The Frankfort roundabout., 1900-12-08

this letter. With the second shot ]
shattered the right arm of second.
This took the wind out of their
sails and they threw down their
rifles, crying: viva Americano!"
and / marched them ahead and
turned them over to the comamnd-
ing officer. As token of apprecia-
tion for my act he gave me the rifle
of the one ] had killed, which l
have and shall keep as a trophy
and slight compensation for the
big end of my heart I bit off when
/ first saw the condition that con-
fronted me-not pleasant one I
can assure you. for to have been
taken prisoner under the circum-
stances meant to be put to death in
the most fiendish manner mention
able, and ! knew it.
have never failed to carry my
rifle whenever / left the post. with
"a single exception. and that was
when four OF us officers attended
the feast OF ST. James, at Carig,
the 18th of last August. We went
up in the ambulance, and, as we
were going to church celebration,
we carried only our revolvers-
foolish fellows-and on our way
back were ambushed while crossing
the Magot river. We jumped out
into the water, waist deep, and
made for them-four officers with
pistols against twenty naked saw
ages, armed with Mauser and Rem
ingtOn rifles. But our grit and
char ge took the spunk out of them,
ard when within twenty feet of
their trench they fled. Not one of
us was hit, nor, under the circum-
stances, do / think any of them
were. Had / my rifle 1 could easi-
ly have killed one for every car
fridge in the magazine-six.
To show that the good God is
still my protector, one big fellow,
big, burly, black savage, stood up
and, as l was the leader, he singled
me out and three separate and dis
tinct times leveled his rifle fairly
at my chest, but each time it
snapped. He was in command,
and no doubt with the noise that
prevailed and i'm his excitement
thought his gang was firing; at not
being able to split me asunder he
must have thought l bore a
charmed life, as / kept coming, and
the strain became so great they
decided it best to leave those parts
In their ignorance they believe in
charmed lives, and / know almost
for certainty that this fellow
thought / bore that protection of
the charmed circle of the Church
of Rome, or some other equally as
great. / am determined to never
leave my rifle at home again, for
the presence of any means of pro-
lection is often enough to prevent
a coward from an assault. Had we
adopted any other means of defense
than we did, of going straight at
them, it would have meant death
for all of us.
Last week the commanding officok
of the district (second district. dd-
partment of northern Luzon)-waIi
making his semi-annual tour of III
spection.ss The natives determined
on his death or capture, located the
house he was staying in and made
arrangements TO attack at six
O'Clock in the morning (Wednes-
day.. One of our spies gave us the
tip, and at midnight the command
ing officer moved out of his house.
About daylight they came-about
three hundred OF them-though not
over one-third OF them were armed.
We had posted a guard of about
twenty men within "a hedge twenty
yards from the house. The natives
made a rush for the house, and, once
in, our men opened up on the house.
AS our rifles will shoot through n
stone house. this rip-shack made
no defense or protection. We had
such a small garrison that we were
not able to surround the house, or
we would have captured the whole
outfit When the smoke cleared
away and we counted losses we
found Al dead and nearly a hun
dred wounded, besides those that
were carried away and able TO 60