prison guard disappeared as if by magic. Long
afterward, Larry learned that he had hit the Tagal in the arm.

There was now a general alarm throughout the prison, and the two
escaped prisoners felt that any other locality would be better for
them than the one they now occupied. "Let us try to find our
soldiers," said Luke, and once again they started to run, this time up
the road where, far away, they could make out a forest of some sort.
Then came a second report, and Luke Striker staggered back, hit in the
shoulder.

"Luke! Luke, you are struck!" gasped Larry. His heart seemed to leap
into his throat. What if his dearest friend had been mortally
wounded?

"I--I--reckon it--it ain't much!" came with a shiver. The sailor
straightened himself up and started to run again. "They are after us
hot-like, ain't they?"

A turn in the road soon took them out of sight of the prison, and they
breathed a bit more freely. But the strain was beginning to tell upon
Luke, and watching him, Larry saw that he was growing deathly pale.

"You can't keep this up, Luke," he said, and put out his arm to aid
his friend. As he did so, the Yankee tar gave a short groan, threw up
both hands, and then sank down in a heap at the boy's feet.

CHAPTER VII

THE RETREAT TO THE RICE-HOUSE

Larry was greatly alarmed, not knowing but that his companion was
about to die on his hands. Quickly he knelt at the Yankee's side, to
learn that Luke had fainted away from loss of blood. The shoulder of
his shirt and jacket were saturated through and through.

"What shall I do?" the boy asked himself, and gazed hurriedly at the
surroundings. To one side of the road were several nipa huts, to the
other a long, rambling warehouse. The doorways of all the buildings
stood open, and no one seemed to be in sight.

As quickly as he could the youth took up his friend and staggered with
his heavy burden to the warehouse, which was about half filled with
rice. Entering the structure, he passed to a small apartment somewhat
in the rear. Here there was a quantity of old sacking in a heap, and
upon this rude couch Larry placed the unconscious form.

The boy had been taught on shipboard just what to do in case of such
an emergency, and now he worked as he never had before, for Luke was
very dear to him, and the thought that his friend might die was
horrible to contemplate. He prayed to Heaven that the old gunner's
life might be spared to him.

The wound wa