Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-08-03

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new quarters, and sat down to read
an old copy of Waverly which had
found it's way to the Philippines on
war-Ship.
Something about the queer, musty
old place gave me a singular sensation
-lonesomeness, perhaps. forgot it
in the narrative of "Callum Beg" for
a time. Then I heard Florencio, my
mozo, coming up the stairs from the
patio. He brought in drinking water,
opened my bed, and laid pair of
slippers beside it. AS yet the mozo
and | had much difficulty in under
standing each other. He spoke Taga-
log and little Spanish; still less
Spanish and no Tagalog.- I thought
that he appeared uneasy, and scarcely
wondered at it, the house was so ST.
lent and deserted. | asked him if he
were afraid.
'Ah, mao, senor," he replied, with a
doubtful look around, but added some
thing about picaros, and then ex-
planned, in many long sentences, none
of which more than comprehended,
that native black burglars often crept
in, naked, having their bodies smeared
with fat so that they could not be
seized or held.
had Krag- Jorgensen carbine; but
Florencio brought in two old rusted
lances which he had found below,
such as had sometimes been used by
Spanish cavalry. He stood up one of
these doughty weapons beside my
bed, with an odd smile, intimating
that he should keep the other near
his own colchon in the back room
which he occupied on the ground floor.
I laughed at him; yet in the disturbed
condition of the city at that time
precautions were not entirely out of
place.
After he had said buenas noches, and
| had listened to his shutting feet de-
scending the stairs, read again for
while, and then went to a window to
look down into the street, which was
very quiet and dimly lighted. Pres
emily | heard the tramp of patrol
squad, and sergeant with five sol
diers passed. From the window /
could see three natives peeping after
them from the entrance of an alley.
"Such is Manila in $780," I thought,
and went to bed.
The night was not uncomfortably
hot. l blew out the feeble lamp and
fell asleep at once.
A scraping sound soon walked me;
a rat was dragging one of my shoes
across the tiled floor. When / struck
a match, the big gray fellow dropped
the shoe and scurried into a corner,
where I could see his small eyes re-
flecting the light.
I put my shoes and socks on my bed,
and again fell asleep; but not for
long. Frightful squealings broke out.
A battalion of charging Filipinos
could hardly have made a sharper up
roar-and it was overhead! "Some-
thing larger than rats this time"
thought, starting up, and once more
lighted my lamp.
The ceilings of these old Spanish
houses usually show the beams and
boards. A heavy object was rolling
and tumbling in the loft above the
ceiling of my room, and l could hear
an occasional clang against the iron
roof above it. Then a strange, graf
ing, sliding noise succeeded, followed
Immediately by another frightful out
burst of screams; then bump thump-
plump all over the loft!
Considerably excited, I jumped up,
and Selling the old lance, struck and
prodded the ceiling boards vigorously.
These proved not to be nailed or
fastened in any way; they turned
over easily. Dirt, dust and shower
of rubbish fell But my demonstra-
ton had the effect of quieting the
noise for the time being.
From the sounds I was sure that a
man or some large animal, as well as
rats, must be in the loft-a creased
picard, perhaps. Mounting a chair,
with the lance in one hand, held up
the lamp. AS raised the light there
was q sudden commotion above, a
clatter of the overturned boards, and
there slid down, not a yard from my
face, fully a fathom's length of the
ugliest scaly serpent that | ever set
my eyes on.
1 yelled outright, purely from ter
ror, and jumped down from the chair
The monster appeared TO be coming
down tail first. The lamp chimney
fell to the floor and broke, by no
means improving the feeble light. The
snake-more of twas still sliding
down. Apparently there were yards
of it behind.
It's tail now nearly touched the floor.
Putting down the flaring lamp, /
snatched my carbine and literally
blew a hole through the reptiles body.
1t fell, bleeding and thrashing, on the
tiles.
But the noise in the loft had in
creased. CHANGING up, saw the tail
of another python whipping down as
he ran over the beams. A second shot