in salute to six brass- bound visors. Six pairs of heels clamped tight together and six slim- waist ed. short- skirted subalterns gazed adoringly at the high. well-born, royal Prussian-fortress inspector's- commandant's-general ; damsel and dragon both forgotten. As for Miss Beveridge, in all the fearless innocence of maiden America — a land where- in there lives no military regulation the sov- ereign citizen may not trample under foot — she quickly unslung her camera, quickly took aim at the brilliant and most characteristic Prussian group; snap went the slide as she touched the button, and so — brought on the arrest. From the battlements of Ehrenbreitstein Prussia fears no foe. but scares at a camera. To take so much as a snapshot at so much of a fortress as can be seen through a baby camera renders the taker liable to be taken, perhaps, A CAMERA CAl ! L Kl.. JjJ for a spy. The General didn't sec, for his back was toward her as he galloped away. The subs didn't see, for they were temporarily ab- sorbed in him — they had to be or suffer arrest in (luariers. lUit a sentry had seen both Lee and the h^raeulein Americaner and was tjawl- ing for some functionary of the guard. The first thing Miss Beveridge knew, as the dust cleared away, a young man in tourist garb was at her side, holding forth a camera. "Change with me — please — quick I" quuth he. •"What for?" said she wiih wide open blue eyes and no little resentmeni in tone. What business had he to accost her — even if he did wear the same button brother Jim sported when in civilian dress? — Brother Jim being a lieutenant, senior grade, in the Xavy and S(jn of a soldier of the great war of '6i. "T heard your mother say you must get on to Mayence this evening and you can't, if they catch you — with that — and here they come!" Fact! lM)ur little Prussian soldiers were scuttling down the steps from an upper ledge, a sergeant in the lead. The group of subal- ters had given ear to the cries of the sentry and 238 A CAMERA CAPTLRi:. were now standing, open-eyed, behind pmcc- ncz and monocle, watching the result. Lee had nnslung his camera on the run. and, with- out more ado. possessed himself of hers lying on the stone coping, set his in its place and tranquilly continued : "Now, be so good as to hurry to your wheel and spin away home. I'li straighten this out "But — why ? — what ? — " "Miss Beveridge, unless you wish to spend the night in a dungeon and craze your mother, go at once. I'll send yt)ur camera to the con- sul at Mayence." Then the dragon began to whimper, and be- tween them and bewilderment Miss Beveridge was started down the steps. Then Lee squatted on the coping and cheerfully awaited developments — and the defenders of Ehren- breitstein. They had to zigzag down and so lost time and breath and temper. They ran up sputter- ing and seized upon Lee and the camera. "What's up?" said he in imperturbable American. A German of^cial, civic or mili- tarv, usuallv blusters, shouts and gets red in A CAMERA CAPTUKE. 239 the face when he makes either an arrest or ex- l)lanation. The Yankee as frequently con- founds and exasperates him by consummate sang-froid. German instructions for guards and sentries prescribe just what the sentry shall shout when he sees a camera at forbid- den work. The official language fails to in- dicate the sex of the culprit. In fact, sex in German tongue is a thing too intricate to be settled short of sixteen syllables. The ser- geant wachtmeister, (overwhelming Lee with Teutonic reproach, could not now hear the sentry's supplementary shouts to the effect that he had got the wrong culprit. The three at- tendant soldiers could hear but dare not offer suggestion to a superior — implication that a higher officer may not know everything being inadmissible in the Prussian military code. So Miss Beveridge wheeled away to the bridge of boats and so on back ti^ the Bellevue, Lee's camera at her iiip, Miss Perkins at her heels and something new at her heart. That young man was presental^le, was ])rom])t, de- cisive, even commanding, and most women — until they're married — like commanding men. Xow wliat blunder had she committed? What 240 A CAMERA CAPTURE. danger was his on her account? It occurred to lier to wheel round to the consul's and ask Herr Pfeift'cr, the accomplished English-speak- ing" German clerk. "Ach Himmel !" said Pfeiffer. "Did not the gnaediges fraeulein know it of the most- conspicuous, high-offensive, imprisonments- bringing misdemeanor was, any map. picture, writing, inscription. fortifications-view to take?" "I didn't," snapped Miss Beveridge and Miss Beveridge's blue eyes. "1 only took a shot at a lot of boy lieutenants under the cannon." "Ach Himmel !" and Pfeiffer's hands flew up in air, then swooped on the camera. "This one isn't mine! I exchanged — " and Miss Beveridge blushed vividly. "Du lieber Himmel ! With the distinguished, much-wounded, of-wdiom-to-us-have-written- the- Embassy in Berlin, Herr Major Lee — " "He.'" A soldier! — and wounded!" cried Miss Beveridge. "Oh, mercy, Herr Pfeiffer, what zi'ill they do to him? Amanda, go at once to mother and tell her I'm going back to Ehrenbreitstein. Fve got an officer — a wounded officer — r^Ir. Lee, arrested. We shan't go to A CAMERA CAl'TLKE. 24I Maycncc to-iiight. I clun't care what Aunt Xerva says!" But she didn't go back, fc^r Pfeiffer had sprung to the telephone and was in excited collo(iuy in high-pitched, high German with some \er\- well-born sub-deputy commandant's inspector across the Rhine. She could catch and translate occasional words. They wanted to know all about Lee. and Pfeiffer w-as load- ing them with facts hitherto utterly unsus- pected. Herr Major Lee of His Excellence, much-esteemed United-States-of-North- Amer- ica-High-Ambassador a nephew was. Herr Lee of the brave. freiwiller-United States-of- North-American-.Vrniy. a high distinguished "stabs offitseer in hauptquartier den" of the- Lleaven-knows-what-all. a Major who severely at Santiago in battle twice wounded was. Twice had he to dinner with the high imperial kinglike. Ciesarlike. Prussian and-all-around- German Emperor at the imperial palace already been. ptc. etc. Pfeiffer. it seems, was bent on giving Ehrenbreitstein to understand that in nabbing Lee they were entertaining a martial angel unawares, and Pfeiffer must have pre- vailed. That evening as the Beveridge i)arty 24-? A CAMi:UA CAPTURE. trundled away southward under the vine-ciad heights, the anxiety of Miss Beveridge was ap- peased ])y the farewell tidings im])arted by Mine Host of the Bellevue. that Herr Major Lee had sent for his dress-clothes. Though still nominally a captive he was to dine whh liis captors. "But where, child, is your camera all this time is what / wish to know?" demanded Aunt Minerva. And Miss Beveridge smilingly asseverated that she really could n(3t tell. It turned up three days later at Wiesbaden. So did Lee. In fact they came together, and it seemed as though Lee were indisposed to surrender one without the other. ]\Iiss Beve- ridge received him with a blush. Miss Minerva with austere reserve. '"Europe is full of ad- ventures and silly girls," said she. "Mr. Lee, or Major Lee, is most presumptuous. As for Mabel, she is headstrong and you permit it." Needless to say she spoke to the invalid. Nevertheless, Lee hung on for a week, and then one day who should come but the Stan- dishes of Boston — a hc^usehold at whose doors Miss Minerva had looked long and vainlv when A CAMERA CAPTLRE. 243 last she visited the Hub. "It's the last drop." said she. "'They'll never know us now with this — ineligible-trapesing 'round after Mabel." But she garbed herself in grandeur for dinner that evening, purposely detaining the family until after the Standishes had gone down. She 'had "located" the table reserved for the Standishes and swept in past it at the head of her train, prepared to impress, and. lo. they were not there! Men and women both, the Standish quintette had surrounded Major Lee at his own table, and Miss Minerva glared for a moment, then turned on her niece for ex- planation, for Mabel was bubbling over with fun. ••They were chums. 1 believe, at Harvard, and were later in the same brigade — and be- long to the same Commanderv of the Loyal Legion." she finally admitted. "Thev? Who? The whole family?" de- manded Aunt Minerva severely. "Xo, merely Mr. Lee and Mr. Miles Stan- dish." And all through dinner Aunt Minerva could only gaze. Late that evening Lee found Mabel. 244 A CAMERA CAPTURE. "Are you still American enough to come and walk with me in the garden a while? I've got to go to Heidelberg with them to-morrow. It was planned and promised — before we be- gan snap shooting Prussian strongholds." Even Aunt Minerva had not so much as a sniff in comment when Alabel bent over her mother's chair for the desired permission. The impropriety of a thing depends so very much on the social standing of the parties to it. "Is there no hope of your — coming to look down on the Neckar from the old castle?" he queried, as he led her along a moonlit aisle, away from the band and the busy tongues of society. "They are students, not soldiers, there, you know. You can snap shoot all you like." "I fear — I think — not, Mr. Lee. Wies- baden seems to be just the place for mother." Yet she was thinking at that moment of Kate Standish, who had so warmly greeted him. "You have said, T fear,' yet I wish I feared half as little," said he, stopping at a corner, but not releasing her arm. "You weren't half afraid that day at Ehren- breitstein," she hurriedly spoke, knowing well A CAMERA CAPTURE. 