army. He told,
too, about brave Bill Hickson, and that gentleman's cot was always the
centre of an admiring throng of visitors, who shook his hand and told
him how proud they were of what he had accomplished. And all the poor
hero could do was to smile feebly, for he was still too ill to talk
much.

Archie felt that he had almost volumes to write about his experiences in
battle, and he did send a very long account of this encounter to Mr. Van
Bunting. It was written in his boyish way, but one of the officers who
read it said that it was the best thing of its kind he had ever read,
so he wasn't at all backward about mailing it. All the other newspaper
correspondents in Manila were wishing they had gone with the regiment
and witnessed the battle, but they had stayed in Manila, thinking that
this would be like the other expeditions of the kind, a mere wild-goose
chase, which wouldn't amount to anything at all. They were all very
anxious to get the details of the affair from Archie, but he was shrewd
enough not to tell them anything of value. And the other correspondent
of the Enterprise in Manila insisted that Archie should send a cable
message describing the affair, as well as a written account, and this
he finally consented to do. The correspondent added a long account
of Archie's personal bravery, how he had been wounded, and how he had
ridden back to Manila at the head of the column. Archie would have been
very much embarrassed had he known this, for he was still modest, but
the first thing he knew of it was from a letter he received a few
weeks later from Mr. Van Bunting, congratulating him on what he had
accomplished, and telling him that he had long since more than earned
his six hundred dollars. But for weeks he was ignorant that any one in
New York knew of his being wounded.

The days now began to pass as before in the camp at Manila. The wound
in Archie's arm was healing slowly, but he was hardly able to use that
member for a month or six weeks. Bill Hickson did not fare so well. He
lay for weeks on his cot in the hospital building, and was hardly strong
enough, for awhile, to talk. He was improving slowly, but the doctors
said it might be two months before he was able to walk about and take
his former active part in the campaign against the insurgents. This
enforced quiet was very trying to the brave man, and Archie spent many
hours reading to him, and telling of various things he had learned at
school and els