urbed the peace of their homesteads, for the
inhabitants of Maasin were peaceably inclined, and took but little
interest in the war Aguinaldo and his followers had instituted.

"Well, we are one step nearer to San Isidro," remarked Gilbert, when
he got the chance to talk to Ben. "I suppose we can't get there any
too quick for you."

"I don't know, Gilbert. You must remember that while Larry may be near
San Isidro now, he may be miles off when we reach there. These
Filipinos change their capital and their prisons as quickly as a flea
jumps."

"Never mind, we'll keep them on the jump until they drop," answered
the young Southerner. "They can't stand up before us forever."

"To my way of thinking, I don't believe this war will come to definite
end, Gilbert."

"What do you mean, Ben? They have got to stop sometime--or else we
have got to stop."

"These Filipinos are not pulling together--on the contrary, they are
split up into half a dozen factions. If we defeat one faction, the
others will still keep on, and, besides that, the worst of the rebels
are of Malayan blood, pirates and bandits. I believe after we have
whipped them as an army they will still keep on fighting in small
bodies, somewhat after the order of the brigands in Mexico and
northern Africa. With the mountains to fly to, such brigands could
keep on worrying an American army for years."

"Possibly; but when the main body of the natives see what we want
to do for them, they'll be as anxious as we to wipe out such
brigands, and with their own people after them, life will be pretty
uncomfortable, I'll wager. To be sure, there will always be
robbers, just as there are outlaws and train-wreckers in the western
states of our own country."

Some of the men had found a small opening between the rocks, and over
this had hung their tents, making a rude shelter which Ben and Gilbert
were glad to share with them. In the crowd were Casey and Stummer, and
the latter busied himself in trying to make a cup of hot chocolate
over a handful of dry twigs found in the shelter. The attempt was
hardly a success, yet the drink was better for the convalescent than
either water or liquor would have been.

"Sure, an' if this shtorm kapes up, we'll all be dhrowned out," was
Casey's comment, as he shifted his feet to keep them out of a rising
puddle. "Now who would think the water would rise on the top av a
hill. Things do be mighty peculiar in Luzon, an' that's a fact."

"N