“It’s completely swept away. The captain thought the storm had done it, but I think the guerillas helped matters along. They hate us worse than they hate poison.”
“I suppose they reckon we have kept them from a good deal of booty,” said Gilbert. “Well, we have, for a fact.”
The storm now became so violent that conversation could be carried on only with difficulty, and presently the party relapsed into silence. The route step had been ordered at the very start; and all of the regulars were marching to suit themselves, although keeping something of a semblance to a column of fours.
At last the river was gained, and a halt was ordered,—an unnecessary command, since none of the troops could go forward. The stream was running two feet deep over its ordinary banks, and swirling along with the rapidity of a mill-race. It was fully sixty feet wide, and just deep enough in the middle to be dangerous.
As the bridge was gone, it was determined to look for a suitable fording-place, and Gilbert was placed in command of a detachment to ascend the river-bank for that purpose. The course of the soldiers, six in number, lay over a series of rough rocks, and then through a small jungle opening upon an abandoned rice field.
“If the guerillas destroyed that bridge, we want to keep our eyes open,” was Gilbert’s comment to his men, as they scrambled over the rocks, in Indian file. “They don’t travel far in the rain, and they may be close at hand.”
“I dink I see me somepoddy chust ahead!” exclaimed Carl Stummer, in a low voice. He was in the lead of the privates, and carried his rifle, ready for use. “Look!” he cried suddenly.
Gilbert gazed in the direction, and made out several forms; but all disappeared before he could get a good view of them.
“Thim was th’ Dagoes!” cried Dan Casey, using the common soldier’s term for Filipinos. “I wisht I’d got a bead on ’em! I’d a-laid wan of thim low, I’ll bet me nixt wages!”
“To cover!” shouted Gilbert, and pointed to the nearest bit of jungle. The little party ran at once in the direction, but before the shelter of the brush was gained several shots rang out, the bullets clipping the branches of the nearest trees.