re on the outpost line, Nothing
took place during the day except the usual exchange of shots with
the insurgent pickets. Most officers when in command of companies on
this duty visit their sentries some time during the night, in order
to reassure their men, and to see that they are well-instructed and
on the alert. I have always followed this practice.

I started on a tour of inspection at about 9:30, visiting first the
post on the railroad on the left of the line, then taking the other
posts in succession down toward the right It had rained in torrents
for several days, and wide, deep pools of water had formed everywhere
along the way. Because of these pools, I was wearing high-topped
rubber boots. Shortly after ten o'clock I arrived at the next to the
last post on the line, which was about two hundred and fifty yards
farther on. Between these two pickets was the most dense growth of
bamboo trees and banana stalks to be found in that neighborhood, and
the entire distance was a continuous chain of diminutive lakes. There
was a path leading through this net-work from one picket to the other.

It was drizzling. The immense spreading leaves of the banana and
thickly matted foliage of the bamboo formed a canopy that shut out
every trace of light. No dungeon was ever darker than this path.

Notwithstanding the gloomy surroundings caused by the death-like
stillness, the darkness of the night, the water dripping from
the overhanging vegetation and completely saturating my clothes,
my occasionally colliding with a thorny shrub, or tripping over a
low-hanging vine, I was in excellent spirits. I groped along the
cave-like way, humming in a low tone "The Girl I Left Behind Me,"
and had reached a point about midway between the pickets. Then,
although I could see no one, I suddenly became aware of the presence
of a human being.

I stopped as if I had been struck dead, and strained my eyes. There,
just in front of me, near enough for me to grasp with my hands, I saw
the dim outlines of a short, thick-set man. Was he one of my men? No,
for no man would dare to leave his post at that time of night. Should
he be discovered in such an act, the penalty for his crime would
be death.

"Hello! Who are you?" I said. There was no answer from the man;
instead, I saw his right hand quickly strike out from his shoulder,
and the flash of a glistening blade. I threw up my left hand, and
our wrists met in heavy collision; but his blow was stro