A PLEASANT CAPTOR--BRAVE BILL HICKSON ALLOWS ARCHIE TO ESCAPE--FIRST
GLIMPSE OF AGUINALDO.
FOR a long time Archie lay still upon the floor, being unable to move a
muscle from the shock of his encounter with the men, and because he was
tightly bound with ropes. And then he at last went off to sleep, feeling
frightened because he was in the hands of strange men, and a little
satisfied, too, because he was the victim of some adventure which might
turn out in a very interesting way.
When he awoke, it was morning, and the light came into the room through
two small square windows, set high up in the wall. Archie looked about
the room with great curiosity, but found little there to interest him.
There was nothing to be seen but an old bed without spring or mattress,
and a rickety chair with but three legs, which stood in one corner.
The walls, he was surprised to observe, were handsomely decorated with
tapestries, and Archie at once made up his mind that this had at one
time been a private dwelling-house, and had probably been owned by some
rich Spaniard who kept a store on the ground floor, and lived in these
rooms. The insurgents had probably driven the family out of the country
and had taken possession of the house, which they had stripped of
everything useful, leaving the tapestries and works of art behind them.
These suppositions were cut short by the entrance of a man who appeared
to be a half-breed, and who immediately began to speak to Archie in
broken English. The fellow had a pleasant face, and presented a fairly
good appearance, and Archie wondered how he could have come to this
place. “I suppose you have been wondering,” said the man, “why you have
been thrown into this room, and it won’t take me long to explain things.
You see this town belongs to us just now, and we don’t propose to have
any Yankee spies around here to tell Otis of our whereabouts. There
ain’t no troops in this town now, but there’s likely to be any minute,
and we patriots was sent here to take possession of things and arrange
quarters for our army. Let me tell you that the Filipino army will be
in this town to-day, and if you don’t look sharp you’ll be the first
prisoner to be shot. Aguinaldo isn’t a man to deal easily with spies,
and if he thought you was out here for that purpose he’d have you
riddled with bullets in a minute.” The man came up to Archie and began
to undo the ropes. “I reckon I can trust you free for awhile, for
there’s no use in your trying to get away, with the Filipino army all
around the town. Sit down there now, and I’ll see that you get some
breakfast. You can tell, perhaps, that I ain’t no Filipino, nor never
was one. I’m from Arizona, U. S. A., and I’m fightin’ with these rebels
for what there is in it just now. I’m mighty curious to find out how you
come to be out in these diggin’s, youngster.”
Archie was willing enough to tell all about himself. He liked this man,
in spite of his being with the rebels, and he felt that he would be able
to make friends with him if he were careful to do so. And the best plan
seemed to be for him to tell all about himself, how he happened to go to
New York, and how he had been sent out here as a boy correspondent for
the Enterprise. The man from Arizona listened to the recital with
open mouth and eyes, and he frequently laughed outright at some of the
experiences Archie described. When the narrative was finished, he seized
Archie’s hand, and said, “My name’s Bill Hickson, and you can count on
me after this fer a friend, youngster. I’ll swan if I ever heard tell
of sich nerve in my life. I’ll see that you get out of this scrape all
right, but you must be careful to keep up appearances of being under
guard. I’m a big-bug in this Filipino shack, but I wouldn’t dare to let
you out openly. So you jist kind of lay around and look despondent,
and depend on me to make things as easy for you as I can. You kin come
down-stairs now, if you like, and I’ll present you to my friends.
There don’t none of ‘em speak no English but me, and all I can do is to
interduce you, and tell ‘em that you ain’t no spy, and that you are
very sorry you ever ran up agin this here town. And I guess I’ll be
expressin’ your sentiments exactly, won’t I?” Archie nodded, but in his
heart he felt that he wasn’t sorry he had run up against the town. This
Bill Hickson, in himself, was a character worth going miles to meet,
and if what he said was true, Archie stood a good chance of seeing the
notorious Aguinaldo, with his army of Filipinos, before the day was
over.
When he reached the lower floor, he found several men lounging about in
another poorly furnished room, and they were all similar in appearance
to the men he had seen at the door the night before. They looked at
him in an indifferent way, and didn’t seem surprised that he should
be walking about without restraint. Bill Hickson stepped up to some of
them, and, after a few words in some language Archie didn’t understand,
motioned for the boy to step up. He was told to shake hands with “all
the gents,” and after he had done so he was offered a cigar, and Archie
began to realise that it was a very good thing that he had a friend at
the Filipino court. He thought, too, that if these men were samples,
Aguinaldo had a very poor lot of retainers, and later on he perceived
the real cause for the failure of the rebels to do anything more than
keep up a constant retreat. It was plain to see that the followers
of the rebel leader were “in it for what it was worth.” They had no
difficulty, any of them, in getting enough to eat, and often they had
opportunities to enjoy themselves in great fashion by taking possession
of some Filipino village and ejecting the inmates of some particularly
fine house, with a well-stocked wine-cellar.