245 that a telltale tremor had come into his voice, a telltale flush to her own bonny face. "Why (lid ycni make me cliange cameras with you — when 1 could so easily get away?" •'Because I didn't tiiink they'd be such dun- derheads. I feared they might overtake and arrest you, too. If they did. then the film would show nothing but a harmless shot at the Rhine." "Oh! — then you — didn't mean to take me?" exclaimed Miss Beveridge. glancing demurely up. . "Didn't mean to! Heavens! What wouldn't I giNC? — " And the glowing eyes, the tremb- Hng hands that seemed twitching with eager- ness to stretch forth and seize the slender form, were unerringly telling their story. "Why? Did I take you?" he asked. "1 was the centre of one picture." she an- swered, still demurely. "But — you — didn't mean it. you know." And now in delight with her power e)ver him, she looked up again, smil- ing bewitchingly. teasingly, temptingly. "Then — let us change back again at once," he begged. "Where is that film?" 246 A CAMERA CAl'TLKE. "Where is mine — with all those lovely Prus- sian officers? — and that splendid cavalcade?'' "Confiscated, of course!" he answered with instant frown. "Heavens ! Here comes Stan- dish — and that Bovvdoin j^irl. Mabel, quick — I want the picture — 1 want the subject — I want — you.'' "But you — are going to Heidelberg to escort Miss Standish," she interposed, dimpling delici- ously. longing to hear, yet, womanlike, toying wnth her bHss — even with Standish "and that Bowdoin girl" close at hand. "Kate Standish is engaged and has been— a whole year. Answer me — for I love you. May I come back from Heidelberg? "We-ell. H you want that picture — or the —the " But the rest was lost — smothered ; Standish had gone another way. THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. For one week after the Insurgent attack on the American forces at Manila, the Hne of the Pasig river, eight miles in length, was practic- ally clear. Leaving over 160 dead, a number drowned and three hundred wounded and pris- oners under the walls of Santa Ana, the main body of Ricarte's brigade of Pilar's division retreated up the southern bank, hotly pursued by the right wing of the First Brigade of An- derson's Division. At the English cemetery and on the height where stands the fine old church and convent of San Pedro Macati, they strove to rally, but had apparently lost heart as a result •>! the fearful drubbing given them that morning, and the efforts of their officers, brave and fanatical fellows as they are. were fruitless. A mile further up stream, perched on another height and surn)unded on three 248 THE FATE OP GUADALUPE. sides by thick woods, was still another church — the richest and finest on the river — that of Guadalupe. Its walls were massive and of great thickness. Its tower commanded a fine view in every direction. Its attendant con- vent or monastery was the largest we had seen, and on the shelves of its great library were many books, some that must have been two centuries old, richly bound and of unquestioned value. A populous native village had nestled under the steep bank that fell away to the river- side and, while bamboo and nipa huts stretched along up and down stream for several hundred yards, a dozen substantial houses of hewn stone, some of them enclosed in massive walls, stood side by side along the road. In such a position it was possible for a small force to hold at bay four times its number. The gun boats had not yet come that far up the Pasig. There was an abundant supply of ammunition, for the Insurgents left eighteen thousand rounds of rifle cartridges in one of those very enclosures, and the pursuing command was strung out in long column all the way from the Paco suburb of Manila, but even with these advantages the Insurgents would not turn. THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. 249 Abandoning the headquarters of Pio del Pilar in San Pedro village with all its papers and records, they continued their flight to Pasig Ferry and beyond. Guadalupe church. Guada- lupe convent. Guadalupe village were found utterly deserted save by scores of snarling. mangy dogs, scarecrow cats and squawking chickens. The men of California. Idaho and Washington swarmed all o\er the premises in the course of the next few days, while the ad- vance guard pushed on to the head of the river, and found even the great island town of Pasig and the outlying villages of Pateros and Tag- uig undefended. "Johnny Filipino" had fled, no one knew whither, and the head men of the deserted bailiwick came out with white flags and protestations of amity and proffers of surrender. And so it happened that for nearly a week, with but slight molestation, the troops of the First Brigade of the First Division dwelt in peace and cIo\er among these lately bustling and populous towns, feeding on the fat of the land and wondering what had become of the enemy. Far over toward the l)eautiful bav f>f Manila 250 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. their comrades of the Second Brigade were confronted by a stout force in the bamboo south of Pasay, some two miles from their original line. To the north of Manila the Second Division was halted before Caloocan. whose strong entrenchments were bristling with little brown warriors. Only along the southeast line, up the Pasig river, ilid there seem to be no obstacle to our advance, and that is how it came about that the lines of the First Brigade stretched like a long-drawn elastic band, thinned to the snapping point, from Paco Bridge to the Laguna, seven miles by road, and more by river. But all this time our corps commander was an anxious man. From trustworthy sources he had learned that within the walls of old Manila, and in the densely populated districts surrounding it, Tondo, Binondo and Quiapo on the north, Ermita on the south and Paco and Pandacan to the east, there were thousands of Insurgents eager to rise and massacre the Americans to a man. One-fourth of his effect- ive fighting strength had to be stationed, there- fore, within, or close to, the city and far back from the fighting line, ready to pounce on the Tin: FATF. OF GUADALl'PE. 25 I rirst nidh ^^i natives that showed itself. Xot only was this precaution wise and necessary, hut it might even happen that the command- ing- general would be compelled to call for fur- ther aid from the regiments at the extreme front. It may be said of the First California, that on the 8th of February it reached from Pasig to the Puente Colgante — the suspension bridge connecting the old city with the Ouiapo district, a stretch of six miles to say the least. This grew fn^m the fact that, by orders from coqDS headquarters. one battalion was left at the great barracks close to the bridge, to stand guard over the natives. One company was in Pandacan for a like purpose. Others were at San Pedro Church ; others still at Guadalui)e, while Captain Eggert with a single company occupied after the surrender the big church in the wealthy town of Pasig, and never seemed to give a care to the fact that an unbridged and unfordable river lay at his back, between him and supports. But General Otis did. He knew the enemy were hovering in hundreds about every exposed point on MacArthur's line, were defiant of Ovenshine's thin ranks in front of Pasay, and 252 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. that at any moment they could swoop down on this far exposed brigade and disaster might fol- low^ His apprenhensions were anything but shared by tlie hgiit-hearted volunteers, and when on the 13th their outposts were attacked and their communication threatened, they re- joiced with exceeding joy. On the 14th Colonel Smith, the gallant commander of the Californians, sent a valentine in honor of the day and in shape of a scouting party out through the open country to the south of the Pasig, and speedily stirred up Filipinos by the hundred. The farther he went the more he found. The gunboat, Laguna, came steaming to Pasig Ferr}' intent on taking a hand in the fight, and the roar of her guns was heard at Manila and started the story that another battle was on. Next day, the 15th, things did look squally, for the little brown men gathered in swarms and their Mauser bullets hummed and whizzed like angry w^asps. The guns once manned by the Astor Battery, but now handled by Hawthorne and his regulars, and those of the gunboat joined in the uproar, and for four hours it sounded as though great things were going on instead of a long-range skirmish, and THE FATE OF CUADALUPE. _'53 now General Otis interposed. "That brigade is too far out." said he to the division commander. "It must be withdrawn to the lines of San Pedro Macati." And so. much surprised but still subordinate, back came the lads of that far Western com- mand. Barring the brigadier and some of his staff, all were Pacific Slope men. Idaho. Wash- ington and California supplying the i)ersonnel, but in disposition that brigade was far more pugnacious than pacific, and the order to re- tire proved most unpalatable. Equally sur- prised and wild with joy. up rose hundreds of the dusky enemy from on every side, and cheer- ing like mad and sounding their musical bugles, on they came in pursuit. Confident that this would be tl\p upshot, the division commander, Major General Anderson, had already selected a line of defense that should fill the reciuire- ments of the orders of his superior. A third of a mile up stream and in front of San Pedro the hills broke away from the riverside and left an o|)cn valley nearly 200 yards wide. In this there stood the sheds and huge stacks of the product of some big pottery concern, aban- doned, like everything: else, to the mercv of the 254 'i'lK KATK OK GUADALUPE. Yankees. Ilere. as the extreme left of his di- vision Hne, the g^eneral had thrown up a stout little eartlnvork. commanding the ri\er roatl, while the line of intrenchnients was planned to riui gradually up the eastward slope of the hill- side commanding the valley until it reached the strong, walled enclosure of San Pedro ceme- tery on a height soutlieast of the old church. From this point it led away southward across a mile-wide "swale'" of open ricefields, dipping to a dry water course midway and rising again to the next salient, a knoll crowned by a crop of trees and a stack or two of hay. and referred to in subsequent orders and reports at Hay- stack Knoll. From thence the line bore away southward well out in. front of the country cross road between San Pedro and Pasay, skirted a beautiful grove covering the hamlet of Culiculi, and thence, guarded by Ovenshine's brigade, led straight away to the bay shore south of Pasay. Along this line, slowly and doggedly retiring before the advancing Filipinos, the men of the First Brigade set to work with pick and spade to throw up the needful shelter against the ever wliizzing Mausers, every little while when THE FATE OF GUADAI.L'PE. J53 the enemy pressed too close, dropping