This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

CHAPTER XXV


A FRIAR TELLS HIS STORY


The man on the shelf was dressed in the dull-colored garb of a Filipino friar. His face was thin and yellow, and as he gazed down at Ben and the major, the young captain could not help but compare him to some chimpanzee that had broken out of a menagerie. One eye drooped with a wicked leer, while the other was wide open in a commingling of anger and terror.

"Hi, what are you doing up there?" demanded the major.

"I no harm anybody," was the slow answer, delivered in broken English.

"I reckon he thought to hide from us," put in Ben. "He has the dress of a friar, but that may be only a disguise."

"You had better come down," went on the major, as the man did not offer to move.

"You will no shoota me?" questioned the man, suspiciously.

"No; come down."

246