In looking out of the window Archie perceived that the town looked very
different this morning than when he saw it the evening before. Instead
of drawn blinds and shuttered windows, there was everywhere an evident
attempt at decoration in honour of the coming army. The streets were
crowded with a throng in holiday garb, and some of the soldiers of the
rebel army had already arrived, as they could be easily distinguished by
their ragged dress and ridiculous airs, walking up and down the street.
It was all such a scene as Archie had never seen before, and would have
made a great success as the scenario for a comic opera. But as a welcome
to an army, supposedly victorious, it was a dismal failure, and Archie
wondered what General Aguinaldo would think when he entered the town and
saw such shoddy patriotism everywhere. He hadn’t long to wait,
however, before seeing the famous rebel and the effect upon him of the
celebration in his honour. It was about ten o’clock in the morning when
he rode into the public square, followed by about two hundred ragged
Filipinos, armed with all sorts of guns and pistols. Archie saw the
arrival from the roof of the building which was his mock prison, and he
could scarcely refrain from laughing outright when he saw the boasted
Filipino “army.” It was the poorest excuse for a body of troops that he
could imagine.
Aguinaldo rode a fine bay horse, as did several of his followers, but by
far the majority of the regiment, if such it could be called, was afoot,
and most of them were barefooted, too. The rebel leader looked very much
like most of his pictures, with the exception that he had an older look,
and some gray hairs about the temples. He was attired in a gaudy uniform
of some sort, with epaulets and a Spanish general’s hat, and he carried
himself with great dignity of manner. Dismounting from his horse, he
entered the administration building, where he held a conference with the
town officials, and probably made them pay over whatever money was in
the treasury “for the cause.” He remained within for two hours or more,
and all this time Archie stood upon the roof and watched the remarkable
scene in the streets below. The troops had scattered, and were engaged
in robbing the housewives of whatever they had in their houses to eat.
And the women seemed willing to provide them with whatever they could
afford, and there was much enthusiasm evident everywhere. But the
celebration was very quiet, in spite of the friendly reception, There
were no bands of music, no cheering, and no singing of battle-hymns.
The whole affair reminded Archie of some camp of a section of the famous
Coxey army, when he had seen it long ago. The soldiers were no better
dressed than tramps, and there was but little more discipline among
them.
And the celebration and occupation of the town came to a sudden end.
While Archie stood upon the roof at noontime, he saw a runner enter the
administration building in great haste, and in a minute Aguinaldo
came hurrying down the steps. Then there was a great commotion in the
streets, and the two hundred followers of the chief were seen assembled
in the square, and before they were all there the general was riding out
of the town toward the interior of the island. There was no noise, and
the inhabitants stood about apparently speechless, and wondering what
had happened. Their reception had come to an untimely end, and their
hero had left them unceremoniously. Soon the last of the straggling
troops were out of the town, and just as Archie was beginning to think
of going down from the roof Bill Hickson stuck his head up and gave him
some astonishing news. “Stay where you’re at, young feller, till these
fool Filipinos gits away from here. You saw how they skedaddled, didn’t
ye? Well, Uncle Sam is comin’ after ‘em with shot-guns, and old Aggy
heard the news just in time. He is bound for the jungle, about forty
miles southeast, and he won’t reach it until to-morrow night, anyhow,
and if the officers are quick they may be able to catch him. Now you
stay here, lad, and give ‘em the news when they git here. They’ll
thank you for it, and you may be the means of gittin’ this fool of an
Aguinaldo captured. If you does, why, your future’s all right. And ye
can tell the colonel, or whoever’s in command, that Bill Hickson is
still with ‘em, and that he’s doin’ his best fer Uncle Sam, and tell ‘em
that Aggy has got about three thousand troops altogether, but only about
a thousand with him. Now, good-bye, lad, and I hope I’ll see ye again.”
And Archie saw brave Bill Hickson get down from the roof. He brushed
some tears from his eyes as he realised that here was a brave soldier
doing good work for his country. A moment later he saw him running
across the square with four of the Filipinos, and waving his hat to
the “youngster” as he went. He followed him with his eyes as long as
he could, and then he sat down and made a solemn vow that Bill Hickson
should be named among the heroes of the war.