The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-04-22

The scouts we're down on their hands andkness.
crawling. Once the srarchlight Of the Nashville
found them and gave them n had scare. They
were w far away they feared they could not be
distinguished A. Americans, and they had no
desire 10 be the target for the gunboats shells.
They all stood up in a bunch and did not move
Tho Nashville Examines them curiously for =
few minutes, and apparently satisfied herself Of
thsir identity. for she did not Are, Then she
went on searching out the dark places In the hills
She and III, Helena kept At ii all night
The first man in Johnston's little procession
was Sergt. Gilbert, q huge Tennessean. John
s,on followed him. As they reached the top OF
one hill and came to a little open place they made
out a small shack under a good sized tree. Their
eyes had grown accustomed TO the blackness,
and Ebbert whispered to Johnston that he thought
he saw q mans hot In front Of him The scouts
had been advancing in absolute silence. indian
stalking was more exciting than going after deer
would have been. Ebbert aid forW ard cautiously
and reached out to see what was under the hat
He put his hand fairly in the face Of a man sitting
on the ground with his back against a small sap
ling. Before the man could make a sound or a
motion the hand Of the big American had slipped
down TO the throat md shut up like a steam wise.
There wasn't n sound from the insurgent sen
dnel. But In tho effort to secure him thoroughly
with cordsthe Americans made n noise that startled
the rest Of the outpost. Several men sprang up
from about tho tree and ran into the shack, and
began 10 fire at random out OF the windows, John
ston ordered his men not to fire back. He wanted
10 catch the whole outpost alive. They tied up
Ebbert's man 80 he could not run, and then, TO
give them some light, they made a fire In front
Of the shack. getting out Of the way very quickly
after Il was lighted so as not to give the men In the
shack a good target
As soon as the fire blazed up Gilbert and an
other man went into the shack, Instantly there
was a mixup. Five or six Filipino. were there,
some with rifles and some with bolos. The rifle
men made a dash out Of n window and tried TO
run into the brush, but two Of them were shot by
the Americans. Two bolomen stayed in the
shack and came at Ebbcrt and his mate v~iciously.
Both Americans dubbed their guns, but they
were unequal to tina, sort Of lighting, and quickly
found II out So they got out A little chap
with a big bolo was hot after Ebbert The big
sergeant Jumped down the steps from the door.
A soldier was standing beside tho steps with his
dubbed rife ready, and as the little insurgent
came down. tho soldier struck at him beside the hend
a blow that left him unconscious for hours, The
other bolpman was badly battered UP also before
he was taken.
When II was all over the Americans had three
prisoners and two dead men. They could not
tell how many. if any, escaped. Some OF them
stayed to guard the prisoners and the rest kept on
the trail, but finding nothing more they came back
and st under the tree until daylight Then
they started back TO town, The FIRST nan cap
tured was a s,ocky little fellow who looked TO be
In tha host sort Of condition. but when they got
ready TO move he was dead. dead as a mcckcrel,
absolutely lfsless, except that he had to breathe
II he only could have held his breath a little longer
they might have left him with the other two dead
men Bu, they detacted the slight motion Of his
chest, and they felt his pulse, and they heard his
heart beat 1t didn't work, although IT came
near being a good game. lie was awe all nRht'
bu, he couldn't be persuaded to move, Not even
the convincing application OF a CAD to the soles
Of his feet could influence him He stendfastly
refused to help himself In any way, The two
who had been bel,ed over the head were
made to carry him finally, and with one NJ his
heels and one nj his head, they started down
1t was a hard load for them and both had been
used hard at the time Of their capture They
protested TO their burden, and seemed To be INFORM
ing him thnt he was a cheat, but he kept on cheat
lux Nv 'b's $3.50 '
them hurry up.
Finally they devised a great scheme. They
bumped the play dead against the trees they
passed, and once or twice dropped him uncercmoni
ously At rough places. At last they picked him
up by the arms and let his legs drag That an
noyed him for he opened his eyes, md when he
tried to close them again the lids flutterd in spite
Of him. Finding that this wouldn't work the
,,, haavare ghn prad apds ulth HIM Ono fp0k
one heel and the other the other. They started
of with n grin and a yell, and brought mp quickly
with a yell from the victim Having his head
dragged over a trail as rough as that was too
much aven for q dead man, and he came TO life
quickly and got on his feet For some time he
made orations nngrily TO the bearers, who only
gnnned md made sarcastic replies In monosyl
tables that stirred his speech to greater fury, When
he had exhausted his imaginative account OF their
bringing up and ancestry he lapsed into sulky
silence, But he walked, tha, was the main point
When the party got to town and found an %interpre-
ter, II turned out that this chap WAS the sergeant
who had been In Command Of the outpos, He
had served a year in the army Of l.ukban and
knew all the country about Catbaognn, Major
Allen determined to Use him as n guide.
This day the outposts were cut down consider
ably, Major Allen deciding from the nights eS
periencs that there was not 50 much danger Of an
attempted rush as he had been told. i, had been
a very quiet nigh, with hardly a shot from the
outposts. The whole day was spent In getting
things into shape In town and getting the stores
and baggage housed. A large building where
Lukban had lived was taken as u hospital. Major
Allen chose the building that had been used by
Lukban's club for his personal quarters. The
companies occupied other large houses, and the
old insuryept headouatters WAS taken for the