the men had little to do
beyond carrying out guard duty. Hakkut had undoubtedly dispatched
messengers to bring all possible fighting men to the scene.

Nor in the morning, even two hours after daylight, was there any sign of
the enemy. Captain Freeman at last took up his field glass again and
intently studied a deep forest some twelve hundred yards below.

"Sergeant Overton!"

"Sir?"

"Have the Gatling and a belt of ammunition brought up."

"Very good, sir."

When the Gatling had been placed, Captain Freeman handed his glass to
the young sergeant.

"Overton, look through the glass and see if you can discover the line of
timber that I'm going to describe to you."

Hal very soon had the spot located.

"Now, Sergeant, sight the Gatling for twelve hundred yards. Do it
carefully. When you are ready do what you can to stir up life along that
line of timber."

While Sergeant Hal was making ready, Captain Freeman remained
attentively watching the timber line through his glass.

R-r-r-r-r-r-rip! Hal served with speed and intensity.

"Just as I thought!" exclaimed the commanding officer. "You've got a
line of brown men on the nervous jump down there. Keep it up a little
longer, Sergeant. Sweep over a wider area."

Then, after a pause:

"Cease firing."

For an hour Captain Freeman let the enemy rest. He was watching other
points through his glass. At last he ordered the Gatling into action
again. The trick was played a third time that morning, and each time
some of the Moros were disturbed.

"That's one of the things I wanted to know," remarked Captain Freeman at
last. "Hakkut has this camp completely surrounded, but is keeping his
men quiet. I wish we had two or three more Gatlings and a whole wagon
load of this special ammunition. We could make it interesting for the
goo-goos."

However, the datto made no move to attack, though Captain Freeman
believed that the rebel, by this time, must have twelve hundred fighting
men, at least, in the forests below.

"Hakkut may realize the difficulty of assaulting us here, and may be
waiting for huge reinforcements," Captain Freeman confided to his two
lieutenants. "Moreover, I think it extremely likely that we have been
caught underestimating the force of the enemy."

"There's one good thing about this style of campaigning, sir," smiled
Prescott, "It isn't eating up any more men in casualties."

"No; but the datto is figuring that he's letting us eat up our ration