e I found a pile of something lying on the
floor. I could not see in the dark there what it was, but brought
a double handful out to the light. It was a fragment of a military
uniform wrapped loosely around some human bones. Dangling from
the cloth was a corroded button on which I could still discern the
insignia of Spain. I flung the horrid relics as far out from the cave
as my weak strength would let me, and sank down, wondering how long
it would be until the bones and uniform of a soldier of the United
States would lie rotting there beside those of a soldier of Spain.

A shout from below aroused me. A Moro had seen the fragments of cloth
fluttering down and had greeted them. The men had landed on the rocky
point again, and a party of them were coming up the path. Slung on
a pole carried over the shoulders of two of them was a piece of fish
net, through the meshes of which I could see a dozen cocoanuts.

There was food; delicious food! And they were bringing it to me! I
understood it all now. They had not meant to starve me, but only
to torture me before they took me on to slavery. How good that
was. Slavery did not seem hard to me now. Slavery was better than
starvation. Oh I would work gladly enough, no matter how hard the task,
if I could only have food.

The men had passed out of sight, now, climbing upward, and by and by
I heard them talking above me. I leaned as far out from the mouth
of the cave as in my weakness I dared, and looked up. Yes, I was
right. The bag of cocoanuts was being lowered to me. I could see the
black face of the Moro who was directing the operation, peering over
the edge of the cliff. I sank down, too weak to stand. I thought I
must save what little strength I had to break a nut against the rock,
when they reached me.

I could see the bottom of the fish net bag. Now it was even with
the cave. I could reach it if it was only a little nearer. Why did
not those foolish Moros swing it nearer? I leaned out from the cave
again to try and signal to them.

What was this I saw? Not one, but twenty black faces grinning down at
me with devilish cruelty. And the bag of food that I had waited for,
hung by a rope from the end of the pole pushed out from the rock above,
swung lazily around and around just beyond my reach. I made a frantic
effort to grasp it, and barely saved myself from falling headlong. The
fiendish laughter of the men above was answered by a chorus of shouts
from below. I looked d