those bncolical implements for the more familiar Springffield. ami occasionally stoppingr work t<i cheer some particularly well-aimed shot from Hawthorne's bellowing giins. Splendid little guns were they, — Hotchkiss never made a bet- ter. — but the ammunitii .n was a thing to make artillerists weep or blaspheme according to temperament, and the Filipino laugh. Half the shells failed to explode, but, when they did. great was the execution thereof. Through the hot morning of the i6th this ionsr-ransre work continued until eleven o'clock, when "Johnny Filipino" fancied himself strong enough to push ahead and drive the blue line back to Manila. All on a sudden the merrv music of his bugles came floating in on the iireeze, — some stirring, spirited call that was taken up and carried along from height to height across the intervening mile of thicket and ricefield. — and then, lirisk and buoyant, out came the skirmish lines, dancing into view along the op])osite slopes, firing rapidly as they deployed. And then the hiss of Mauser and hum of Remington became incessant, and Cali- fornia on the right and Washington on the left 256 THE FATE OF GIADALUPE. and Idaho scattered along pretty much every- where, sprang to their rifles with unholy joy, and. just as soon as "Johnny came marching home again" within reasonable range, turned loose on their welcome visitors. Presently the fields began to show stationary dots here and there — hats of Filipino straw and uniforms of Filipino fabric seemed to be stretching out to bleach in the blazing sun, and though officers on horseback galloped up and down behind their men, and brandished swords and waved their hats and shouted imprecations in Tagal and Spanish, the lines began to falter. Here and there whole sections would flop face down- ward behind the thick earthern walls of the lit- tle patches of the paddy fields and couldn't be induced to come further. Then a new element of discomfort appeared on their right flank and sent it scurrying back to shelter, for all on a sudden gray old Guadalupe began to spit fire and smoke and Springfield bullets, and, though it stood long half a mile away from the right flank of the attacking force, the men behind the guns were fellows that had done squirrel hunt- ing from early boyhood and knew how to pull trigger with a placid and unheaving breast. THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. J57 Pushing his fighting Hnes thruugh tlic thick bamhoo, along the bluffs that overhang the river, del Pilar found slow and burdensome work, and though his scouts across the Pasig could plainly see and promptly tell him that the main line was intrenching up the hijlside back of the old pottery, they could not see that Guad- alupe church was still held — an tnitlying fort in front of the left of our line. But it was, and by Anderson's order, for it had occurred to that skilled veteran that, should Pibr attack across the open ground to the south before our thinned ranks could spade up shelter to protect themselves, a flank fire might be poured into at least the right of his charg- ing line, and he well knew the Filipinos could not stand it, and so, under Lieutenant Colonel Duboce, First California, a little force had been halted at Guadalupe, half a mile out in the dense woods beyond our left, and there three companies lined the church and convent walls and windows. The friars of old had vanished, Init the rafters rang with the chant of San Franciscans, their hymn oi praise — "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Church To-night." But a hotter time, a sadder time was to come ■J^H THK FATK OF GUADALUPE. for the old church two nights after. It was one of the sorrows of the campaign. Faihng in the general attack along the whole line on the i6th, the Insurgents fell back to the ridges to the south and east, leaving sharp- shooters to keep up an exasperating fire on our hard-workinj^ fellows. By nightfall the trendies were fairly strong. They had to be, for the wires were hot with stirring reports and injunctions from headquarters in Manila. *'Enemy in strong force reported massing op- posite your left. Formidable attack may be expected any moment. Use every endeavor to strengthen your line. If necessary strip your right to strengthen your left. Not another man or gun can be sent to your support. Posi- tion must be held at all hazards." etc., etc. A ride out to Guadalupe developed the fact that the Filipino sharj^shooters were crawling in to the thickets on three sides of that prom- inent and imposing landmark. The view from the lofty belfry was even more interesting than before. Imt attended with undesired aeolian effect. The moment a campaign hat was poked up through the scuttle th.ose veneral)le bells be- gan to chime. Mauser and Remington mis- THE FATK Ul- CI' AUALL TK. 259 siles rang the changes in spirited style, and the l)anorania lost its charms. Out in the trenches to the east dI the convent. McRoberts with a brace oi Idaho companies was blazing into the ])amboo whenever the Mausers cracked, and within the walls themselves and in the thickets to the south the lieutenant colonel of the Cali- fornians had stationed "M." "L" and '"G" companies of his own regiment. At midnight, after a continuous strain of three days and nights under fire, he reported his men '"dead tired", yet alert and looking for the promised attack. All night long the little l.^rown men kept popping away at the lights in San Petlro Macati where brigade headciuarters had been established, and at the windows of the church on Guadalupe Height, but. except wdien they sent in a skirmish line to try the mettle of the men toward Haystack Knoll at tiiree o'clock in the morning, no aggressive move was made. Here, lying l1at in the hollows and depressions within three hundred yards of our line and firing much too high, they contented them- selves with a few volleys of mingled chaff and bullets, one dusky humorist gleefully imitating the commands of a stentorian captain anil the 260 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. entire force from time to time setting up a shrill squeal of "Gangway — Gangway!" — the expression our fellows had learned aboard ship as the nautical equivalent for "clear the track" ; but. as the track was not cleared, the mud colored scamps finally slid back to safety before the sudden coming of the day. That day, too, the 17th, was spent in the midst of alarms, generally from our rear, for everything coming from the front was promptly disposed of. This night again was as quiet — just about — as the Fourth of July at home, and from some points along our line came demands for more ammunition. The woods about Guadalupe were now thickly pop- ulated with Insurgent sharpshooters and the crack of the Mauser was heard in the land far more frequently than was desirable, yet no man could really "locate" the shooters, for smoke less powder and thick bamboo gave no tell-tale sign of the lurking foe. Duboce began to get tired of the incessant spat of the shot upon tlie convent roofs and walls. The brigade wanted to sail in and "wipe the woods dry", as a big Californian expressed it, but orders forbade. Convinced that the enemy was in heavy force TlIK KATK OF GUADALUPE. 261 in our iront ihe Liovernor General said "defend to the last." but let there be no more attack. He was waiting- for the promised C(3ming of those six regiments of regulars shipped from 'Frisco and New York. And so. with the coming of the afternqon of the 1 8th. the situation in front of San Pedro was a teaser. Anderson, ever alive to the in- terests of his men and the care of his line, came riding out about 4 o'clock to see what was best to be done in view of the latest reports from corps headquarters. This time the enemy was massing in force opposite Haystack Knoll and, bevond all question, said Headquarters, a fierce attack might be looked for immediately after dark. Now that part of the line was really its weakest point, and it Pilar had been the dar- ing leader he was reputed to be. he could have crashed through with a charging column some dark night and gone careering on toward Manila. \'ery possibly, however, he reasoned that while the Yankee line was stretched to the utmost to cover that space from river to 1>ay. it would let go at the front at the moment of puncture and then come swarming about his ears. Discretion was. therefore, the better 262 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. part of valor. But here on the i8th his dem- onstrations were such that the Bureau of Alili- tary Intelligence fairly snapped with excite- ment. "Strengthen your right hy every pos- sible means, even if you ha\-e to strip the left," was the word, and the question was. hcnv tn do it. As matters stood there was not a man in re- serve. Exceju the Californians held to service in Manila, the small guards on watch at Paco, Pandacan and Santa Ana. and a single company furnishing guards and pickets for the roads about San Pedro, every able-bodied mother's son of the First Brigade was at the extreme front. There was only one spot from which the brigadier could draw, and he looked at his division commander, half hating to suggest it, for well he knew to what it must lead, — Guada- lupe! That grand old church was a white elephant on our hands. It was a menace for, were the Insurgents to reoccupy it, their fire from its windows would speedily make San Pedro untenable. Spaniard and Tagal, each in his turn had used it as arsenal and fortress. With one more regiment on the eastward line it might still be saved, but where was that regi- Tin: FATI-: OF GUADALUPE. J63 nicni to cuine m.ni? Had not the fiat gone forth that not another man would be sent to Anderson's division ? Was not every company in Ovenshine's brigade to our right batthng day and niglit with unseen foemen in the jungle? Only by the withdrawal of Duboce's battalion from those venerable walls could we bolster the right, and if Guadalupe hail to be dropped, it must be made so hot that no enemy could pick it up. Anderson saw the problem in the twink- ling of an eye. and decided like a flash. "Burn it." said he. '"and recall Duboce to the rear of the line." And so the orders went toward half past four to the lieutenant colonel commanding. "Send back at once to San Pedro all spare ammunition and heavy baggage. Relieve ]McRoberts and his two Idaho companies and direct him to re- port to brigade headcjuarters. Make all prep- arations to abandon Guadalupe church, to de- stroy it by fire and to retire with your command to San Pedro." At 6:30 McRoberts and his little command came trudging back by the river road, none too happy at thought of quitting the extreme front, but speedily cheering up when informed they 264 Till. l-.