UNDER MacARTHUR IN LUZON
CHAPTER I
SOMETHING ABOUT THE RUSSELL BOYS
"Captain Russell, if I know anything about it, this is dangerous ground upon which we are treading."
"I fully agree with you, Lieutenant Gilmore. But to capture Aguinaldo, or any of his staff, is no easy task, and we have got to take some risks."
"I don't believe we shall ever capture Aguinaldo, captain. Our boys have tried it a hundred times, and he's like the flea in the old story,—when you put your hand on him he wasn't there."
"Well, if we can't capture him, we'll capture all we can of his staff and his so-called cabinet, and likewise his soldiers, and then he'll be very much like a king without a crown or a kingdom, lieutenant."
"I don't believe in pushing too far into the mountains after these fellows," went on Lieutenant Gilmore, earnestly. "Our force isn't large enough for the work."
"Are you growing afraid?"
"Not exactly, but I don't want to see the first battalion, and especially Company D, pounced upon and wiped out by Filipino sharpshooters. Major Morris told me he had heard the rebels had a fine body of good shots in this vicinity—got the news direct from General Lawton."
"Doubtless Aguinaldo believes in keeping the very best of his soldiers close by him. If he would only listen to reason and throw down his arms—" Captain Ben Russell broke off short and came to a sudden halt. "What's that?"
"What's what?"
"Didn't you see that movement among the bushes on the right of the trail? It looked—there it goes again. Get behind the trees, quick!"
As he spoke Captain Russell dropped down, dragging his fellow-officer with him, and then both crawled to the shelter of the nearest trees lining the road upon which they had been travelling. The movement came none too soon; for while they were yet seeking shelter a report rang out on the misty morning air, and a bullet clipped through the brushwood close beside them.
"Wasn't that a close shave?" gasped Lieutenant Gilmore, when he felt safe to speak. "What did I tell you, captain?"
Captain Ben Russell did not reply immediately, for the reason that his whole attention was directed to the turn in the road from whence the shot had proceeded. He half expected more shots to follow, but in this he was disappointed.
"I believe I saw the glint of that rascal's rifle barrel," he observed slowly. "But I can't locate the exact spot now."
"What had we best do—fall back and report?"
"That depends. I should like to know if that fellow is alone."
"It's not likely—they always travel in batches of half a dozen or more—you know that as well as I."
"Our command could easily round up half a dozen." The young captain of Company D paused in thought. "I have half a mind to scout around a little and size up the situation before we go back."
"But the danger—"
"You can remain behind, lieutenant, if you wish."
"No; if you go ahead, I'll go too. But we have got to be careful. What do you propose?"
"Do you see that line of brushwood on our left, running up among the rocks?"
"Yes."
"I propose we crawl along the bushes on the other side until we get to the first of the rocks. Then, if we don't see anything, we can leap over the rocks and continue our scouting by coming up behind the spot from which the shot was sent."
"All right, captain."
"Don't make any noise, and don't speak unless it is absolutely necessary," concluded Captain Russell, and then the pair moved off as silently as shadows through the semi-gloom of the wet June morning.
It was a dangerous task which had been undertaken, and Captain Ben Russell of Company D, Colonel Darcy's regiment of volunteers, stationed in the island of Luzon, was well aware of that fact. The Filipino insurgents were growing more desperate every day, and their sharpshooters were taking greater risks than ever, in their endeavors to bring down the Americanos at long range, especially the officers.
It was the middle of the year 1899, and Captain Ben Russell's command had returned to Manila, accompanied by a number of their wounded, after taking active part in an expedition under General Lawton to San Isidro, a perilous advance of a hundred and fifty miles through a hostile country, which lasted twenty days and brought on twenty-two battles. How gallantly the young captain conducted himself through this expedition, and through others, has already been related in previous volumes of this series entitled respectively, "Under Otis in the Philippines" and "The Campaign of the Jungle."
