The girl nodded.
“Inez brought the alarm that the house was surrounded. She hid the boy and herself. Espinosa searched for him and his intention was to carry us both away as his prisoners.” Then a sudden fear came into her voice and her eyes flashed with excited terror. “He said that Colonel Martinez had been killed. Is it so?”
The lads shook their heads.
“We have no news, Maria,” Phil said kindly. “No, it cannot be so. It was but prompted by this cruel man to taunt you.”
She sighed hopefully.
“If he had known of this attack and was alive he would have prevented it,” she exclaimed suddenly, her hope turning to dejection.
While they were talking the fusillade slowly diminished and soon ceased altogether and in a short time Captain Blynn’s voice was heard in the hall below.
In the large living-room the army and navy men sat, until the daylight sifted in through the shell windows, talking of the perplexing situation, while Maria was made to go to bed and sleep. The doctor who accompanied the captain regarded her with eyes of grave concern.
“She must not be overexcited. She is outwardly calm but her heart acts queerly. It may snap at any moment,” he had told the lads.
“I have received a long letter from your friend, Colonel Martinez,” the captain exclaimed to the midshipmen after disposing of a steaming cup of coffee. “He said he would willingly surrender to General Wilson if the price on his head were removed, and he sent me papers and documents which I have already sent to the governor-general in Manila which prove Martinez’s innocence of certain crimes committed in Luzon and implicate a Filipino now high in the good graces of the government.”