Phil half wished that he had not volunteered for this nerve-racking ordeal. After all what did he owe Tillotson? Had not the army man tried to injure him in every way? Yet the lad knew for that very reason he had asked to be allowed to risk his own life to rescue him. Then he thought suddenly of O’Neil. His stalwart form was just ahead of him, dimly outlined in the darkness. Had he acted generously to this brave and willing sailor?
“O’Neil, I am mighty sorry I brought you along,” he exclaimed suddenly.
O’Neil stopped in his tracks so suddenly that the two brown men bumped their heads with some force against his back and cried out with surprise.
“Why, sir!” he answered in an aggrieved tone. “Have I done anything to displease you, sir?”
Phil laughed outright, only to be prodded by the sharp bayonets of his captors for his incautiousness.
“If that’s the way you feel about it,” he said, “I am glad you are here.”
Inside of ten minutes, conversation was impossible, for they needed all their breath for the precipitous climb up the face of the cliff leading to the top of the mountain. The natives on each side of the prisoners pulled and pushed them up the jagged and rocky trail until their bodies were bruised and their skin torn in many places by the cruel cactus and “Spanish bayonet,” which seemed to have been planted by nature as a further difficulty for those who dared to ascend the secret trail to the insurgent stronghold.
After many rests, out of breath, footsore, bleeding and tired, the top was reached and with scant courtesy O’Neil and Phil were thrown into a nipa shack, where they fell unceremoniously on top of a sleeping human being who awakened with a cry of alarm and fear, striking at them with his manacled hands.
“It’s Lieutenant Tillotson,” O’Neil exclaimed gladly, as he rolled away to the farthest side of the small hut, to put himself out of reach of the startled prisoner.
“Who are you?” came from the figure, in a weak voice. “Yes, I am Lieutenant Tillotson. Tell me I’m not dreaming. Didn’t I hear a white man’s voice?”