by Alfred Elwes
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MARCH AFTER THE REBELS--THE FIRST BATTLE--ARCHIE WOUNDED.
ARCHIE was awakened at four the next morning by the sound of the bugle,and, hastily dressing, he hurried down-stairs to learn the plans of theofficers. He found that they were going to start on the march as soonas the men had drunk their morning coffee, and Archie immediately madepreparations to go with them. The colonel looked on in amazement. "Whyare you packing your knapsack!" he asked. "You surely don't think you'regoing with us? You never in the world can stand this hard march in thehot sun."
"Oh, yes, I think I can," said Archie. "You see I have walked a greatdeal in these last two months, and I don't think I will have anydifficulty in keeping up with the troops. And I do so want to see somefighting, and to learn whether you capture Aguinaldo. You don't objectto my going, now, do you?"
"No," said the colonel. "If you think you can stand the marching, andare so anxious to come, why, I suppose you can do so. But you mustn'tblame me if anything should happen to you."
Archie was ready enough to promise this, for he had no idea that hewould meet with an accident of any kind, and so he continued to pack histhings in the knapsack. The rebels had emptied everything in a corner,and had evidently intended taking the knapsack with them when they went;but they left so hurriedly they couldn't possibly think of everything,and so had left it behind, much to Archie's relief, for he would havebeen unable to secure another one anywhere outside Manila. In a veryshort time the regiment gathered in the streets immediately about thesquare, and soon the men were marching out of the town, much to thegratification of the residents, who watched them from their roofsand windows. Archie fell in at the head of the column, and found nodifficulty in keeping up with the soldiers near him, though they weremarching at a rapid rate.
The town limits were soon passed, and they swung into the white countryroad, which presented the same scene of desolation which had beeneverywhere visible to Archie on his way from Manila. The farm-houseswere nearly all deserted, and there was but little attempt atcultivating the soil, which would have been productive enough had it notbeen overgrown with tangled vines and weeds. And as they went fartherinto the country the wilderness increased, until at last the road itselfwas filled with growing vines, and the men had difficulty in walking.Every little while some trooper would fall headlong, tripped by somevine, and the others would laughingly help him up before passing on.These little incidents did much to enliven the march, which becamemonotonous after the first six or seven hours, and Archie appreciatedthe mishaps very much until he took a few tumbles himself. He wasusually, much to the amusement of the officers, marching at the veryhead of the regiment, and "setting the pace," he said, so that he wasmore likely to trip than any of the others. He was always the first todiscover a snake in the road, too, and kept a great stick with which tokill them. He seemed to have no fear of them, but walked up to lay themout, and on one occasion the colonel warned him just in time or he wouldcertainly have been bitten by a snake whose bite is certain death. Thisexperience made him more careful, but he still kept his place at thehead of the regiment, and came to be called the mascot by the men.
At noon the regiment halted at a grassy spot, where there were trees,and made their dinners from their knapsacks. The officers warned themto go carefully, or they would find themselves without provisions beforereturning to Manila, for they had been so sure of catching the rebelsat the town behind that they had neglected to bring along many supplies.Now, of course, they didn't know how long it would take them to findthem,--two days at least, and probably longer.
Archie had stocked his knapsack with some food from the old headquartersin the town, so that he felt safe for a few days, at any rate. Heate carefully, however, and was careful not to waste anything, for herealised that he might be called upon to aid some of the soldiers beforelong.
Dinner over, the regiment marched on again, for the officers now beganto think that they had made a mistake in not pursuing the fleeingrebels the night before. They met several Spaniards, who told them thatAguinaldo had marched all night long without stopping, so that he wasnow at least thirty-six hours ahead of them, and some of the men beganto be discouraged, saying that it was no use following him up with sucha small force. "Other regiments have tried to find him in this way, andnone of them have succeeded," said one of the privates to Archie. "Theykeep us marching for three or four days, and finally they decide toreturn to Manila, without having found any trace of the rascal beyondhearing that he had passed this way or that."
The officers couldn't depend upon what the natives told them ofAguinaldo's movements, for, almost without exception, they were in hisfavour, and always lied to the Americans to try to throw them off thetrack. It was due to this that they proceeded very cautiously, andstill, notwithstanding their extreme care, they found themselves, whennight came on this first day, in a small village where no one had seenanything of the rebel army. There was no denying the fact that they wereoff the trail, and the colonel stormed about in a terrible way when helearned of their mistake. There was no use going back in the dark tohunt for a trail they had mistaken in the daylight, so the regimentremained in the village overnight. They were a lot of very discouragedmen, and the officers were enraged at the mistake, for which there wasno one but themselves to blame.
Early in the morning they retraced their way, and started off in anopposite direction to the one taken yesterday. It seemed that this mustcertainly be the path taken by the rebels, but the regiment marcheduntil nearly noon without seeing any signs of them. Then, when they hadhalted for dinner, the colonel decided to let the men rest while twocompanies were sent ahead to reconnoitre, and report as to whether therewere any signs of men having passed this way. He was beginning to thinkthat the whole affair would be a wild-goose chase, and he decided that,if these companies found nothing, the whole regiment would return toManila forthwith, probably to be the laughing-stock of the army there.
