by Alfred Elwes
CHAPTER XXI.
CONTINUING THE CRUISE--ANOTHER VILLAGE CAPTURED--THE ADMIRAL ARCHIE'S FRIEND--A GREAT BATTLE AND AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY--LONGING TO BE HOME AGAIN.
IT may go without saying that the sixty men from the cruiser had a veryinteresting time before the night was over. The entire village was in aconstant uproar; the poor natives, horrified by what they had witnessedduring the afternoon, ran hither and thither, some even leaving theplace entirely and starting for the interior with their goods andfamilies. The rebel soldiers had evidently gone for good, and a smallparty sent out to look for traces of them returned without learninganything of their whereabouts. The bombardment of the village hadcertainly had great effect.
It was only a tiny place, with possibly not more than a thousandinhabitants, but there were evidences that it had been formerly aflourishing town. There were fine residences in some of the streets,which were now quite deserted, and there were some very respectablebusiness houses in the village square. All these had once been occupiedby Spanish traders, who had been driven away when the rebels came, andif the insurgents had never come the town might now have been a boomingplace. But the rebels were lazy, as usual, and did no work, so that nowthe fine residences were vacant, and the business blocks stood empty.
Some of the sailors looked about for a casino, where they might be ableto find entertainment of some kind for the evening, but every placeof amusement was closed, and the streets were deserted. Since theoccurrences of the afternoon all the people had locked themselves intotheir houses, to await the departure of the Americans. But, even thoughthe casino was closed, the Yankees managed to have a good time. Theysang and danced and played the banjo until an early hour in the morning,when they finally went to sleep, leaving only two for a night watch,for there was no danger that the insurgents would return, after theirengagement, in which they had lost six men.
When morning came, some officers landed from the cruiser, and allthe villagers were summoned to the public square and made to swearallegiance to the American flag.
In the afternoon the cruiser steamed away again on her errand offorcible pacification, and more days of quiet watchfulness followed, asthe vessel steamed along near the shore. There were many smallvillages along this coast, but all of them seemed peaceful and freeof insurgents. The captain even said that some of the people in themprobably didn't know that there had ever been a war between Spain andthe United States. Archie, who had enjoyed his experiences during theoccupation of the last village, now began to be impatient again atthe long quiet. The day when the cruiser bombarded the administrationbuilding would be a memorable one to him, and the succeeding events werejust such as he had been longing to see for months. And then to thinkthat he had taken part in the occupation of the village. It was all verywonderful, but very real, too, and for several days he took much painsin writing an article for the paper describing the events leading upto and including the capture of the village. And in the narration BillHickson was an important character. He had again proved himself a heroof the first water by insisting that the boat proceed when the firstattempt was made to land, and by being the first man ashore when alanding was finally effected. He was a leader in everything that wasdone. He marched at the head of the squad when they marched through thestreets of the village, calling all the people to assemble in the publicsquare, and he stood beside the officers with his rifle handy when theceremony of swearing allegiance was gone through with. When it wasall over he was called to the admiral's cabin aboard the cruiser andcongratulated for being so brave and so ever-ready to lead in anydangerous undertaking; but Bill Hickson simply blushed and saidhe hadn't done "anything worth mentionin'." The men aboard thoughtdifferently, however, and he was even a greater hero after thisadventure than he had been before.
Archie, too, received the congratulations of the admiral. "You have beena brave boy," he said, "and deserve much credit for showing so littlefear in the face of danger. I hope you will be rewarded upon your returnto New York for your bravery while with us here." Archie, too, blushed,and said that he had no doubt that Mr. Van Bunting would treat himfairly when he reached New York again.
And Archie was now beginning to wish that the time for his return wouldsoon arrive. It was the month of February, and he had been away fromAmerica an age, it seemed to him. He felt that he had seen most of whatthere was to be seen in the Philippines, and when this naval tour wasover with, the active campaigning would no doubt cease until the rainyseason was over. So for many reasons the boy wished he might be able tostart home soon, and as the days passed he became more and more anxiousto receive word from the Enterprise that he might return. He had sentmany interesting articles to the paper, and would be able to write manymore just as interesting upon his return, so he felt that the editorswouldn't object to his early return.
For an entire week the cruiser found no signs of the rebels, but at lastthere came a day when they were steaming slowly along near the shore,and saw, back among the trees, some specks of white resembling tentsin shape. Immediately the whole vessel was excited, and there was muchgossip and wonder as to what the tents could be doing there. The admiralat last decided to send two boats ashore to investigate, and gave strictorders that the men should be cautious and not allow themselves to beambushed or caught in a trap of any kind. Of course Archie and BillHickson were among the crew of the first boat, and each was as fullyarmed as any of the sailors.
The two boats pulled quietly for the shore, keeping close together, andthey were beached at the same time. The natives, or whoever occupied thetents, had evidently not yet discovered them, and the men halted uponlanding to decide what they had better do. The tents could be plainlyseen through the trees, and there was smoke rising from a fire somewherein the neighbourhood, but there were no noises which could be heardso far away. It was decided to march up to the tents and find out whooccupied them, and the column kept close together as they advanced, forthings were so quiet it was feared the rebels, if such they were, mightbe in ambush.
