The Bottineau courant., 1909-04-30

doctors boots when the doctor came
galloping back at p. M, but there
was Pepita, big-eyed and trembling,
and Pepita held forth bunch Of keys,
pointing to the spiral stairway hole,
and said-nothing. The surgeon hur-
riedly unlocked his trunk, threw on
the shirts, threw open the lid, stirred
erals room "By George, sir, Gen.
Hughes was right! l oughtn't to have
kept a cent about the house. Victor
! has robbed me of $2OO!"
Whereupon Pepita began to cry and
say: mo Victor! No Victor!" until
the doctor bade her be silent and clear
out. The next seen of Victor was two
days later, when the battle had begun
in good earnest. He was lying, face
upward, in the light-blue uniform OF
Aguinaldo's army, shot dead In front
of Santa Ana, and there wasn't a cent
in his pockets.
Among the interesting papers, mem
oranda, etc., captured in the victorious
rush of the big Americanos on RI
carte's headquarters was a guard de.
tail of the previous evening, setting
forth among other things that the
sergeant on duty at Concordia bridge
bore the name of Hilario Bellarmino.
The brigade surgeon was very busy
caring for the many wounded on both
sides when this was shown him by
an aide-de.camp. "Humph!" said he;
they're all in it, I doubt not" But
the aide-de-camp went back to the
bridge and examined the half dozen
bodies stretched about the ruins of the
bamboo guard house. There lay the
officer Of the guard In his broad striped
blue trousers and braided coat. There
lay corporal and three or four pri.
vate soldiers, but the sergeant had es.
capped, and so the men told his wife,
who came, silent and searching about
the spot, big-eyed little Hilario, too
weary to walk, sitting astraddle at her
hip. Then they compassionately let
her pass on to Santa Ana to examine
other groups of dead lying here and
there over the still smoking field, and
Corp. Cassidy of Hawthorne's battery
saw her look down into the livid Tea
lures and staring, sightless eyes of one
young Tagalog victim, then deliberate
ly spit into the helpless face. He
grabbed the girl by the arm and shook
her roughly, for moral man was Cas-
sidy, who wore over his gallant heart
the mate to the Agnus Del that, bathed
in Victor's blood, protruded from the
breast Of the pale-blue uniform. Cas-
sidy shook her to some purpose, it
would seem, for after she had broken
from his clutch and scurried away
into the village, and an officer galloped
up to arrest Corporal Cassidy for
brutality to natives, both captain and
corporal were amazed at the sight of
American eagles cleaning red-yellow
in the dust about Victors body.
Here" said the captain, "is at least
$50 of the money that black thief stole
from the doctor!" and rode away to
tell the general. And then came little
Pepita, sobbing her heart out, to
throw herself upon the lifeless, dis
honored clay, and to lavish caresses
on the sightless face. 1t was more
than Cassidy could stand He knew
Pepita and the peek k'ninnies;" he
knew their friend the aide-de-camp
and seeing him, notebook in hand,
counting the insurgent dead but lit
tie distance away, Cassidy ventured to
interrupt. The fight about the vii
lage was long since done. The sound
of the pursuit far up the river was
dying away with the declining sun.
Two or three jackies with the Olympia
ribbon on their hats wandered about
the field, when suddenly one of them
was seized by the arm by weeping,
disheveled little native woman and
dragged over to where Victor lay.
Thither, too, hastened Cassidy with
his captive, the aide-de-camp, and then
came excited colloquy in the marvel
Gus jargon already established-a spe-
cies of trans-Pacific "chinook"
lineal mixture of English, Irish,
Spanish and Tagalog, to the end that
Pepita's sailor boy presently delivered
himself as follows:
"Yes, sir; it's so, sir. waded ashore
from our boat with a letter for the
general, an as l went round to the
front of the house everybody had run
out to the gate an there was a little
woman come out or that back room.
Yes, she had a red skirt on, as this
girl says, and little chap astraddle
on her hip" But here Pepita, with
blazing eyes, burst impetuously into
the case and nearly pulled the lieuten-
ant off his pony in wild effort to drag
him into the village. So they followed
her, almost on a run, and, straight as
a die, she led them to new house,
half Spanish, half native, at the rear
of the big church, and right into a
group of native women and children
huddled together in the courtyard un-
der the wing of a priest. And there,
in her red skirt, was Pancha, whose
face turned an awful color at sight Of
Pepita and her following. "Shall
~