ned reported to the captain: "One of the
prisoners keeps begging to be allowed to see you, sir," he said. "He
says you told him he might go free. Shall I let him be brought
up here?"

"Yes. Send him up."

"Well?" said Captain Von Tollig, when the man appeared at headquarters,
and the orderly who had brought him had retired.

"The little book, Senor. You said I could have it back, and go."

"Yes. You may go. I will have you sent safely through our lines;
but the book I have decided to keep."

The man's face grew ash-colored with disappointment or anger. "But,
Senor," he protested. "You told me ----"

"I know; but I have changed my mind. You can go, if you wish, without
the book, or not, just as you choose."

"Then I will stay," the Tagalog said slowly, adding a moment later,
"My people will surely slay me if I go back to them without the book."

"Very well." The captain called for the guard, and the man was taken
back to prison; but later in the day an order was sent that he be
released from confinement and put to work with some other captured
natives about the camp.

During the next two or three weeks a stranger to Tagalog methods
of warfare might very reasonably have thought the war was ended,
so far as this island, at least, was concerned. The natives seemed
to have disappeared mysteriously. Even the men who had been longest
in the service were puzzled to account for the sudden ceasing of
the constant skirmishing which had been the rule before. The picket
lines were carried forward and the location of the camp followed,
from time to time, as scouting parties returned to report the country
clear of foes. The advance would have been even more rapid, except
for the necessity of keeping communication open at the rear with the
harbour where two American gunboats lay at anchor.

As a result of one of the advances the camp was pitched one night
upon a broad plateau looking out upon the sea. Inland the ground
rose to the thickly forest-clad slope of a mountain, to which the
American officers felt sure the Tagalogs had finally retreated. Early
in the evening, when the heat of the day had passed, a group of these
officers were standing with Captain Von Tollig in the center of the
camp, examining the mountain slope with their glasses.

"What did you say was the name of this place?" one of the officers
asked a native deserter who had joined the American forces, and at
times had served as a guide to the expedition.