The sea coast echo., 1901-08-24
Senor Tuk-yoo.

1
rarely broken silence, the long, drag,
ging hours, the anxious waiting for the
footsteps of the attendant who brings
the scanty meals, and the nameless
dread as night approaches, and fainter
| grow the feeble rays of light Btrag-
Cling In through the gratings OF the
| window,
Although q year has passed since my
! release. shudder even now as my
memory wanders back to the time
when those horrors were no matter
of imagination to me, but grim reality.
Amid the gloom of those recoilec-
tions, however, there shines out
leaves grateful warmth In my heart,
1t is with resretful longing that |
fancy seeing him now, my little prison
comrade, standing before me and
sweetly warbling his name: "Tuk.yoo
-tuk.yoo-tuk-yoo-o-o." God bless
him.
But forget-you have not the pleas
| ure of his acquaintance (all the worse
for you), and an explanation is neces-
! sary.
Over year ago II was my fate to
be a captive In the hands of the Fill
pino insurgents, and an unsuccessful
attempt at escape had brought upon me
the punishment of solitary confine-
ment In an out -the-way room of an
old Spanish convent. Hardly large
enough to pace up and down in. my
cell offered no other amuaements than
staring at blank wall outside the
window, or lying OF a small iron bed
stead, gazing at the ceiling, contem-
plating the spiders at work weaving
their webs. Down below echoed the
never-ccasing 'tramp-tramp" and
shuttle shuttle" of the barefooted SEN
| try. with an occasional Alto" as he
challenged some passer-by. My God!
the torturing inactivity! Only book,
or even pencil with which to scrlb-
bic on the walls-yes, even a child's
| top to play with!
The misery of that first night will
n 2er be forgotten. Sometimes | fell
L,o fitful dozCs, only to awake again
with weight upon my chest, as IL
some goblin of the darkness sat there.
At last | slept. Suddenly | awoke
| with violent start | seemed to have
| heard the unearthly shrek of some
demon CT the spirit world, and spring
| ing up into n sitting position, | lis
tened, my forehead wet with beads of
persplration. Again came the voice,
| fearfully loud and distinct, "Tuk-yoo,
| tukyoo, tuk.yo-o, tuk-yo-o-o-oo,"
ending up with with low purr.
With long sigh OF relief reached
| for my matches, for the voice. If voice
| may call 1t, was familiar; had heard
1t before. Who in the Philippines has
not?
Striking a light, beheld the mid
| night vocalist sitting on. the table,
glaring at me with indignant eyes.
Evidently he regarded my presence in
upon his privacy.
In aspect he was far from pre-
possessing. seeming to be, in fact, a
cross between a dragon and a croco-
| die, and quite as terrible to look at,
poor fellow, until you learned to know
him and he you. His one redeeming
feature was his size, which scarcely
exceeded that of mouse, and this
seemed In measure to mitigate the
ferocity of his appearance
| "Hello!" | cried; who are you?"
No answer; he only advanced q step
or two and glared at me menacingly
Either he failed to understand English
or my familiar tone displeased him.
Again | addressed him. this time in
Spanish, and with pronounced air OF
respect:
"Buenas noches, senior; will you
honor me with your name?"
These words produced some effect
His throat swelled until 1t seemed
ready to burst.
uk-yoo-tuk-yoo!" he shouted, ex.
plosively, with final whir that seemed
to say, That's my name; how do you
like it?"
An so we continued conversing unit
my supply Of matches was almost ex.
hausted, when, with a loud goodnight
"tuk-yoo" and whisk of his scaly lit.
tie whip of tail, he disappeared.
Next morning, as. / sat eating my
breakfast, wondering II / should ever
again see my little midnight visitor
he suddenly appeared on the window
sill with loud shout, which inter,
preted as Good morning"
"Ah, good morning, Senor Tuk-yoo..'
| cried; how do you find yourself this
morning. VIII you join me at break
fast?"
No. he wouldn't join me-had al
ready had his breakfast he gave t.
understand quite expressively in hi.
native dialect of "tuk-yoo." He seemed
now to accept my presence with
equanimity; perhaps it was even Will
a shade of interest that he listened tc
my conversation, for the volley Of
tuk-yoos' that emanated from his
little yellow breast seemed distinct,
to say:
We'll, you're not such a bad chan
after all, and. demme. rather lk,
you. You're sociable, at all events
and guess I'll let you stay here. Well
so long, old man-Pll be back abou
dinner time" And off he went dow1
a crack in the wall
And so We came to know each other
The hours no longer dragged, anC
night had fer me no more horrors, TO,
1t was then that my little friend would
often call on me:
"Tuk-yoo --tuk-yo-o. say, old man
how are you?-asleep. eh? Go away
you shant sleep when I'm around"
Come, come, my friend" | woulC
answer playfully. not in the leas
meaning what said "it's time all re
spectacle lizards were asleep"
"Tuk-yoo! do you call me lizard
! am Tuk-yoo-Tuk-yoo m,
name, and don't you forget it. Tux
yoo-o-o-that's the correct pronouncia
ton"
"Oh, beg your pardon. Senior Tux
10000 of course meant no offence,
and then he would crawl up into m.
hand, laughing boisterously at the