The remaining companies had nothing to do now but lay about on the softgrass, and rest. They were encamped in a stretch of grassy loam inthe midst of what appeared to be a dense forest, and all about wereevidences of the great fertility of the soil. The vegetation was sodense that one could scarcely see through it, and the glade was cool andpleasant, though overhead the sun was shining as warm as ever. It was alovely oasis in a wilderness of undergrowth, and the men enjoyed it tothe utmost.
About three in the afternoon the sound of firing was heard in thedistance. First there was one shot, then another, and several more atrapid intervals. Archie was one of the first to jump to his feet, but ina second every man was at attention, with his musket in his hands. Thecolonel listened closely for two minutes, and then the firing began oncemore, and this time it seemed nearer. He hesitated no longer, but gavethe order to march ahead. "They've evidently found the cowards at last,"he muttered to Archie. "You stay here, where you will be out of danger."But Archie was determined to do nothing of the kind. He felt his pistolsafe in his hip pocket, and when the companies swung out of the forestand into the road he was marching in his old place at the head of thecolumn. Again the colonel ordered him to remain behind, but Archieinsisted that he would not, "Then go to the rear," cried the colonel,angry for the moment. "I will not have you shot down by a rebelsharpshooter the very first one." And Archie knew that he would have toobey.
The column went ahead at double-quick, and finally broke into a steadyrun. Every minute the noise of rifle-shots sounded nearer, and it seemedprobable that the two companies were retreating before the insurgents.The men were wild to reach the scene of the firing, and the officers hadall they could do to keep them in line. All the time they were runninghardly a sound was heard save the noise of their boots upon the softearth, and they all knew that they could probably take the insurgents bysurprise.
Archie's heart was beating very hard as they drew nearer and nearer tothe scene. He felt that he was about to see his first fighting, and hedetermined not to miss any part of it.
So he gradually ran ahead untilfinally he was almost at the head of the column again.
The troops made so little noise that the two companies, retreatingslowly, were upon them without knowing it. But when they discoveredthat their comrades had come to their aid they set up such a cheeringas Archie had never heard before, and immediately faced about and wentahead again. The rebels were about a quarter of a mile behind, marchingrapidly forward, and firing as they came. Some of them were runningamong the trees at the roadside, firing incessantly, and hittingsome poor soldier almost every time they fired. They were the famoussharpshooters, of whom the soldiers in Manila had heard so much.
When the rebels observed that the Americans had received reinforcements,they halted suddenly, and before they could turn about the Yankees werealmost upon them, firing volleys into them as they came. Many of theinsurgents fell in the roadway, and the others fled wildly in everydirection. Most of them entered the dense forest, where the Americanscaptured nearly a hundred of them after the others had surrendered,and some were such good runners that they escaped down the roadway. Thewhole rebel army presented a scene of wild confusion. Some of the menknelt and begged for mercy, and some cried out in a horrible way as theysaw the dreaded Yankees advancing. But it was all over very soon. Theprisoners were placed in line, and marched back along the road, and thedead, of which there were about fifty, were soon buried. Aguinaldo hadescaped in the forest, and no one suggested that he should be followed.All the officers knew that such a course would be useless, and most ofthem were very well satisfied with what had already been accomplished.The prisoners numbered more than six hundred, and the dead a hundredmore, while there were about seventy-five wounded. So if what BillHickson said were true, not more than two hundred insurgents could haveescaped.
Among the seriously wounded was a man whom Archie recognised immediatelyas one of his captors of two days previous, and while he was lookingover the bodies for the other men, he came suddenly to brave BillHickson, lying face downward in the road. He almost screamed with fearthat he might be dead, and when one of the men hurried up to him he toldhim who the man was. The colonel was soon on hand, and it was found thatthe brave spy was not seriously wounded, and would recover soon underproper treatment.
When the insurgent wounded were cared for, it was discovered that thetwo companies sent out to reconnoitre had also suffered losses, and whenthey marched back along the line of their retreat no less than five deadand about twenty wounded were found. This sad news threw a gloom overthe entire regiment, and when they started back to Manila they marchedin quiet, and without rejoicing over their victory, which had proved socostly.
Poor Archie, when they started to march, found, to his great disgust,that he was so weak he couldn't walk far, and he thought this must bedue to the fright he had received. He was very angry with himself, untilthe surgeon examined him and announced that he had a bullet in his arm.And then Archie confessed that he had felt a stinging sensation at onetime during the firing, but had thought nothing of it. Now his disgustwas turned to great delight, for the idea of being wounded in battle wasglorious to his mind. "I'll bet I wounded more than one insurgent," hetold the surgeon, "for I discharged every barrel of my revolver." Thewound was not at all serious, but he was told to be quiet for a fewdays. He was given one of the rebel horses to ride back to Manila, andhe felt like a real hero in many ways.
