The general had sent messages to the commander of the Ogdensburgh,
explaining the situation to him, and as soon as that officer understood
the matter he replied, "You did just right."

"We will start in pursuit of the Utica as soon as we can get up steam,
and do our best to overtake her."

Could they overtake her? That was the question. She had a good three
hours start, for daylight was breaking before the Ogdensburgh could be
got under way, and the registered speed of the boats was about equal.

At any rate there was doubt enough as to what the result would be
so that when the Ogdensburgh reached the town of Concepcion, fifty
miles up the coast from Ilo Ilo, and the Utica was seen to be lying
at anchor in the harbour there, the commander of the Ogdensburgh said
words which were as thankful as they were emphatic. For just beyond
Concepcion harbour began the narrow channels of the Gigantes Islands,
in some of which he had feared to find the gunboat wrecked.

When the captain of the Utica came to know why he was pursued, and what
he had escaped, he was as grateful for the faulty cylinder head which
had delayed him as, the night before, he had been exasperated by it.

The pilot, charged with his treachery, proved at once that the charge
was true, by turning traitor again and offering to buy the safety
of his own neck by guiding the boats to where they could shell the
woods in which the natives were hidden.

THE SPIRIT OF MT. APO

From the deck of any vessel passing up the southeast coast of Mindanao,
the voyager can see the gold-crowned summit of Apo, rising like a
gilded cone high above the dense vegetation of the island at its base.

Next to Luzon, on which the city of Manila is situated, Mindanao is
the largest of all the islands of the Philippine archipelago. Lying as
it does far to the southeast, and near the Sulu Islands, the Moros,
as the venturesome Sulus are called, invaded Mindanao more than two
hundred years ago, and gradually crept farther and farther along the
coasts and up the river valleys, waging intermittent warfare against
the Visayans who had come from the west to settle on the island,
and against the natives that lived inland, and keeping up constant
relentless war upon the Spaniards who claimed the sovereignty of
the island. There are few islands of its size in the world where
so many different kinds of people live, and perhaps no other where
so many wild deeds have been done. Unt