The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1900-06-15

| when the consul came aboard with a
batch of letters in his hand, he had one
| for Mrs. Frost. She had barely glanced
/ at its contents before she was stricken
with a fit of trembling, tore it in half,
and tossed the fragments on the swift
ebbing tide, then rushed to her state
room. There she added postscript to
the long letter penned to Margaret on
the voyage; and the purser, not her
husband, saw it safely started on the
Gaelic, leaving for San Francisco via
Honolulu that very day. That letter
beat the ordinary mail, for the Queen
was healing seward, even as the Gaze
| lie came steaming in the coral-guarded
harbor, and a little packet was tossed
| aboard the new troop ship as she sped
| away, one missive in it telling Witchie
Garrison that the man whose life had
| been wrecked by her sisters enforced
desertion was already in Manila await
ing her coming, and telling her, more
| over, that the packet placed in Gen.
Drayton's hands contained only her
earlier letters. In his reckless wrath
Latrobe had told her that those which
bound her to him by the most solemn
PlSOSOSs tAOSC tHdt NoWco uHQy luS lONe
and devotion, were still in his hands,
and that she should see him and them
when at last she reached Manila.
Three mortal weeks had the sisters
been there together, and never once in
that time did Mia venture forth except
when under the escort of her black
browed husband or the protection of
her smiling, witching, yet vigilant Mar
garet. Never once had their house been
approached by anyone who bore resem-
blance to the dreaded lover. All along
the Gale Real, where were the quarters
of many officers, little guards of regu-
lars were stationed; for black rumors
of Filipino uprising came with every
few days, and some mems hearts were
failing them for fear when they
thought of the paucity of their num-
bers as compared with the thousands
of fanatical natives to whom the taking
of human life was of less account than
the loss of a game chicken, and in
whose sight assassination was
virtue when it rid one of foe. Already
many officers who had weakly yielded
to the importantly of a devoted wife
was cursing the folly that led him to let
her join him. The outbreak was i'm
minent. Anyone could see the war was
sure to come-even those who strove to
Danish alarm and reassure an anxious
nation. And when the call to arms
should sound, duty, honor and law
would demand each soldiers instant
answer en- the battle line; then who was
to care for the women? The very serv-
ants in each household, it was known,
were in most cases regularly enrolled
in the insurgent army. The crowded
districts in the city, the nipa huts sur
rounding the wealthy homes in the
suburbs swarmed with Filipino soldiery
in the garb of peace. Arms and ammu-
milton, both, were stored in the great
stone churches. Knives, bolos and pis-
tolls were hidden in every house.
Through the clergy, in some instances
and foreign residents in others, the
statement was set afoat that every
American officers residencewas mapped
and marked, that the Tagals were told
off by name-so many for each house in
proportion to the number of American
lnmates-and day after day, awaiting
the signal for their bloody work, were
native devotees greeted with servile
bows and studied the habits of the Of
ficers they were designated to fall upon
in their sleep and Stay without mercy. |
Even women and children were not to |
be spared; and many a woman, hearing
this grewsome story, trembled in her |
terror. For time, in dread of this new
peril, Mia Frost almost forgot the |
other; but not so Margaret. She |
scoffed and secuted the rumor of Fill |
ipino outbreak. She laughed at Frcst, |
who all too evidently believed in it and |
was in hourly trepidation. He begged
that the guard at his quarters might be
doubled, and was totally unrerved
when told it might even have to be re-
duced. Not so Mrs. Frank. She made
friends with the stalwart sergeant
commanding; always had hot coffee
and sandwiches ready for the midnight
relief; made it point to learn the
name of each successive non-commis-
stoned officer in charge, and had a win
some smile and word for the sentries as
she passed. 1t wasn't Filipino aggres-
sion that she feared. The men won
dered why she should so urgently bid
them see that no strangers-Americans
were allowed within the massive
gates. There were tramps, even in Ma
Mia, she said. When the sisters drove
their natty little Filipino team flashed
the lanes and streets at ton |