CHAPTER II
CLOSE QUARTERS IN THE JUNGLE
"Boys, we leave to-day for Manila."
It was Captain Banner of Gilbert's company who spoke, addressing a dozen or more of his command, who were squatting around a camp-fire built near the shelter of an overhanging cliff. Close to the camp-fire were half a dozen rude shacks which the regulars had erected for comfort while stopping in the neighborhood, they preferring the rude huts to their own torn and dilapidated tents.
"Und how soon vos ve goin' py China, captain?" asked Carl Stummer, a German volunteer who had enlisted in Company A soon after his old friend Gilbert had become lieutenant.
"Just as soon as orders come from headquarters, Stummer. Are you anxious to get on new fighting ground?"
"Vell, captain, I ton't vos barticularly anxious for new fightin' ground; but I vos anxious for ground vot ain't vet a foot deep all der dime," answered Stummer, with a broad grin. "Last night I dream me I vos in Noah's ark, und der ark got sunk, und I vent overboard. Ven I vake up, I vos on mine pack in vater most a foot teep."
"I hope you swam for your life, Carl," put in Gilbert, while a laugh went up.
"He can't swim, bedad," added Dan Casey, an Irish soldier, who had been a friend to Stummer for years. "Don't ye remimber how Captain Ben Russell—he was only a common sodger thin—hauled him out av the waters av New York Bay, an' was arristed fer doin' it, bekase the colonel thought he was afther tryin' to desert whin he jumped overboard."
"I vos learn me how to schwim since den," replied Stummer, gravely. "Of I didn't learn, I vos drown more as fifty dimes ofer here alretty." And again a laugh went up.
Tents were to be struck at noon, sharp; and soon the camp was a busy place, as the soldier boys began to gather together their few belongings. Although it was raining lightly, guns had to be cleaned, swords polished, and uniforms brushed up as much as possible.
The news had travelled swiftly that the regiment was ordered to China; and many of the officers and men of other commands close by came in to verify the report, and to say good-by to their friends. Several came to see Gilbert and wish him the best of luck, for he had always been popular.
"I thrust we'll be afther seein' Captain Russell in Manila," said Dan Casey to the young lieutenant. "I wouldn't loike to go away widout sayin' him farewell." Casey and Stummer had both been members of Ben Russell's company of volunteers before joining the regulars.
"Yes, I hope we do see him, and Larry, too," answered Gilbert. "I would give a good deal to have the Russells go along." But this was not to be, as the duty of the Russell boys lay elsewhere.
The colonel of the command was a stickler for military discipline; and promptly at twelve the regiment moved, or at least the two battalions which were located in that neighborhood. The third battalion had gone up in the mountains to the southward, and a special message had been sent to it to rejoin the main command at the earliest opportunity.
The light rain soon gave way to a steady downpour, which threatened to become a deluge before nightfall; and in many spots the soldiers had to leave the road and take to the paddy fields, the thin crust of ground and growth of the one beiag preferable to the oozy, sticky mud of the other. The caribao carts, piled high with the camping outfit, lumbered along with difficulty; and at every quarter of a mile one or another got stuck, and had to be helped out of its difficulty.
"This is hardly a march to victory, lieutenant," observed Captain Banner, as he ranged alongside of his second in command.
"I don't believe any of us will want a bath for a month after this rain stops," returned Gilbert grimly, "at least, not from the knees up."
"It is well you qualified your first remark," said the captain, who was a West Point graduate, a well-read officer, and a first-rate fellow. "From my knees down I feel as if I had been wandering around in an ocean of filthy pitch. It seems to me the natives ought to be able to make bricks of this sticky mud without half trying."
"We are going to have some fun when we reach the river a mile below here," put in Major Morris, who had also come up. "Captain Anderson came over last night, and he said it was running at a fearful rate then."
"And what about that new bridge we worked so hard to put up?" asked the young lieutenant.
"It's completely swept away. The captain thought the storm had done it, but I think the guerillas helped matters along. They hate us worse than they hate poison."
"I suppose they reckon we have kept them from a good deal of booty," said Gilbert. "Well, we have, for a fact."
The storm now became so violent that conversation could be carried on only with difficulty, and presently the party relapsed into silence. The route step had been ordered at the very start; and all of the regulars were marching to suit themselves, although keeping something of a semblance to a column of fours.
At last the river was gained, and a halt was ordered,—an unnecessary command, since none of the troops could go forward. The stream was running two feet deep over its ordinary banks, and swirling along with the rapidity of a mill-race. It was fully sixty feet wide, and just deep enough in the middle to be dangerous.
