U

by Monte Herridge

  to chase an elusive sniper in a strange city. If the As the sailors stood looking at the house, chase were to be made—and an instant too late he and not noticing the cautious, furtive coffee-realized that there was really no need for it—then colored faces that peeped around corners, a he and all the men should have gone.

  woman came out on to a balcony about which He knew that he should have deployed his were the marks of many bullets. In her hand she men or hurried them into some kind of shelter if he held a large army revolver. She stood too high and thought the situation dangerous; which there was far away for any one to make but clearly her really no cause for thinking when one rifle had features.

  been fired. It was the fact that the shot was at a But the revolver in her hand, and the

  woman—at any woman; but he had leaped the pitted stones about the balcony from which she more eagerly to do vengeance because she was came, brought a volley of cheers from the nine one speaking his own tongue in his own accents.

  young bluejackets. The woman had fought a good He felt keenly his chivalrous folly. He fight: that was enough for them. It matter not couldn’t take what was left of his detachment and whether she was young, old, Spaniard or half-follow those he had sent forward and be sure of breed.

  catching up or locating them in the turns and She called down to them. Hers was the

  twists that they might have made in the chase; and,

  Adventure

  6

  moreover, to try it would be to leave the woman, to the wall below the balcony and called to me.

  who was evidently the one the admiral had sent She came to beg from me senora’s gold-woven him to fetch, in apparent danger. And he couldn’t mantilla. They always want something that isn’t send other men to try to support Old Farry’s party theirs—these loathsome natives! I told her I would without the further folly of splitting what was left give it to her if she would have some one carry a of his detachment.

  note from me to one of the American ships. She He could only hope that nothing would

  promised.

  happen—and wait. And there was Morgan wailing

  “I told her that, if the note wasn’t

  and watching, too; and no doubt smiling cynically delivered I would soon be dead and that my behind the grim expression that sat on his broad, special delight as a ghost, would be haunting and rough-featured face. The responsibility was all bringing misfortune to her.

  Randolph’s. Morgan, if anything went wrong,

  “I frightened the life out of her. Then I could have the joy of telling the admiral all about gave her the note and mantilla. I knew she would the blunders and know that he would be free from try to deliver it. And I Knew somebody would censure.

  come off the American ships to help me.

  Randolph carefully hid any expression of

  “It has been horrible. I have just one bullet face or voice that would show his feeling, and left. This—” she held the revolver over the railing brought his men across the plaza and halted them for them to see— “belonged to El Capitan’s under the balcony. The house was strong as a brother. They buried him alive in an ant-hill two citadel. If danger pressed, he thought to take the years ago. Cut out his tongue and stuck splinters in men within. But there were no dangers in sight: his eyes and then buried him. I’ve been senora’s nothing but small groups of natives hovering at companion for four years.

  corners.

  “I think you’ve scared them away. But

  “This is Captain Del Valle’s house?”

  look out. They hate Americans as much as Randolph asked of the woman.

  Spaniards. They’d hate anybody that kept them She stood on the balcony some twenty feet from looting. Cavite’s full of half-breeds. Not above and could be plainly seen. Her face was Spanish—Chinese and Tagalogs. The worst drawn and haggard for one young and beautiful.

  possible mixture. That cutthroat you have down But two sleepless days and feverish alert nights there with you—” pointing toward the

  had pinched her face and left big bluish rings Chinaman— “is one of the prisoners that got out under her eyes.

  when the natives broke into the jail. I can tell by

  “Yes,” she said, speaking directly, simply, the convict shirt he has on.

  with none of the protean artifice of woman to man,

  “All the Spaniards fled around the bay—

  “the natives hated him. They’ve looted the house.

  overland—to Manila when the fleet was

  All except the senora’s room. They broke in the destroyed. I was afraid to show myself—every one first night—after the battle. They have been knew I was an American, and you know how it is.

  howling and shooting inside and out ever since.

  I ought to be proud of the victory, and oh, how I

  “The senora killed herself as soon as she did pray and hold my breath while the guns were heard that El Capitan was dead. The servants ran booming out in the bay! But poor El Capitan! And away—I was alone. Two Spanish soldiers from the those gallant fellows that were murdered and cut fort tried to stop the shooting out there on the up out there—they knew I was an American!”

  plaza. They kicked and cuffed right and left. But Her voice failed her. She turned away,

  they were killed. These devils dragged the corpses crying.

  up and down all day long. They were all drunk. It Some of the sailors coughed. Others swore was awful! And inside here—I have senora’s room bitterly under their breath. And some looked with barricaded, but I didn’t know what minute they narrowed, hard eyes across the plaza to where would break through.

  little groups of the coffee-colored crowd that had

  “Last night it was quieter. One of the

  followed them lurked at the corners—eager to see, mestizos who had been the senora’s maid crept up but wary, and with something that struck the