\il-. OF l.LAUALUrE. were to join the main body of their gallant regi- ment over beyond Haystack Knoll, v/here, if the Bureau of Military Information was to be believed, Pilar proposed to hew a way town- ward in the darkness of the night. In the rapidly gathering dusk they reslung their blanket rolls, after brief rest in the little plaza in front of Pilar's old house, now brigade headquarters, and swung away up the stony track to the churchyard on the hill, and then, under the peeping stars, out over the open country in rear of the trenches. Within the headquarters building the little telegraph in- strument kept up a constant clicking, messages coming and going between division and brigade commanders and between the latter and the iso- lated force at Guadalupe. The night came down breathless and still. The silence at the front was really ominous, for all the previous nights from dusk until 3 a.m. the Insurgent fire had been almost incessant, and between 3 and sunrise hardly ten minutes passed that were not punctuated with the crack of their rifles. Not a shot had been fired on McRobert's men as they drew away, and one could well nigh believe that Pilar really was stripping his THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. .265 right to mass for an attack on ours. Yet. wary scouts, creeping far out to the front from Hay- stack Knoll, could see nor hear nothing there of any gathering in force and the lookouts that had spent the afternoon hours in the treetops on the kw.A], sweeping the country to the south- east with their glasses, declared that nc^ Insur- gents in any number had passed from in front of Guadalupe to reinforce the Insurgent left. Then the Guadalupe garrison were certain that, though no IcMiger firing, the little brown men were still in the woods and ravines about them, and daring fellows climliing to the belfry and peering about them saw moving lights and many little campfires up the south bank of the Pasig. The foe was still there then, and it was decided not to order Dulioce to apply the torch and ([uit until later in the night or until the pre- dicted attack materialized. All on a sudden, soon after seven o'clock, the sharp crackle of musketry began up stream, and Mauser bullets came zipping into San Pedm. Duboce hail most of his Califomians by this time in their trench and wall fortifications east of the church, and as the enemy appeared to be in consideral^le numbers and not quarter of 266 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. a mile away, the rule witli regard to firing only when they could l)e plainly seen was relaxed, and close to the river a lively C(jmbat went on for as nmch as an hour with little or no damage to our side, and still there came no demonstra- tion where predicted, over at the right. Ten, eleven, twelve o'clock passed by and all night long those little owls of Filipinos seemed bent on keeping up their fusillade. It fell away from volleys to file firing within the second hour and to scattering shots by midnight, but still it was there and not at the right. Not un- til three o'clock did it die away entirely, and now with the dawn less than three hours off, it was time to be thinking of the proposed con- flagration. The signal service operator with his instru- ment was still in Guadalupe tower, and at 3 130 Duboce reported that he had his stacks of com- bustibles in various places about the interior of the church and convent, and he was eager to get through with it and away, for his men were hungry and tired. Some nitro glycerine had been sent for the use of the engineers in blow^- ing up the barges and cascoes sunk to block the way in the Pasig, and had been stored in a THE FATE OF lilADALUPE. 267 stone-wallcd room on an upper floor of the church. The men had an idea that this would exi)lode and convert old Guadalupe into a vol- cano, and they naturally preferred to watch the spectacle from a distance. A single word over the wire. "Quit." was to be Dulw)ce"s signal to touch off his inflammables and call off his men. But still there came no sound from the right save that Major Figgins. the- brave veteran c(~»mmanding the First Idaho, stoutly main- tained that Pilar couldn't raise men enough in all Cavite to burst through his line before we could reinforce him. There was still another hour when 4 o'clock chimed on the big Dutch clock that stood within the hallway. The staff had gathered on the azotca overlooking the swirling Pasig and list- ened eagerly for the promised crash of mus- sketry that should announce Pilar's attack. V'wt o'clock came and still no sound save the plash of the waters on the pebbly shore, the tramp of the sentry on the stone flagging, the mournful howl of .some homeless dog. and the clicking of the telegraph instrument in the dimly lighted office. The gray tower of Guad- alupe, perched on its height a thousand yards up 268 THE FATE OF GUADALUPE. Stream, l)egan to loom against the faint rose tint in the eastward sky, and then somebody said "Hark!" Far out over the roHing country to the south, far over beyond our saHent of Cemetery Height a sputter and crackle of rifle shots broke upon the silence of the morning air. Then came the crash of a volley, the ciuick, spirited blare of a bugle at San Pedro church, answering some distant signal from the right front. Another volley and a far-away rattle as of fire crackers. An aide-de-camp sprang into saddle and went clattering up the road to the knoll. The oper- ator got a nod from the General and flashed the single word to his comrade at Guadalupe. There was a rapid buckling on of sword or pis- tol belts in the group of officers at headquarters, a pulling on of gauntlets and testing of saddle girths, a few brief w^ords of instruction and then — silence. Almost as suddenly as it began the volleying out to the south had died away. The scattering shots became fewer and fainter, then ceased entirely. Pilar's grand attack was again postponed, and once more the staff scrambled out to the azotea and gazed toward Guadalupe. THE I-WTL: of GUADALUPE. 269 There against that flawless morning sky. now a glory of crimson and goUl. a bK-ick cloud was slowly rising o\cr th.e great gray tower. Higher and higher it soared toward the heavens where some of the belated stars still twinkled in the vault of blue, and men gathered on the walls of San Pedro and Imvered along the curv- ing shore of the Pasig and watched with all their eyes. Then the windows on the west- ward side became hidden in murky smoke that billowed out from their deep embrasures, and all the big edifice seemed gradually to wrap itself in a veil of gloom that well nigh hid it from our sight. Then, all on a sudden, red and angry a tongue of flame leaped from the belfry, and almost at the instant others burst from the windows of the upper floor. The dense, black balloon-like mass that hovered over the doomed sanctuary took on a lurid glare, and far and near the Filipinos seemed to wake at the sight, and over on the opposite shore the Pariah dogs set up a howl as of woe and dis- may. Then the lofty tov»er began to don a mantle of flame, and the corrugated iron roof, that had long withstood earthfjuake and typhoon, to crackle and curl, and all the time like the popping of innumerable cartridges, the 270 THE FATE OF GUADALUPF. dry bamiKx) that had l)een heaped in the various halls and rot)ms kept up an incessant fusillade, audible away back at the trenches. The roar of the flames grew louder every moment and presently crash after crash in the blazing inte- rior told that stair and gallery and wooden beam were coming down, and that soon the great vooi must give way and let out the pent up volume of fire. Then came a dull, booming sound and the west end of the roof seemed to hea\'e and expand and then to sink with stun- ning crash into the blazing abyss below. And now, indeed, a volcano burst against the lawn and a huge column of smoke and sparks and flaming fragments sailed upward into space, and then, down into the fiery depths, their beams and supports eaten from under them, the consecrated l^ells of Guadalupe went thunder- ing upon the stone pavement a hundred feet below, the harsh clangor resounding over the shouts of the soldiery lined up to w^elcome the Californians as they came marching in, many of them grimy with smoke. Broad daylight and the morning sunshine followed at their heels, showing only a smoking, seared and blistered ruin, its tower toppled to earth and only the massive walls left standing to tell of Guadalupe's grandeur in the by-gone days. THE MANILA WIRE. It was the morning of the 5th of February and all Manila was girdled with smoke and flame. From the shores of the beautiful bay opposite the Bocano de Vitas at the north, away around in wide sweep across the Pasig and tiience to old Fort San Antonio Abad at the southern suburb, long lines of .American soldiery were pitted against the opposing forces of the Insurgent army, led by Aguinaldo's best and bravest generals. For three months the Filipinos had maintained a strict blockade, for- bidding the soldiers of Uncle Sam to cross the outer limits of the city — a jagged semi-circle along which the Spaniards in the days of their domination had built a series of wooden block houses. Even when the Insurgents began thntwing up earthworks and planting guns again.st the American position, their h>stile 2/2 THE MANILA WIRE. demonstrations were ignored, and to the very last our government persisted in treating the "little brown men" as friends and allies. As early as the middle of December it was only too evident that armed attack was imminent. All the same, orders required that Aguinaldo's officers be received with every courtesy and the rank and file with kindness. They came and went within our lines at their own free will. Their soldiery, their women and children in