Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-08-03

log and . little spanish; I stil lea
Spanish and no Tagalog. I though
that he appeared uneasy. and scarcel,
wondered ut 1t, the house was 80 81
lent and deserted. asked him II h'
were afraid.
"Ah, mao, senor," he replied. with I
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 creep
In. naked, having their bodies smearet
with fat SO that they could not bt
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, intimatine
that he should keep the other neaI
his own colchon in the back room
which he occupied on the ground floor.
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
l had listened to his shutting feet de-
scending the stairs, read again for
a 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 a patrol
squad, and a sergeant with five SOL
diers passed. From the window l
could see three natives peeping after
them from the entrance of an alley.
"Such is Manila in $780," / 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 l struck
a match, the big gray fellow dropped
the shoe and scurried into corner,
where could see his small eyes re-
flecting the light.
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 sharper up
roar-and it was overhead! Some
thing larger than rats this time" I
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 I could hear
an occasional clang against the iron
roof above it. Then n strange. graf
ing, sliding noise succeeded, followed
by another frightful out
burst of screams; then bump thump-
plump all over the loft!
Considerably excited, 1 jumped up,
and seizing the old lance, struck and
prodded the ceiling-boards vigorously.
These proved not to be nailed or
in any way; they turned
over easily. Dirt, dust and a shower
Of rubbish fell. But my demonstra-
ton had the effect Of quieting the
noise for the time being.
From the sounds was sure that a
man or some large animal, as well as
rats, must be in the loft-a creased
picaro perhaps. Mounting a chair,
with the lance in one hand, / held up
the lamp. AS l raised the light there
was sudden commotion above, a
clatter Of the overturned boards, and
there slid down, not a yard from my
face, fully n fathom's length of the
lgliest scaly serpent that l over set
my eyes on.
yelled outright, purely from ter
'or, and jumped down from the chair.
The monster appeared to be coming
Town tail first. The lamp chimney
ell to the floor and broke, by no
means improving the feeble light. The
of twas still sliding
Town. Apparently there were yards
If it behind.
It's tail now nearly touched the floor.
Putting down the flaring lamp,
;natched my carbine and literally
blew hole through the reptiles body.
t fell, bleeding and thrashing, on the
lies.
But the noise in the loft had in
,reased. CHANGING up, 1 saw the tail
If another python whipping down as
he ran over the beams. A second shot
sent it executing even wilder gyra-
ions.
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
he hole.
Both snakes, the smaller of which
vas not less than nine feet long, were
low tumbling spasmodically about the
Dom, and l leaped upon the bed, for
ny feet were bare, and was other
wise in scanty raiment.
At that moment there came a hasty
shocking at the door, with Florencio
,rying in alarmed accents, "Senor!
senior! Que hay?
He had naturally concluded that a
,attle with robbers was raging. 1t
s good evidence Of his fidelity that
re had seized his lance and come to
ny assistance.
With an eye to the writing SER