The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1900-06-22
CHAPTER XVI.

That was wild day in Manila. Far
over near the Escolta somebody shot at
a vagrant dog tapping water from lit
tie pool under one of the many hydrants.
The soldier police essayed an arrest;
the culprit broke and ran; the guard
fired; a lot of coolies, taking alarm, fled
jabbering to the river side. The natives,
looking for trouble any moment, rushed
to their homes. Some soldiers on pass
and unarmed tumbled over the tables
and chairs in the Alhambra in their
dash for the open street. A stampede
sergeant told a bugler to sound to
arms, and in the twinkling of an eye
the call was taken up from barrack to
barrack, and the news went flashing
out by wire to the extreme front. The
shopkeepers hastily. put up their shut
tiers and bolted their doors. Cabs, carts,
quilez and acknowledgements the street
cars-were instantly seized by the SOL
diery scattered all over town, and util-
lied to take them tearing back to join
their regiments. In five minutes the
business streets downtown were de-
serted. Chinese covered within their
crowded huts. The natives, men and
women, either hid within the shelter of
their homes or fled to the sanctuary of
the many churches. All over the great
city the alarm spread like wildfire. The
battalions formed under arms, those
nearest the outer lines being marched
at once to their positions in support,
those nearer the walled city waiting for
orders. Foreign residents took mat
tiers more coolly than did the Asiatic;
German phlegm, English impassiveness
and Yankee devil-may-care-ishness pre-
venting panic. But those who had
families and owned or could hire car
riages and launches were not slow in
seeking for their households the refuge
of the fleet of transports lying placidly
at anchor in the bay, where Dewey's
bluejackets shifted their guilds, went
coolly to their stations and, grouped
about their guns, quietly awaited fur
Their developments. In an agony of
fear Col. Frost had hidden his driver to
lash the ponies to gallop and go like
the wind to Malate; but the appearance
of the long ranks of sturdy infantry
resting on their arms and beginning to
look bored, measurably treasured him
before he. reached his home. Once
there, however, the sight of Nita, cling
ing Historically to her sister and moan
ing on her bed, was sufficient to deter
mine his first move, which was to wire
for his launch to come around to the
bay shore and take them off to the fleet.
The next was to send and ask for an of
ficer and 20 men from the Quartet, on
receiving which message the major
commanding, standing on the dusty
roadway in front of his men, grinned
under his grizzled mustache and said:
"Frost's got 'em again. Here. Gray,
you go over and tell him to keep his hair
on, that it's nothing but a fake alarm
And Gray, glad enough of the chance to
go again into the presence of the wom-
an who SO fascinated him, sped On his
mission. He was in fury over his re-
cent humiliation in her very sight-he,
a commissioned officer, tossed aside
like child and outwitted by this daring
intruder in the shape of private sol
dier-he and his guard brushed away
and derided by a young fellow in some
strange regiment-who had easily es-
capped along the beach to an adjoining
Enclosure into which he darted and was
no more seen. The streets were full of
.scurrying soldiers, and it was the SIM
plest thing in the world for him to
mingle with them and make his way to
his own command. Of course. Gray
well knew who the man must be-N;ta's
troublesome lover Of whom Witchie had