swarms would visit the American outposts, and claim a share of the ample rations and profess undying regard for their "Amigos Ameri- canos." Yet in hundreds of native homes rifles and ammunition were stored to be used against our wounded, our surgeons and nurses when the day of battle came, and some of the convents and many of the churches proved to be veritable arsenals. And it is about one of these, — the big stone church at East Paco, the eastermost suburb of Manila, that there hangs a story not soon to be forgotten by the men of Anderson's Division of the Eighth Corps, a story of heroism and devotion to duty that may well be remembered by the youth of America. Crossing the Estero de Paco by a massive THE MANILA WIRE. -/J bridge of stone, tiie Calle Real — the main street — passed within a few rods of the win- dows and towers of the church. It was the broad thoroughfare over which went most of tlie travel and much of the traffic between Manila and the thronged towns and villages up the Pasig river and around the picturesque Laguna de Bay. It was lined on both sides with houses whose lower story, at least, was of stone, solidly built to resist the earthquakes, sometimes so destructive in this volcanic land, and on its northern side were strung the tele- graph wires, two in number, of the signal corps of the army, connecting the outermost block house. Number Eleven, with the field head- quarters of the general in command of the First Brigade of the First Division of the American army of occupation, and with those of his su- perior officers. Major General Anderson and Major General Otis, within the walled city of Manila. With the early dawn of that lovely Sunday there came galloping along the hard-beaten road a wiry little Filipino pony, ridden by a slender young soldier in brown khaki uniform. From underneath the curline brim of his drab 2/4 Till-: .MANILA WIRE. felt campaign hat a pair t)f clear, dark brown eyes peered eagerly, searchingly along that line of wire and up and down every pole. Some- times bending low in saddle, sometimes sitting erect, he was searching for any defect or dam- age, for ever since four o'clock Mauser and Remington bullets had come whizzing in from the front, sometimes striking the walls and spattering flinty chips on every side, sometimes glancing on the stony roadway with vicious spat, sometimes shattering the glass in the lamp-posts, or crashing through the delicate seashells that, framed in little squares, formed the windows of the Filipino houses. From the fact that the sentries at the bridge presented arms as the young rider spurred along, and that there was a single silver bar on e:ich dark blue shoulder strap, it was evident that, despite his youth, the young rider was an officer — a first lieutenant — and the device on the collar told further that he was of the signal corps of the volunteer army. He was a handsome fel- low, with clear-cut. regular features, dark, wavy, brown hair and a face bronzed liy tropic suns but radiant with the health and spirit of youth. His form was supple and well knit. THL: MANILA WIRK. 2/5 his shoulders hmad. liis clicst deep, his arms and legs U>iig- aiul sinewy. He looked emi- nently '"tit", as our English cousins would say, and so thought more than one otTicer in the lit- tle group at brigade headquarters as he came loping into view, and many a man in the bat- talion of Californians drawn up under shelter of the stone walls of the cross street. Only a few minutes before two men of the First Idaho had been shot just in front of brigade head- quarters where the y^-'ung signal officer sprang from saddle to make his report to the adjutant general. "Lines all safe as yet. sir," he said, his hand going up in salute, "but the fire is pretty sharp along the road and the sentries say there's occasional shooting around them. They can't tell where the bullets come from now that it is light, and the enemy uses smokeless powder. The Wyoming regiment is in reserve, by Gen- eral Anderson's order. l)ehind those buildings across the bridge, and they say. too, that they hear shots every little while." An ambulance driving rapidly came rattling down the street from the firing line at the east- ern skirt of the village. .\ pale faced soldier, 2/6 THE MANILA WIRE. his arm freshly bandaged, sat beside the driver, and both soldier and driver trembled with wrath and excitement as they drew up in front of the building. "We were fired at from three of those nipa huts up the road, right there this side of the bend," said the driver, angrily, and then lower- ing his voice: "I've got two desperately wounded men inside, too." Then a hospital corps soldier, springing from the step, corrob- orated the statement. "I could see the 'niggers' in one shack aim- ing at me," he said, "and the bullets flew close as — that," and he whisked his hand back over the shoulder, almost shaving his ear. "The General's over at Battery Knoll with the guns," was the answer of the chief of staff. "There they go now!" he added, as with a roar and shriek the long shell leaped from the brown muzzle and went tearing through space toward the Krupps in the river redoubt. Then followed a distant crash — It had burst just above the hostile parapet. "We can't get or- ders to advance yet, and when we do he wants you to follow us right up with your wire. Communication must be kept by telegraph. It's THE MANILA WIRE. 2~'J as much as a man's life is worth to attempt to ritle this street, and I hate to send an orderly with a message." "Can you leave men enough to guard the line?" asked the young signal man, anxiously. "They'll be cutting it in a dozen places other- wise." "We haven't got 'em." was the impatient answer. "Sooner or later the order must come to pitch in. Then every man will be needed at the front. They are calling for reinforcements even now at Block House ii. The General sent in two California companies and then rode over to Dyer's Battery. You might go to him there, if you like. He'll want to know this, anyhow." But, even as he spoke, up the street at sharp trot, followed by a single orderly, came the brigade commander. The crash of musketry at the front and the cheers of the Californians as they drove in through the ricefields to the support of their comrades of the First Wash- ington had deadened the sound of the pony's hoofs. Silently, but with intense interest, the General listened to the driver's story of the fire from the nipa huts on the skirts of the town. 278 Tin; MAMLA WIRE. and even before it was more than half told, ex- cited exclamations among the soldiers called his attention away. Lashing his pony to top speed and bending down on his neck, an orderly came tearing in from the front, running the gauntlet between two rows of native houses from which the sharp, vicious crack of the Mauser, and the heavier report of the Reming- ton could be plainly heard. "Send a platoon to thrash those fellows and burn those huts at once !" was the instant order. "Send a company back toward Paco church. Did they fire at you from there?"" turning sud- denly on the signal officer. "I think so, sir," was the modest answer. "At least they fired several shots from some- where close at hand." "You'll have hard work keeping your wires up to-day, my lad," said the General, thought- fully, "and I can't help you very much, either. But, all the same, I rely upon you." "You may, sir," was the answer, and the old soldier and the young shook hands and parted. Two hours later came the longed-for order — "advance," and with crashing volleys and ring- ing cheers the men of California, Washington THE MANILA WIRE. 2J() and Idalin plunged through the muddy stream at their front and charged home upon the in- trenchments to the south and west of Santa Ana. and tlien wlieehng to their left, drove the Insurgent force i)ell mell to the hanks of the Tasig, many indeed drowning in their frantic efforts to swim to safety on the farther shore. Meanwhile the extreme right of the hrigade. in hot pursuit of the Insurgent reserve and rear guard, drove on eastward along the highway, overwhelming the enemy every time he strove to make a stand, and at last, worn and hreath- less. halted for the night. On the back of a pasteboard cartridge case their brave leader, Colonel Smith, of the First California, wrote to his commander the brief soldierly report of their success, and sent it back to Santa Ana by galloping orderly. "Wire this news at once to General Ander- son," w^s the order at headquarters, as the brigade commander turned his horse's head up the river road and spurred away for the ex- treme front. The wire was there already, so energetic had been the work of the signal corps, but when the operator touched his key a mo- ment later the line was lifeless — dead. 28o THE MANILA WIRE. "Wire's cut!" said he, briefly, and went leap- ing down the stone steps in search of his young chief, and in another moment the tall lad in brown khaki was lashing his pony back along the corpse-strewn road to Paco. Through a lane of blazing nipa huts he tore his way, keenly scanning the new strung wire. Over the scarred Concordia bridge, where the battle raged so hotly in the early morning, the nervy little racer bounded to the Manila side and so on down the Calle Real between the smoulder- ing ruins of the native huts, from which had come that treacherous fire in the rear that killed and wounded in the early morning mem- bers of the sacred band that served under the protection of the Red Cross. On past the more substantial homes of the better class of the Fili- pinos — all deserted now ; on past the old head- quarters, given over by this time to the wounded and their surgeons ; on still another block, with not a break in the line: on until the sight of warning hands uplifted from the shelter of many a wall, the sound of warning shouts from many a brawny throat compelled the officer to draw' rein. Dense volumes of smoke and flame were nourine; from the roof THE MANILA WIRE. 20I and windows of the great church and convent in Paco Square. "And yet," said the soldiers huddhng in the shelter of the nearest building, "there's a gang of 'em in the stone tower the flames can't reach, and they are tiring at every man that shows a head along the street." Peering through the murky veil, the young