ere ordered to go ashore on the sand bar, where the Filipinos robbed
them of their personal effects and then lined them up preparatory
to shooting them all down in a body. Gilmore, being an officer,
protested against having his hands tied. He claimed, according to
the accepted rules of warfare, that on account of his rank he had
a right to die honorably with his hands free. The Filipinos have
great superstitions about "rank" in military affairs. Marie knew the
significance of Gilmore's request; she respected it.

The Filipinos had loaded their rifles, cocked them, raised the same
to their shoulders, had taken aim, and Marie was about to give the
fatal command, "Fire!", when a shout from the bank stopped her and
for a moment engaged the attention of both the Americans and the
Filipinos. It came from a Filipino officer, running down to the
shore. He ordered them to stop. One second longer would have been
too late.

This Tagalo officer ordered the Americans to get back into their boat
and to row across to the opposite shore. After bailing the water out
of the boat and plugging up the holes in it made by the enemy's rifle
balls, they obeyed his command.

When they went ashore, Lieutenant Gilmore asked permission to bury
his dead comrades. This privilege was emphatically denied. What was
done with their bodies by the Filipinos is hard to tell, but in all
probability, as was customary with the natives, they cut them into
fragments and threw them away.

The ones who were mortally wounded, but who were still alive, were
placed under a tree by Gilmore and his comrades, and left to die. The
Lieutenant asked that a native doctor be summoned to give them aid,
but it was not done. What their fate was Eternity alone will reveal.

Gilmore and his comrades picked up the lesser wounded and carried
them, and together the whole procession was marched inland about a
mile to the Filipino Commandante's headquarters.

Here they were questioned at length. Gilmore asked permission to
write a note to the commander of the Yorktown telling him of their
fate. Permission was granted, but the note was never delivered. The
two scouts who went ashore, returned to the Yorktown in the afternoon
and reported that they had heard heavy firing up the river.

After waiting several days for news of some kind for them, and finally
concluding that they were either captured or killed, the crew of
the Yorktown, heavy-hearted over their failure and their sa