The captain was one of three brothers, he being the eldest, with Walter coming next, and lighthearted Larry the youngest. The home of the three was in Buffalo, New York, where they lived with their uncle, Job Dowling, who was now nominally their guardian. At one time Job Dowling had been very dictatorial and mean, and this had caused the three brothers to run away from home, Ben trying his fortunes in New York City, Walter making his way to Boston, and Larry drifting to San Francisco. At San Francisco Larry had shipped as a foremast hand, first for Honolulu and then for Hong Kong, and on this latter voyage he had been wrecked with his intimate Yankee friend, Luke Striker, only to be picked up later by the Asiatic Squadron under Commodore (later Admiral) Dewey, just as the latter was sailing for the Philippines to engage the Spanish fleet under Admiral Montojo. How the greatest naval battle of modern times was successfully fought by Uncle Sam's jackies, and what part Larry and his friend Luke played in the drama, will be found set down in all its glorious details in "Under Dewey at Manila." After this battle Larry returned home, thinking the war in Philippine waters at an end, but when fresh troubles came in the shape of the Filipino rebellion he hastened to rejoin his ship the Olympia, and, later on, left that vessel to join the volunteer army, along with Luke Striker. But both had been wounded, and they were among those taken to the hospital at Manila.
Walter Russell was not naturally a sailor like Larry, but in Boston he had fallen in with a naval veteran of the Civil War, and this old gunner had so fired the youth's patriotic ambition that Walter had enlisted in the navy at the Charlestown Navy Yard, to serve, later on, under Commodore Schley on the Brooklyn, at the destruction of Admiral Cervera's fleet in Santiago harbor, the particulars of which I have given in "Fighting in Cuban Waters." After this thrilling contest Walter had returned home to rejoin his brothers, and had aided them in bringing Job Dowling "to terms," as the three expressed it. Later still Walter had rejoined his ship for a cruise to Jamaica and other points, but this was now over, and at present he was on his way to the Philippines, with his chum, Si Doring, to join one of the ships stationed at Luzon, His remarkable cruise, with its queer ending, will be related in some of the chapters which follow.
It can truly be said that Ben Russell was a born soldier. Immediately upon the breaking out of the war he had joined the volunteers, and after being in camp on Long Island and at Tampa, Florida, he had been transported to Cuba, there to participate in the various engagements leading up to that of San Juan Hill, and to the downfall of Santiago. With him went his warm-hearted Southern chum, Gilbert Pennington, and the various adventures of the pair are set forth in detail in "A Young Volunteer in Cuba." Gilbert belonged to Roosevelt's Rough Riders, but at the conclusion of the war with Spain, he left that organization now so famous in history and reënlisted with Ben for service in the island of Luzon. Gilbert had become first lieutenant of Company B of Colonel Darcy's regiment, and had also served under General Lawton. While advancing to answer a flag of truce shown by the Filipinos some treacherous rebel had shot him in the shoulder, inflicting a painful although not a dangerous wound; and he was now in the hospital with Larry, although he hoped to be out again in a few days.
Although Ben Russell had come to the Philippines solely to do his duty as a soldier, his adventures had not all been of a warlike nature. The Russell fortune, amounting to between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand dollars, had been invested by Job Dowling in the Hearthstone Saving Institution of Buffalo, of which one Braxton Bogg had been cashier. This Bogg had absconded, taking with him over a hundred thousand dollars belonging to the bank, which action practically wrecked the institution. By accident Ben had fallen in with Braxton Bogg at Manila, and after missing his man several times, had succeeded in having him arrested. When in prison Bogg had confessed that he had turned the stolen funds over to a Spaniard named Benedicto Lupez, who had recently joined the insurgent army. It was no light task to follow up this Lupez, but it was finally accomplished at the fall of San Isidro, and from him was taken a leather bag containing fifty thousand dollars in gold. At first Lupez refused to talk, but at last confessed that just previous to the fall of the city he had divided the booty with his brother José, who had immediately left for parts unknown. It was afterward learned by Ben that this José Lupez was a very eccentric old Spaniard, and that he had paid Aguinaldo five thousand dollars for a general's commission in the Filipino army. What he had done with the remaining forty-five thousand dollars was known only to the newly titled General Lupez himself.
"We ought to try to get hold of that General Lupez," Larry was wont to say, as he lay sick in the hospital at Manila. "Unless the money is recovered, the Hearthstone Saving Institution won't be able to pay more than fifty cents on the dollar, and that will mean a loss to us of eight or ten thousand dollars."
"I'll certainly do what I can," had been Ben Russell's reply. "But you know how the rebels are scattered now, and this Lupez will probably take warning by his brother's fate and give us a wide berth." Nevertheless, although he thought the chances of meeting this rascal slim, the young captain was on the constant lookout for him, and ready to bring him in, dead or alive, at the first opportunity that offered.