officer could dimly see other crouching forms of blue-shirted soldiers firing upward at the tower window — wasted shots that only flat- tened harmless on the archway alx)ve the hidden heads of the daring fellows that held the tower and with their rifles poured through narrow slits a deadly fire on the roadway. Over at Battery Knoll Captain Dyer had trained one of his guns to bear on that lofty little fortress, and every now and then a shell came screeching over the roofs and burst with crash and crackle at the tower, and still any attempt on part of officer cr man to run the gauntlet along that road was met with instant crack of Mauser and zip of bullet. It was a lane of death — but Duty beckoned on. "For God's sake, lieutenant, don't try it !" yelled a .sergeant, as with blazing eyes and set lips the young signalman suddenly gave spur 282 THE MANILA WIRE. to his pony. The words fell unheeded, for in another minute, despite a vigorous balk and protest, the little beast was urged into a trot, and. with his eyes on those precious wires, the brave lad rode sturdily on. Another second and he was seen from the tower, barely two hundred yards away, and then down came the hissing bullets. Like angry wasps they buzzed past his ears, and the brave young heart beat hard and fast, but Duty — Duty always led him on, and just a block away, under sharp fire, every inch of it, he came suddenly upon a sol- dier of his corps crouching in the shelter of the stone wall at the roadside and pointing helplessly to where the severed wire hung, limp and useless, from a tall pole close to the abutment of that perilous bridge. One way and one way only could it be repaired. Some one must climb that pole in the very face of those lurking rebels in the tower. If the smoke 'hung low it might spoil their aim. If it lifted, and it was lifting now, he could not hope to escape, and yet that wire must be re- stored, and Duty bade him make the thrilling, hazardous effort. Springing from saddle and crouching at the wall, he made his hurried prep- TlIK MANILA WIRE. -oj arations. From the nervous hand of his sub- ordinate he took the clamps and the few tools necessary, stowed them in the jx^cket of his blouse, and then, with who knows what thought of home and mother, with who knows what murmured prayer upon his lips, with the eyes of admiring and applauding comrades gazing at him from the safe refuge of the walls, he sprang suddenly to the swaying pole and, lithe and agile, climbed swiftly to the top. Madly now the Mausers cracked from the belfry. Fiercely the Springfields barked their answer as the cheering lads in blue sprang out into the open and poured rapid volleys to keep down the rebel fire. Clamping the pole with his sinewy legs and using both hands, deftly, quickly he drew together and firmly fastened the severed ends. Then, just as he was about to slide to the ground and out of harm's way, zip! tore a bullet through the other w-ire, and down, dangling, it fell to the ground. Inspired by the heroism of his young chief, the soldier below leaped for the wire and, clambering part way up. i^assed it to the lad who, with clinched teeth and pallid lips clung to his post at the top. Another minute of desperate peril and 284 THE MANILA WIRE. the work was done. Cheered to the echo by the few soldiers — an oflicer and perhaps a dozen men — who saw the gallant deed, the brave lad slid unharmed to the shelter of the wall, and at last the wire hummed with life again and bore to division headquarters and to an eager nation thousands of miles across the sea the brief, stirring story of sweeping victory from the distant front. And that was the exploit that led, not long after, to the recommendation that the coveted medal of honor be awarded Lieutenant Charles E. Kilbourne of the Volunteer Signal Corps on duty at Manila. BETRAYED BY A BUTTON. Lieutenant Harry Weston was but a trirte over twenty-one the day lie was graduated from West Point, and the first thing he did on reaching home was to file his application for Companionship in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States by right of inheritance from his father. Not only that, but he had what his brother lieutenants of like grade called the "gall" to ask a distinguished major general of the regular army — once the commander of the crack division of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac — to be his sponsor in baptism, and the General promptly acceded. "Your father was one of the best sol- diers I ever had the honor to command," said he. "and I am proud to see his son coming to take his place in the Order." j86 betravkd by a button. I'^ill i)f years and honors, Colonel Weston had died twelve months before. There was no delay in proving- Lieutenant Harry's title, and at the October meeting he was duly in- stalled and l)ecame proud possessor of the beautiful insignia to be worn on his full dress uniform, and of the long coveted button to adorn the left lapel of his civilian dress. Envious fellow subs, whose fathers had not fought in the great war for the preservation of the Union, sought to guy Harry Weston on this button business, but he took it all serenely. He sent to the troop tailor such of his coats, old and new, as were not provided with a but- ton hole in the left lapel, to have them duly finished in order that when in civilian dress he might never appear without the button of which he was so justly proud. Then he laid in a stock of these buttons, so that his evening dress, frock, cutaway and tweed suits should each be sure of the adornment, and only smiled when Lieutenant Bob Broker asked him if his night- shirt was not to be similarly decorated. Broker, by the way, was of the opinion that Congress had made a thundering blunder in authorizing the wearing of these medals and all such frum- BETRAYED BV A BLTTUN. 287 perv. It was utterly unrepublican. said he. It was an imitation of the effete monarchy sys- tem of tlie old world, by gosh. But then Broker's people had contended themselves with fattening on contracts during the War of the Rebellion, and they do not seem to have had any local habitati(jn in the previous entangle- ments of the nation. Weston had a neat little income outside his pay. for his soldier father had left him fairly well to do in the world, and another thing that provoked the envious comment of just a few of his associates was that, soon after joining the troop, he set up a \ery well appointed dog cart. Broker said it was incomplete without the tiger behind and the girl by his side. As l>etween the lady and the tiger Weston did not long hesitate. He had no use for the latter, but all the girls in the garrison had their airing on the cart. It was his intention to be very general in his attentions. He wished to be C(»urteous and cordial t(j all without singling any one of their number as the object of espe- cial devotion, but these are matters far more often regulated for a fellow than by him. And so it happened to Weston. 288 BETRAYED BY A BUTTON. They were stationed that first winter after his graduation at a dehghtful old post in the southwest, and tourists innumerable w-ere ac- customed to stop there and spend several days at the hotel, whose broad verandas and plash- ing fountains and sunshiny court were attrac- tions in themselves, let alone the fact that the table was excellent, and, as per advertisement, "The afternoons and evenings are enlivened by the music of the splendid band of the Twelfth Cavalry and the presence of the accomplished officers of that gallant regiment." It was only an hour's easy trot from the flag staff of the garrison to that in front of the Alcazar. The guests of the hotel drove out to hear the band and see parade at sunset at the post, and the officers and ladies from the post would drive in to hear the same band and chat with the same people and stroll about the verandas, if they were elderly, or dance in the great parlors if they were not, until late hours every even- ing. Along in March came the gayest party of the winter. Mr. and Mrs. Minturn, Jack Min- turn, Jr., and five of the prettiest girls ever seen at the hotel or the fort beyond, and the BETRAYED BY A BLTTON. 289 [•rettiest oi these was Stella \'an Alen, first cousin of the two Minturn sisters, and they hadn't been there forty-eight hours before Mr. Harry ^\'eston's cavalry uniform and Miss \'an Alen's exquisite Guthamite toilets were in juxtaposition every afternoon and evening. It was a sight worth seeing to w^atch those two young people at waltz or two-step. It was prettier still to see them ride off together, for the New York girls had brought their habits, feeling well assured that "mounts" would not be lacking. Before the end of the week the two were inseparable, and Miss Van Alen's girl friends w^ere teasing the life out of her. '"It is nothing at all." she indignantly pro- tested. "Mr. Weston and I are the best of friends, and that's all there is to it or ever will be." That she was in love w^ith him or he with her was something she indignantly scouted. .Mas I One evening, — the evening before they were to go on westward to the Pacific, — a merry party drove out to the fort for a hop to be given in their honor. Never mind the details of the hop. Mr. Weston wore civilian evening dress instead of uniform that night. 290 BETRAYED BY A BUTTON. as he had dined with the Minturns at the Al- cazar before the dance began. It is of the homeward flitting that we have to tell. It was a dark, moonless night, and as people were being bundled into the waiting carriages and ambulances, lo, there was Weston's dog cart, and Miss Van Alen. demure and silent, was quickly lifted to her seat; the lieutenant sprang up beside her and away they went. Mrs. Min- turn, chaperon, might have been supposed to object, but she said nothing — This perhaps was army style. It was one o'clock when the party reached the Alcazar, and i :io before the dog cart came flashing in under the electric light. ''IV here have you been? JVhat has kept you?" were the queries. "Miss Van Alen's handkerchief flew away and I was some time finding it," was Weston's answer, as he lifted his silent partner carefully to the ground. "See you all in the morning. Good-night." he said and vanished. And then Miss \''an Alen slipped by .the party and rushed for her room. Thither fol- lowed her cousins. "Now. Stella, confess," was Miss Minturn's BETRAYED BY A BUTTON. 