The men got within a hundred feet of the camp, when they heard severalterrible yells in succession, and several natives ran out from behindone of the tents, screaming at the top of their voices, and not pausingto look around at all. The officer in command of the company of men wasmuch disturbed by this demonstration, and, without pausing a moment,gave the order to fire. Five of the natives fell immediately, but theother six kept running, and soon disappeared among the trees on theother side of the clearing. The men stood still awaiting developments,but though they waited several minutes nothing more was heard, and itwas decided that the camp must be deserted. So they marched up to thetents, and then the officer almost fainted, for inside the first onehe entered was standing an American flag, and scattered about were theaccoutrements and camp equipment belonging to an American force in thefield. There was now no doubt but what the tents belonged to anAmerican regiment, and that the fleeing natives were either servants orprisoners, more likely the former. The men were all much excited at thisdiscovery, and the officer ordered the natives to be looked after atonce. It was found, however, that all but one were dead, and he expiredwithin an hour, so that the men felt that they had killed five innocentmen, a thought which made some of them weep, hardened though they were.
It was now decided to await the return of the regiment, which was out,the officer thought, on a practice march, and could not possibly begone much longer. So the men lounged about on the grass for more than anhour. Then, about three in the afternoon, a rifle-shot was heard in thenear distance, and instantly every man was on his feet, rifle in hand."They must have found the rebels," said the officer; "so be ready,men, to help them out, should they be retreating to the camp." Thissupposition turned out to be correct, for a few minutes later somemembers of the regiment came running into camp and announced that alarge body of insurgents was after them. Later the remainder of theregiment followed, and the joy of the colonel when he found theseunexpected reinforcements was very great. "There must be more tha
nfifteen hundred rebels," he said, "and they will all be on us here inless than an hour, for their sharpshooters have been following us up fora long time. I was beginning to think that we would be unable to fightthem, for they seem to be well equipped, but with the cruiser to kelpus we can whip them at once. The thing to do will be to let them comeon without suspecting that we have received any help, and then, when thefight is getting a little warm, or they are about to charge us, let thecruiser fire a few shells into the air, and it will all be over. Most ofthem are country troops, and have never seen a cruiser, so they will betoo much frightened to speak when they hear the thunder of the guns, andsee the shells explode in the air. And then they have a village aboutthree miles back from the coast, and if you can send a few shells intothat village it will simply ruin the insurgents.
"I had no idea of meeting these rebels," the colonel then explained. "Itook the men out for a little practice marching, but before we had gonefar we encountered these sharpshooters, and later discovered that theyhad all these men about a mile and a half away. Then we decided toreturn to camp as quickly as possible, to get more ammunition, and wefelt, too, that we would stand a better chance of resisting them hereamong the trees. But now we will soon finish them up, if you will justsend a man out to tell the admiral of our plans." Archie immediatelyvolunteered to carry the information, and as he could be spared betterthan one of the soldiers or sailors, he was permitted to undertake themission. So he started out, and was on board the cruiser in a very shorttime. The admiral was dumbfounded to learn that American troops wereencamped on the shore, and in imminent danger of being defeated, and heat once set about giving orders with great vigour. "We will show themhow they can attack a small regiment of Americans with their ridiculousarmy," he declared, and at once gave orders for the vessel to moveinshore. "But wait," he cried, a minute later, "I see by my chartthat there is a deep stream about a mile up the coast, and if I amnot mistaken we can enter this stream and perhaps get very near theadvancing rebels. We may even be able to destroy them before they havea chance at our soldiers," and the old admiral almost danced in theenthusiasm of this idea. So the cruiser steamed rapidly up the coast,and was soon at the mouth of the stream, which seemed to be the estuaryof some great river. Then she steamed up-stream, and, sure enough, theadmiral soon discovered the rebels marching rapidly along the road,about half a mile away. They had evidently not perceived the cruiser, onaccount of the high reeds growing along the banks, and the admiral gaveorders to begin firing.
The first shell rose high in the air and exploded with a deafeningthunder, and when the smoke cleared away it was seen that the insurgentswere almost paralysed with fright, and had just discovered the cruiserin the river. But this first shell had not hurt any one, and anotherwas immediately ignited. This one exploded over the very heads of thetroops, and many of them must have been killed. Those who were noteither killed or wounded turned about and began to run, and theirleaders were powerless to make them stand their ground. One shellfollowed another from the cruiser, and hundreds must have been killedoutright among the insurgents. Finally they were all running, and it wassoon perceived that the Americans had advanced, and were now pursuingthem with great energy. So the cruiser could fire no more shells, andthe admiral ordered her about and back to the anchorage onshore.
It would take many pages to describe in detail the events of theremainder of that afternoon, as Archie witnessed them from the deck ofthe cruiser, and learned of them later from Bill Hickson. The insurgentswere nearly all killed or taken prisoners, and it was found that theynumbered nearly two thousand. So it was a great achievement to havevanquished them all. The affair turned out to have been the greatestvictory of the war, so far.