wered Harryman.

Colonel McCabe had sat down again, and was studying the pamphlet,
Parrington picked at the label on his whisky bottle, and the others
remained silent, but buried in thought. In the next room a clock struck
ten with a hurried, tinkling sound which seemed to break up the uneasy
silence into so many small pieces.

"And if it was not genuine?" began Colonel McCabe again, hoarsely. He
cleared his throat and repeated the question in a low tone of voice:
"And if it was not genuine?"

Harryman shrugged his shoulders.

"Then it would be a trap for us to have us secure our information from
the wrong quarter," said the colonel, answering his own question.

"A trap into which we are rushing at full speed," continued Webster,
laying stress on each word, though his thoughts seemed to be far in
advance of what he was saying.

Harryman nodded and twisted his mustache.

"What did you say?" asked Parrington, jumping up and looking from
Webster to Harryman, neither of whom, however, volunteered a reply. "We
are stumbling into a trap?"

"Two regiments," said Webster, more to himself than to the others. And
then, turning to Harryman, he asked briskly: "When are the transports
expected to arrive?"

"The steamers with two regiments on board left 'Frisco on April 10th,
therefore--he counted the days on his fingers--they should be here by
now."

"No, they were to go straight to Mindanao," said Parrington.

"Straight to Mindanao?" Colonel McCabe meditated silently. Then, as
though waking up suddenly, he went on: "And the cable has not been
working for six days----"

"Exactly," interrupted Parrington, "we have known nothing, either of
the fleet or of anything else, for the last six days."

"Harryman," said Colonel McCabe seriously, "do you think there is
danger? If it is all a trap, it would be the most stupid thing that we
could do to send our transports unprotected-- But that's all nonsense!
This heat positively dries up your thoughts. No, no, it's impossible;
they're hallucinations bred by the fermented vapors of this God-forsaken
country!" He pressed the electric button, and the boy appeared at the
door behind him. "Some soda, Pailung!"

"Parrington, are you coming? I ordered my boat for ten o'clock," said
Harryman.

"As early as this, Harryman?" remonstrated Webster. "You'll be on board
your boat quite soon enough, or do you want to keep a night watch also
on your Japanese of the-- What sort of a Maru was