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  sailors as sinister in their gaping stolidity.

  double doors through which a coach might easily Randolph adjusted his cap and looked

  have been driven.

  anxiously down the street in which the four sailors The sailors jumped forward, threw their and the bosun had disappeared. Morgan weight against the thick planks of old Spanish oak, thoughtfully prodded a cobblestone with the point reinforced with curiously wrought strips of of his sword.

  hammered iron, and pushed the doors slowly back on smooth, noiseless hinges, thus opening to view VII

  a long, high, dark corridor which was littered with scattered clothing, broken pottery and a big

  “WELL, Mr. Morgan,” Randolph said—when square-faced bottle here and there.

  officers are in the slightest degree formal they Gin is the original contents of the “square-address each other not by their rank, but by the face.” But the natives replace the more precious civilian “Mr.” — “I suppose we had better go up liquor with a vicious brew of their own that and escort Miss Farnum down.”

  Americans most familiar with the stuff have Had he been with any other officer, subsequently classified as bino.

  Randolph would have thought nothing of taking If taken at all freely it is enough to put two or three of the sailors and going up into the such fighting courage into a sheep that this house with them and leaving the other officer gentlest of pastoral creatures will waltz right up below,. But with Morgan he felt differently. He and bite off the ear of a wolf.

  also had a distaste for in the least appearing as the

  “rescuing hero.” He might have sent Morgan up VIII

  alone, but as the ranking officer it was his place not to remain behind.

  YOU men wait here,” Randolph said, “and if Randolph was not cold-blooded enough to anybody starts anything jump right inside. Keep a free himself from self-consciousness in his sharp lookout down the street for the bosun and treatment of Morgan; and it was not pleasant to be his party.”

  sure t
hat Morgan would never have been so Then Randolph and Morgan stepped

  foolishly impulsive as to have split his detachment inside the cool, dark corridor, floored with large and sent men clattering down an unknown street square dull red tiles. They walked straight on to on what was wilder than a wild-goose chase.

  the broad stairway some fifty feet away.

  Moreover, what the girl had told him of As Randolph started up the stairs he heard Filipino cruelty made him anxious for the missing one of the sailors outside cry exultingly—

  men.

  “Here comes Old Farry and he’s got—”

  Like most of the Americans of the fleet Neither Randolph nor Morgan heard more.

  and at home, he had fancied that the natives As they glanced backward they caught a glimpse thought of them as “saviors,” or some such of the sailors bunched together and staring beautiful abstraction.

  southward across the plaza in the direction that He—and other Americans—was to learn

  Old Farry and the four sailors had gone in pursuit later of the fierce lust for loot; of the Insurrectos of the sniper.

  drawn swarmingly from afar to the gates of Manila The officers saw something else that

  on the promise of being given the city for plunder quickened their heart-beats: the great oaken doors as soon as the despicable Yankees were thrown on their noiseless hinges were being swung shut into the sea—the later being only a mere detail by two Filipinos who had stood or crept behind the that could be attended to almost any time.

  doors. And at once Filipinos seemed to appear all Morgan made the conventional answer of

  over the place.

  “Very well, sir,” to Randolph’s suggestion. Then Randolph and Morgan shouted as with one Randolph said to two sailors—

  voice at the sailors outside. But it was too late.

  “Open those doors.”

  The doors closed and the thick bar of

  He pointed with his sword to wide, high, seasoned timber fell into place; nothing less than a

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  8

  battering-ram could beat through. The house had He was calmly bearing down on still a

  been built in some bygone century when it was third man, when a fierce warning shout and jerk wrought with the strength of a fortress, and no from Randolph made him turn just in time to see doubt had many times needed that strength to Randolph throw himself with upraised sword withstand forays and attacks from the Chinese against a heavy pockmarked native that stood on pirates that had sometimes crept in overland and the stairs some three steps above them.

  been joined by the fierce natives.

  The Filipino had thrust forward his bolo at As the bar fell across the doors, the

  Morgan—but Randolph leaped forward to take the Filipinos began yelping in glee. To the trapped blow, and he fell with the heavy knife driven far officers it seemed that natives came as if by magic into his chest.

  from every direction. They leaped and darted and Morgan lunged. The full weight of his

  yelled till the score of them seemed a hundred.

  body was behind the hilt of the sword. The point Frantic beating of the butts of the sailors’

  took the pock-marked Filipino full at the throat, rifles against the doors was heard, and Randolph and went so far that the blade broke when Morgan and Morgan started forward to cut their way wrenched it free.

  through the half-dozen natives that intervened with A bolo thrown from below hurtled past his brandishing weapons, when from the other end of head and men were on the first step of the stairs, the corridor came the terrific report of a rifle fired but Morgan calmly turned again toward where still within doors. A bullet struck at their feet and another native was bending to pick up the rifle.

  ricocheted with a vicious spat against the wall.