2()l ejaculation, as with beaming eyes and glowing cheeks she caught her cnisin by the elbows. "Confess what? What on earth have I to confess?" "That ytni and Harry Weston are engaged — or will be — just as soon as Guardy's permis- sion can be obtained." "What nonsense you're talking". Belle Min- turn! There's nothing between us beyond — beyond jolly good fellowship." "There isn't? And yet you've had your pre- cious head on his shoulder within the last ten minutes." "Belle Minturn ! What an outrageous thing to say! I — 1 have — " "Hush-sh — Stop right there, Stella. Don't tell a fib when the evidence is dead against you. Come right here to the mirror and look and tell me what that means?" And "that" was a circular indentation in the soft and glowing cheek, with little folds within its periphery, and all just the exact imprint of a Loyal Legion button. And then Stella, confused, confounded, but blushingly and deliciously happy, threw herself into her cousin's arms and confessed out and 292 BETRAYED BY A BUTTON. out. Of course they were engaged, only it had only been settled that night, and they thought best to say nothing until after Harry had seen Mr. Minturn in the morning. However, girls, if you prefer not to be caught in this way, better see to it that your Harry takes that button out for the time being or else — vou take the other side. GENERAL CHARLES KING. GEN. CHARLES KING. By FO RREST CR ISigF.Y, First meetings with novelists are often dis- appointing. The failure of the maker of stories personally to fulfill the expectations of the interested layman, is probably most fre- quently due to the fact that the latter has, in some measure, imputed to the creator the qual- ities of the creation, unconsciously looking to find in the novelist the charms with which he has invested some striking character in the pages of his romance. No such disappointment, however, awaits any reader of Gen. King's stories who may be fortunate enough personally to meet the cele- brated soldier-novelist. The best traits of character in the bravest heroes which he has pictured in his marvelous stories of frontier chivalrv. are instantlv in be discerned in his 294 GEN. CHARLES KING. face by the stranger who has lived with the heroes of his creating. The miHtary side of Gen. King's character is so dominant that it is difficult to realize, while in his presence, the fact that he belongs to the literary cult. He looks a soldier, and he is a soldier. If anything can be added to this description by way of bringing the per- sonality more vividly before the eyes of the reader, it may be said that the most stirring act of heroism described in any story he has written is more than paralleled by his life as a soldier. The records have it that Gen. King was born fifty-five years ago, but there is not a line in his countenance or his figure which would ap- pear remotely to confirm this statement. He is erect, active and alert, and is more frequently thought to be under forty-five years of age than over fifty. No observant stranger who chanced to pass him upon the street would fail to rec- ognize him as a military man. He is to-day as fond of athletic sports as when he was a leader of his associates in the stirring pastimes into which he entered with all the dash, energy and devotion of a potential soldier when in GEN. CHARLKS KING. 295 training: -it West Point. Although he still maintains an unfaltering loyalty to the horse, and is never so happy as when in the saddle, he is an enthusiastic wheelman. The old saying that blood is thicker than water is strikingly exemplified in the character of Gen. King. And it is scarcely possible to understand his individuality or to account ior the remarkable versatility of his gifts without a glance at the sturdy American stock from which he is descended. His great-grandfather was Hon. Rufus King, one of the first of the distinguished line of statesmen which New York has sent to the United States Senate. The name of this ancestor of the soldier-author is signed tn the Constitution, and his services in assisting to frame that historic document, and in shaping the destinies of New York State from the foundation of that commonwealth, were recognized by the highest gifts which the Empire State could bestow. He was twice se- lected as Minister of the United States to Eng- land. Charles King, grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, was one of the earliest presidents of rolunibia ri.lleire. and recognized 296 GEN. CHARLES KING. as a bright scholar of rare intellectual gifts and attainments. In the father of Gen. King were found the military and the scholarly traits which obtain in his son. for Rufus King, the second, was both a miltary and an intellectual leader. His rare (|ualifications in the latter field were rec- ognized by his appointment as Minister to the Pontifical States at Rome, a position demand- ing peculiar endowments of personal tact, poise and grace, together with ripe culture and a broad knowledge of affairs. On the occa- sion of his departure for this important post the Civil War broke out. Mr. King immedi- ately resigned his appointment and retraced his steps to Wisconsin, where he assisted in the organization of Wisconsin's Brigade. He was among the first of President Lin- coln's appointments as Brigadier-General. He was also proprietor and editor of the Milwau- kee Sentinel, and wielded a strong influence in the politics of Wisconsin. The great In- dian apostle, John Eliot, was the head, in America, of the distinguished family of which Gen. Charles King's mother was a member. With so remarkable an ancestry, it does not GEN. CHARLES KING. 297 appear strange that (Jen. King has reached a high place as soldier, author and scholar. His first plunge into soldier life was made when a lad of sixteen years. He had been in New York City in attendance at the prepara- tory or grammar school connected with Co- lumbia College, and had just passed his exam- ination admitting him to the latter institution, when the whole country was thrilled by the echo of the guns at Fort Sumter. Instantly his dreams of college days were forgotten, and before another day had passed, after the Union troops had begun to assemble in Washington, his soldier blood was bounding in his veins and he was on his way to the Capitol city. There his father's old friends from the Badger State were surprised to greet the face c^f the boy in the camp of the Wisconsin volunteers. It was plain to these veterans that the lad had not come from idle curiosity, for his drum- sticks were in his hand and his fingers itching to play the reveille. This accomplishment im- mediately gave him place and standing in the regiment, atul he was kept bu.sy for some time instructing others in the use of the drumstick. He spee<lily became a favorite at hcad([uar- 298 GEN. CHARLES KING. ters and was promoted, in spite of his extreme youth, to the position of mounted orderly, and early in his active career as a soldier sensed as guide for Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock in Virginia. In the course of his service the lad's abilities were brought to the personal attention of President Lincoln, who gave his promise that the boy should be given a cadetship at West Point. In pursuance of this pledge he was sent to the United States Military Academy at West Point, in June, 1862, was made first Sergeant of Company B two years later, and Adjutant of the Corps of Cadets in 1865. An old companion has said of him, that in those days of his training he was distinguished by his sunny temper and the fact that, contrary to the prevailing usages of the school, he never failed to have a good w'ord for the down-trod- den "plebe,'' and that he hated mathematics as ardently as he loved rollicking fun and reckless sport. It is evident, however, that he must have mastered his dislike for mathematics, as he was graduated with the rank of Number 22 in a class of more than forty members. (Only GEN. CHARLES KING. 299 one oi liis classmates has thus far won any notable distinction. This was the brave Will- iam Preston Dixon, who lost his life in an at- tempt to save a helpless woman at the time the steamer Evening Star went down.) Until September, 1866, King remained at West Point in the capacity of instructor in artillery. He left this position to become at- tached to Batter\' K of the light artillery sta- tioned at Xew Orleans. His next remove was to Fort Hamilton, in connection with Battery C. Then he was re- called to West Point to instruct future officers in the mysteries of horsemanship and cavalry and artillery tactics. In 1 87 1 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Emory, from which he was trans- ferred to Troop K of the Fifth Cavalry, which was then being removed from Fort D. A. Rus- sel in Wyoming, to Camp Hualpai, Arizona. How great a part his stay in Xew Orleans on staff duty v.as to play in his life he little knew, when he accepted the transfer as an incident in the uncertainties of military life. It is now alm( -t !mi.ii-vil)li- 1<> realize the social ostracism 300 GEN. CHARLES KING. to which officers of the Federal Army were then subjected in the gay old city of the South. His engaging manners, however, were suffi- cient to win for him a circle of select friends with whom he was well content. Among these was the daughter of a Southern gentle- man, Capt. Yorke, of Carroll Parish, Louisi- ana. They had not long been acquainted when the young officer learned that no repre- sentative of the American army had entered the great international race which was that year the star event at the old Metairie track. This opportunity appealed to his patriotism, and he instantly decided to become the de- fender in the contest of the United States Army. His opponents were Count Victor Crenneville, of the Austrian Hussars, Mr. Stu- art, of England, Captain Rosenlecher, of France, and Mr. Ross, late of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who rode for Ireland. The prize was a beautiful gold-mounted riding whip, but the young Yankee lieutenant determined to make the race for a greater stake than any of the spectators knew. From thousands of