action was best would be taken.

The day had come when we must separate. We were to enter an untried
and an unknown field. It was fitting that we have a final joyous
meeting, so the best orchestra in the archipelago was engaged and we
"chased the hours with flying feet" until dawn so that whatever might
come to us in that unknown future upon which we were entering each
would hold in pleasant memory our last evening together.

CHAPTER III.

A DRAMA IN ACTUAL LIFE.

Almost every one heeded the warning to go to his station forearmed
with at least necessaries of life, but, as it had never fallen to the
lot of the writer to cook, he refused to learn at that late day, so he
took no pot, no pan, no kettle, putting his future into the hands of
an uncertain fate and relying upon the unknown hospitality of the
Filipino.

Bacalod, the capital of the province of Occidental Negros, was our
destination. The second morning after leaving Manila, we awoke with
the "Kilpatrick" lying at anchor in a shallow bay. We were several
miles from the shore and nothing in sight indicated that we had
reached a place of any importance. Late the night before we had been
awakened by the loud, sharp ringing of the ship's bells, accompanied
by the reversal of the engines and a general disturbance awaking the
crew. So our first impressions on coming on deck were that we had run
aground. But the captain assured us that everything was ship-shape and
that this was the nearest point of approach to Capiz, a town of
considerable importance on the island of Panay, where a body of troops
was to embark for home. Not even the grass hut of a native was in
sight. Search as we would, not a sign was seen of a stream flowing
into the sea, indicating the probable presence of a town. There was
not a sign of life of any kind save one lone column of thin, blue
smoke that arose from the side of a mountain miles away. One would
have thought that we were explorers of three hundred years ago lying
off the shore of some unknown land.

After breakfast the steam launch, together with all the boats, was
lowered, and several of us who had determined to miss no opportunity
to gather information about the islands took our places in the launch
by the side of the ship's mate, and steamed away across the water with
a long line of boats strung out in the rear. We headed away toward a
group of cocoanut trees, and about an hour later stepped ashore on a
pile of decayed cora