  And as that fellow sprawled lifeless on his face, a The natives before the door, too, were in flash of thankfulness that most of the rifles were line of fire but they did not seem to notice. One evidently in the hands of snipers outside, passed carried a long, Malayan kris, the others bolos; and over Morgan’s mind.

  they were yelping and coming forward on the run.

  He glanced swiftly upward. The stairway From the other end of the corridor others came, above was clear, but at the foot some fifteen but only one had a rifle.

  yelping wild-faced men were crowding on the Randolph shot right and left with deadly steps.

  effect, but soon emptied his revolver. Two men He rapidly emptied his revolver into the fell and another lurched against the wall and stood mass—firing the three remaining shells. And some doubled over as though with a mortal wound—

  that were dangerous men when he pressed the then sank to the floor.

  trigger were out of the fight when the hammer But the officers saw that the situation was clicked on an empty chamber.

  more than desperate; they were hopelessly The others paused. For a moment they

  outnumbered.

  stood indecisively glaring like baffled wolves. But Morgan, clutching at Randolph’s arm,

  their shaken boldness was reassured by the sight of cried—

  Randolph’s fallen body. But one man stood

  “Up the stairs.”

  against them—and they were many. They had the Springing up he partly pulled Randolph

  odds with which dogs will harry a wild boar. But after him.

  even at that, they hesitated and held their cries, Half-way up they were, then the rifle

  balked to see the one man standing on the stairway roared at them again; and the bullet came close.

  waiting as though to receive them with never a Morgan stopped. That rifle had to be

  thought of their odds.

  silenced. He deliberately changed his sword to his Seconds, scarcely minutes, had passed

  left hand and taking the revolver in his right the since the two officers saw the thick doors swing better to aim, quickly drew a careful bead and shut, barring them within and their men without; fired. The man with the rifle pitched forward.

  but it had all happened with that swift intensity Another started to grab it from the dead man’s that makes moments seem as unmeasured time.

  hand. Morgan shot again—and the rifle lay untouched.

  IT WAS only for the briefest seconds that there

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  9

  was silence—a cloistral hush in the great dim But he, too, slashed and thrust and

  corridor that had become a shambles—as the warded, darting this way and that across the wide Filipinos paused at the foot of the stairs.

  stairs.

  Morgan had broken his revolver and was

  Again and again he saw bitterly that he trying to fill it with cartridges before the rush was being forced to take a backward step that which he knew was coming. Then he felt a weak could not be regained. For when he fought on one tug at his trousers. He bent over Randolph, but side of the stairs some man came higher on the kept his face turned so that his eyes were on the other, and when he lunged across to drive him men below who were beginning to raise their back, still another would rise a step on the side left weapons and lean forward for the charge.

  open.

  Randolph

  gasped—

  It was best to stand in the middle, but four

  “Morgan go up—I’m done for—stairs

  men abreast could easily mass against him; and clear—go on—I’m done for—go—it’s hopeless—

  though they feared the gleaming flashes that came leave me—get away—”

  at their heads, yet the weight of numbers kept The rush was on.

  them steadily at the attack. Morgan saw that he

  “You go to ——!” Morgan shouted—not

  was losing ground; and he shouted over his at Randolph, but at the idea—as he dodged to one Shoulder for Randolph to creep further up the side, narrowly evading a bolo that came like a fat stairway; but Randolph did not move n
or make steel arrow.

  answer.

  He snapped his half-loaded revolver

  It was a losing fight, but those that darted together and fired pointblank. Two more men went in at him did not always draw back scatheless.

  down; but six remained. They barely paused. They Morgan’s longer blade was fleshed and stained in knew the revolver was empty and that if they red; but to reach the darting bodies was too far for hesitated it would be loaded again.

  deadly blows, and he dared: not leap closer than he Morgan dropped the gun, then stooped

  did for the man at whom he struck lest to do so and snatched up Randolph’s sword.

  would bring him within the reach of weapons on With the broken blade in his left band and either side.

  the true blade in his right, he sprang forward to His was a strong arm and quick. But odds meet the attack. He leaped far down the steps are odds, and the strongest arms grow less swift because he knew that if compelled to retreat in the when they ward away thrice as many, and heavier, least from where he had been standing Randolph’s weapons.

  body would be exposed.

  He was breathing hoarsely with teeth

  The Filipinos were yelling the cries of clinched and lips drawn back. The work was blood-lust. They fought as savages fight, reaching furious. He became aware of weakness in his forward to strike and then drawing back and gashed thigh. He strained savagely against the lunging out again.