Sergeant Overton flashed the lantern's rays over the Filipino's left shoulder.
Nor was it a reassuring sight that the light of the lantern revealed to the young soldier.
Instead of a dozen brown-skinned men in the next room, there were eight, if Hal's hurried count was correct. Moreover, he believed them to be the same eight who had first received and bound him.
The most disquieting fact, however, was that five of the men wore revolvers at their belts, and a pistol usually has a knife at a disadvantage.
"Explain to them, Tomba," muttered the young soldier in English, "that any move of your own, or any move of theirs to help you, will be expensive for you. Warn them, for I am watching all the rascals at once and I shall not endure an instant's treachery or disobedience of my orders."
Tomba spoke to them rapidly, partly in the Tagalo and partly in the Moro dialect. Sergeant Hal listened, watched, waited in keen anxiety, for life and death hung on the issue.
CHAPTER VII
THE KIND OF MAN WHO MASTERS OTHERS
Every one of the eight sullen fellows stood as though rooted in his tracks.