parasols in the gay as- semblage fluttered the scarlet and white colors GEN. CHARLES KING. 3OI of Austria, the red and blue of England, and the green oi Ireland, but the skyblue and white jacket which Lieutenant King wore in honor of Columbia were not to be found in the wiiole concourse, save by the most diligent search. Only two of the spectators, the wife of Gen. Emory and Miss Yorke, had the pluck to fly the colors of the American contestant. But races are not won with ribbons, and at the end of the homestretch Lieut. King's horse was the winner by two lengths. And he did not fail of his larger stake, for he placed the whip in the lap of the girl from Carroll Parish, who became his wife before the succeeding winter — a season which brought turbulent scenes to the quaint old Southern city which was rent with riots that gave the young offi- cer severe and difficult training. His next move was an important one, and afforded him his introduction to the perils and hardships of frontier Indian warfare. He was assigned to the Fifth Cavalry in command of Troop K, which did heroic service against the Apaches, a tribe which sustained its repu- tation for cruelty, cunning and courage. In these desperate encounters he displayed the 302 GEN. CHARLES KING. coolness and indifference to danger which have uniformly characterized his entire military career. In the fight at Diamond Butte, May 25, 1874, his bra\ ery was so conspicuous that his recommendation for promotion to the rank of captain was made by the commanding general. It was a marvel to his comrades that he came out of one fight after another without a scratch, for no private in the ranks exposed himself more persistently to the enemy that did the leader of Troop K. There were many doleful prophecies that this exemption from Apache bullets could not continue indefinitely, and the historic fight of Sunset Pass, Nv>vember i, 1874, fulfilled these imhappy predictions. In the midst of the en- counter Lieutenant King found himself and Sergeant Bernard Taylor cut off from his troopers and the centre of a wicked fire from the Apaches. It is not improbable that this country would have missed one of its most en- tertaining and typically American novelists, had not a naked savage, hiding behind a rock, sent a well-aimed bullet into the body of Lieu- tenant King. LI is right arm was shattered GEN. CHARLES KING. 3O3 and he gave peremptory urder to Sergeant Taylor to lea\e liim to his fate and save him- self. This command the plucky Sergeant de- liberately refused to obey, and standing over the body of his fallen lieutenant, Taylor fought back the Apaches until a detachment of ^roop- ers came to the rescue. The wound healed sufficiently to permit him to engage in the celebrated Big Horn and Yel- lowstone expedition, in which he added ma- terially to his laurels, and was rewarded by Gen. Wesley Merritt by appointment as ad- jutant of the regiment. A year later, in the fall of 1877, he was again in the thick of the Xez Perces campaign, and was earlier called to the scene of the rail- road riots in Council Bluffs and Chicago. His next experiences were in connection with the Bannock uprising. This was fol- lowed by more severe mountain scouting in 1878. Next year he had attained the rank of Captain, and was in command of A Troop. The old wound received at Sunset Pass had, in time, given him constant and increasing trouble, and at length became so serious that it compelled him to appear before the 304 GEN. CHARLES KING. retiring Iward for permission to relin- quish his active mihtary career. This peti- tion was regretfully complied with, and he re- tired from the service and returned to his home in Wisconsin. His knowledge of military affairs brought him an appointment as instructor in the Uni- versity of Wisconsin at Madison. He was also selected by Governor Jeremiah Rusk to act as Colonel and Aide-de-Camp in the state military organization. In 1895 he was appointed Adjutant-General of Wisconsin, and in that capacity did much to raise the militia of that state to its present high standard. The outbreak of the war with Spain in 1898 found him in better health than he had enjoyed for many years, and stirred his soldier blood as deeply as did the first call for volunteers in '61. May 28th brought him his appointment as Brigadier-General of Volun- teers. He was ordered, June 2nd, to report to Gen. Merritt, in San Francisco, and left for that city two days later, taking later de- parture for the Philippines, where he com- manded the men of the First Washington, First California and First Idaho regiments. GEN. CHARLES KING. 305 Gen. King confesses that he was never so happy in his hfe as when leading these men against the FiHpinos. His only regret is that the return of ill health compelled his voluntary retirement in August, 1899. When chatting with callers, in his room on the third story of one of the oldest office buildings in Milwaukee, Gen. King resolutely refuses to be entrapped into a literary conversation, and invariably re- turns with soldierly enthusiasm to the topic of the war in the Philippines, and grows eloquent in the praise of the conduct of his "boys" from the Xorthwest. Many of the latter, however. have brought back stories of their commander more enthusiastic, if possible, than those which he relates of them. They tell of how he thrice passed at the head of a portion of his command over a certain bridge which marked the division between the American and the Filipino forces. How great is the marvel that he came out of the engagement untouched, is best indicated by a photograph which the writer found lying on his desk, and which is published in connection with this article. .-K glance at this picture will slunv that the side of the structure is literally pitted by bullet 306 GEN. CHARLES KING. marks. It was in the midst of this hailstorm of lead from the insurgent ambush that Gen. King passed over the bridge; three times he deliberately subjected himself to this fire, while his men were well-nigh speechless with amaze- ment. A private who witnessed this superb display of courage remarked to an American newspaper correspondent : "That man will never see the United States again." On a shelf in Gen. King's workroom is the worn and battered field-desk which he has car- ried through his campaigns. In its pigeon- holes is to be found the secret of his marvelous accuracy in writing. A half dozen small blank books of the ordinary commercial kind are filled with entries, written in a minute, but legible hand. These record the occurrences of each day of his active, honest service, and pre- sent concisely but vividly the impressions made upon his mind at the moment by the stirring scenes through which he has passed. His first work when beginning a new novel is to . consult these priceless records. It is doubtful if there is another author who com- poses more rapidly than Gen. King when once he is inspired by a sympathetic theme. GEN. CHARLES KING. 307 While he emphatically disavows all literary traditions, and declares that his labors in this field are inspired solely by the motive of ''mak- ing one woman happy" and giving his son and daughters an education which would be impos- sible by any other means within his command, the strong human interests, the swift move- ment, and the delicate sympathy and tender pathos of his stories are sufficient proof of the fact that his work is done with a genuine heart interest, and not as a perfunctory task. His methods of work are undoubtedly dif- ferent from those of all other authors. After a perusal of his note-books he writes his pages in a short hand of his own and reads his stories into a phonograph which is passed to an opera- tor of the typewriter, who transcribes the rec- ord of the cylinder. The sheets are then re- turned to Gen. King for revision, but the dic- tated manuscript is seldom changed to any great extent. "Between the Lines" and the "General's Double" are Gen. King's favorites of the scores of stories which he has given to the pub- lic. His first story was "Kitty's Conquest," and was written in the '70s. Its production 308 GEN. CHARLES KING. was then regarded by its author as a passing whim, a pastime to relieve the monotony of an officer's Hfe of a frontier post. This was pub- lished in the United Sennce Magazine of Phil- adelphia, and immediately attracted favorable attention. The manuscript was carried in the officer's luggage through the Nez Perces and the Sioux campaigns, and shared the fate of many another first literary effort in being re- spectfully declined by one or two editors. This initial story was followed in 1881 by the stirring romance first called "Winning His Spurs," but later issued in book-form as "The Colonel's Daughter." Then Mr. Alden, the venerable editor of Harpers' Magazine. reached out for the work of the young military novelist and secured the charming stories, "A War-Time Wooing" and "Between the Lines." It is generally supposed that the originals of nearly all Gen. King's heroes w'ere men of the famous old Fifth Cavalry, but this may be denied on the authority of the author. Only two or three of his characters were suggested by the members of that command. W^hen called to the war in the Philippines, Gen. King was about to join his wife, son and GEN. CHARLES KIXG. 309 daughters in Europe. The son Rufus is now seventeen years ui age. a bright, manly lad, and the centre of his father's ambitions. The daughter Elinor i.s the third of his children, and a girl of rare beauty and attractiveness. A fitting conclusion to this glimpse of the soldier-novelist and his career is a reference to a communication sent by Major-General Thomas M. Anderson to the Adjutant-General of the armies of the United States. This is dated March i, 1899, and recommends the pro- motion of Brigadier-General Charles King to the rank of Major-General of Volunteers as a reward for ''energy, bravery and efficiency" in battle during the engagement with the Filipino insurgents, February 5. 1899. THE END. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS • 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 • 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF • Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW AUG 3 Z003 JUN 1 6 2005 DD20 15M 4-02 CD41EDli7^