That night a terrible storm swept over the mountains. Marie and her companions crept into the old church for refuge. The ponies had been given some rice and then set free to forage as best they could. They were stampeded by the violence of the wind and rain.
The morning broke cool and clear. Everybody was astir at day-break. The ponies were gone, but plenty of rice remained. Marie soon saw a way out of the difficulty. She left three of her men at the old church to await the return of the two who were to accompany her until she reached some plan for speedy descent on the opposite side of the mountains.
The advance party started out early on foot, taking with them such a supply of rice and bananas as they could carry. Only three miles farther up they entered a canon whose rocky walls, at places almost perpendicular and seeming to form pillars for the sky, were so close together at their base that it would have been impossible to have used the ponies for travel, even though they had not retreated in the storm.
Good progress was made, and by sun-down, December 20, they had reached the upper rivulets of what afterwards proved to be the north fork of the Rio Masagan, instead of the south fork which she had previously followed. The beautiful valleys below them were plainly visible as the sun sank to rest over the distant hills. A small native village could be seen on the bank of the stream a few miles ahead. The party bivouacked for the night.
Early the next morning, after a light lunch of cold rice, Marie was off on her important mission.
Her two escorts made their way back to the old church, where after another night’s rest, the five undertook their return journey to the sub-base at the spring far down the mountain side. When they reached this camp they found their ponies all returned to it; and their comrades, thinking they had all been captured or slain by the Americans, were hastily preparing to retreat. The entire party, except Marie, got back to Aguinaldo’s camp at Palanan, on Christmas Day.
Marie, was therefore, left to arrange for her own return, after her spy work had been completed. She contemplated securing help from the natives at Ilagan, among whom she had previously lived for a few months.