As the bridge was gone, it was determined to look for a suitable fording-place, and Gilbert was placed in command of a detachment to ascend the river-bank for that purpose. The course of the soldiers, six in number, lay over a series of rough rocks, and then through a small jimgle opening upon an abandoned rice field.
"If the guerillas destroyed that bridge, we want to keep our eyes open," was Gilbert's comment to his men, as they scrambled over the rocks, in Indian file. "They don't travel far in the rain, and they may be close at hand."
"I dink I see me somepoddy chust ahead!" exclaimed Carl Stummer, in a low voice. He was in the lead of the privates, and carried his rifle, ready for use. "Look!" he cried suddenly.
Gilbert gazed in the direction, and made out several forms; but all disappeared before he could get a good view of them.
"Thim was th' Dagoes!" cried Dan Casey, using the common soldier's term for Filipinos. "I wisht I'd got a bead on 'em! I'd a-laid wan of thim low, I'll bet me nixt wages!"
"To cover!" shouted Gilbert, and pointed to the nearest bit of jungle. The little party ran at once in the direction, but before the shelter of the brush was gained several shots rang out, the bullets clipping the branches of the nearest trees.
The attack came as a surprise; but the young lieutenant was not sorry that the volley had been fired, since it would notify his comrades in arms that something was wrong. Scarcely had the volley ended when Dan Casey fired in return; but, if he hit any one, the enemy gave no sign.
The jungle gained,—it was a small patch less than an acre in extent, facing the river,—Gilbert ordered his men to lie down and keep strict watch on all sides, while he himself moved close to the water's edge. A sudden idea had popped into his head, and he wished to learn if his surmise was correct.
In order to obtain a clear view of the river, he had to wade into the water overrunning the bank to the depth of a foot and more, in the mean time breaking his way through vines and creepers, which formed a perfect network amid the tropical trees. He advanced as cautiously as he could, and, reaching an opening at last, peeped forth with care.
He had been right in his guess. The Filipino guerillas, some twenty in number, had encamped in another patch of jungle a hundred yards further up the river; and now several of the party were crossing the stream in two cascoes, as the native small boats are named. A rope was stretched from shore to shore, and a man in each casco was hauling his craft along this by hand.
"If only I had the whole company here!" thought the young lieutenant. He felt that, if this were so, he could readily "bag" every one of the insurgents.
The thought had scarcely crossed his mind when two more rifle-shots rang out, followed by a cry from Stummer.
"Der repels vos running py der rifer!" came from the German soldier. "Shall ve go after dem, lieutenant?"
"No, wait!" ordered Gilbert. He turned to Dan Casey. "Go back as fast as you can, and report a body of twenty guerillas about to cross the river in two boats. We can round them up if we are re-enforced immediately."
"I'll run wid might an' main," answered the Irish soldier, and set off with leaps and bounds over the rocks in the direction whence he had come. The Filipinos saw him, and opened fire on him; but he got out of range uninjured.
As soon as Casey was gone, Gilbert called his detachment to his side, and pointed out the cascoes.
"Those men must not be allowed to reach the other river-bank," he said.
"And they won't reach it, hear me!" cried one of the regulars, a tall Westerner; and, taking aim at the man at the rope in the leading boat, he fired. As the report rang out, the man fell, shot through the shoulder; and the casco began to drift rapidly down stream.
The other regulars also opened fire; and soon the ropeman of the second casco was likewise laid low, and that boat began to drift after the other. But the craft was still close to shore; and, as soon as their leader was shot down, the other two occupants leaped into the water and mud, and struck out for the jungle which now concealed the rest of the guerillas, who had lost no time in disappearing after the first volley from the Americans.
Left to its own devices, the first boat came down the river rapidly, sometimes swinging to one side and then to the other, and once turning around completely in the strong current. It held two uninjured rebels, who for the time being seemed to be bewildered by the turn of affairs.
As the casco approached the spot where Gilbert stood, a sudden turn of the river current forced it to shore. It swept under some overhanging trees; and one of the insurgents immediately grasped some vines, and pulled the craft still further to land.
"Leap for your life, Garro!" shouted one of the pair, in Spanish; and an instant later both sprang out on the river-bank in water up to their knees, and directly in front of the young lieutenant. One held a gun in his hand, and the other a pistol; and in a trice both weapons were levelled at Gilbert's head.