The record-union., 1899-10-29

nlshed what light / was to have in the
Ola casa After a stroll up and down
the street outside. went in. locked
the great door. ascendad to my new
quarters and sat down TO read an old
copy of the "Waverley," which had
found its way to the Philippines on a
warship.
something about the queer. mnsty old
place gave me singular sensation
lonesomeness, perhaps. I forgot 1t
In the narrative .'Callum Beg" for
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 Slip
pers beside it. AS yet the mozo and I
had much difficulty in understanding
each other. He spoke Tagalog and a
nttle Spanish. / thought that he ap-
peared uneasy and scarcely wondered
at 1t, the house was SO silent and de-
serted. / asked him if ne were afraid
Ah, no, senor." he replied, with a
doubtful look around. but added some
thing about picaros and then explained
In many long sentences. none of which
more than half comprehended. that
native black burglars often crept in.
naked, having their bodies smeared
with fat so that they could not be
seized or held.
l had a 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
hic in,
the back room which he occupied on
the first floor. I laughed at him, yet in
the disturbed condition of the city at
that time precautions were not entirely
out of place.
After ne had said buenOs noches, and
had listened to his ghu!fling feet de-
scending the stairs. / read again for
awhile 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 a sergeant and five soldiers
passed. From the window 1 could see
three natives peeping after them from
the entrances of an alley. Such is
Manila in 1899" 1 thought. and went
to bed
The night was not uncomfortably hot
i blew out the feeble lamp and fell
asleep.
A scraping sound soon wakened Inc;
rat was dragging one of my shoes
across the tiled floor. When l struck a
match the big gray fellow dropped the
choe and scurried into a corner where ]
could see his small eyes refacting the
light
/ put my shoes and socks on my bed,
and again fell asleep, but not for long
Frightful squealings broke out A bat
TALON of charging Filipinos could hard
" have made a sharper uproar-and it
was overhead! Something larger than
rats this time l thought, starting up
and once more lighting 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 cell
ing of my room and l could hear an Oc-
casional clang against the iron roof
above it, Then a strange grating, slid
ing noise succeeded, followed immedi-
ately by another frightful outburst of
screams; then bump -thump-p plump all
over the loft,
Considerably excited. I jumped up,
and seizing the old lance, struck and
prodded the ceiling boards vigorously
These proved not to be nailed or fast
ened in any way; they turned over
easily. Dirt, dust and a shower of rub
bish fell on me; but my demonstrations
had the effect of quieting the noise for
the time being.
From the sounds I was sure that
man or some large animal, as we'll as
rats must be in the loft-a creased
picaro, perhaps. Mounting a chair with
the lance in one hand. I held up the
lamp. AS / raised the light there was
a sudden commotion above a clatter of
the overturned boards. and there slid
down, not yard from my face, fully
a fathom'S length of the ugliest Scaly !
serpent that l ever set my eyes on!
[ yelled outright, purely from terror,
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 imprOv
ing the feeble light. The snake-more
of twas still sliding down. Apparent !
ly there were yards of it behind
Its tail now nearly touched the floor. /
Putting down the fiaring lamp, L seized /
my carbine and literally blew a hole /
through the reptiles body, and it fell, I
bleeding and threShing on the tiles.
But the noise in the loft had in !
creased. Glancing up, 1 saw the tail /
of another python whipping down as
he ran across the beams. A second .
shot sent it executing even wilder gy-
rations.
At length, catching sight of it's body /
gliding across one of the wide cracks |
had made by overturning the boards, [
fired and brought it down through the
hole.
Both snakes, the smaller of which /
was not more than nine feet long, were
now tumbling spasmodically about the
room, and l leaped upon the bed, for
my feet We're bare and / was otherwise
in scanty raiment.
AT that moment there came a hasty
knocking at the door with Florencio
crying in alarmed accents, "Senor |
Senior! Que hay?"
He had naturally concluded that a
battle with robbers was raging. 1t is
good evidence of his fidelity that he
had seized his lance and come to my
assistance.
With an eye on the writhing ser
pents I got down, threw the door open !