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BETWEEN TWO FIRES.
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they seem to be coming this way. Wamba, what had we best do?"

The native looked at me in perplexity, and Dan repeated the question in Spanish. Then Wamba pointed off to the woods back of us. "We hide in hollow," he said, in his native tongue.

We lost no time in following him, for the sound of firearms came closer, and soon a bullet clipped through the leaves over our heads. As we descended into the hollow to which the guide led us we heard a wild shouting, and at a distance a hundred or more Tagals burst into sight.

The natives were armed with rifles secured at Cavité and in Manila, and were endeavoring to turn the right flank of a company of Spanish soldiers, who soon came into view on the opposite side of the hollow. The firing was now incessant, and all three of our party were glad enough to drop down out of sight in the dense bushes.

"We are caught between two fires!" announced Dan grimly. "Here's a state of things, to say the least. Oliver, how do you like it?"

"We had better remain quiet, Dan. I have no desire to get a Mauser bullet through my head."

"Nor I. I only hope both sides move off to some other locality."