The regimental bands will play 'The
Star-Spangled Banner' and the troops will cheer. SHAFTER."

There was a silence. The aide returned the paper to the General and
straightened up, rubbing the dust from his knee. The General shifted his
pipe to the other corner of his mouth. The little green parrot who lived
in the premises trundled gravely across the brick floor, and for an
instant we all watched her with the intensest attention.

"Hum," muttered the General reflectively between his teeth. "Hum.
They've caved in. Well, you won't have to make that little
reconnaissance of yours down the railroad, after all, Mr. Nolan." And so
it was that we first heard of the surrender of Santiago de Cuba.

We were up betimes the next morning. By six o'clock the General had us
all astir and searching in our blanket rolls and haversacks for "any
kind of a black tie." It was an article none of us possessed, and the
General was more troubled over this lack of a black tie than the fact
that he had neither vest nor blouse to do honor to the city's
capitulation.

But we had our own troubles. The flag was to be raised over the city at
noon. Sometime during the morning the Spanish General would surrender to
the American. The General--our General--and his aides, as well as all
the division and brigade commanders, would ride out to be present at the
ceremony--but how about the correspondents?

Almost to a certainty they would be refused. Privileges extended to
journalists and magazine writers had been few and very far between
throughout the campaign. We would watch the affair through glasses from
some hilltop, two miles, or three maybe, to the rear. But for all that,
we saddled our horses and when the General and his staff started to ride
down to corps headquarters, fell in with the aides, and resolved to keep
up with the procession as far as our ingenuity and perseverance would
make possible.

It was early when we started and the heat had not yet begun to be
oppressive. All along and through the lines there were signs of the
greatest activity. Over night the men had been withdrawn from the
trenches and were pitching their shelter tents on the higher and drier
ground, and where our road crossed the road from Caney to Santiago we
came upon hundreds of refugees returning to the city whence they had
been driven a few days previous.

Headquarters had been moved a mile or two nearer the trenches during the
truce, and we found it occupying the