Nothing daunted, in the lead, he urged his men forward. He would attack, no matter what were the odds against him. Espinosa should not escape!
After several hours of strenuous marching a straggler was found on the side of the trail and after a hasty interview gave the anxious native the good tidings that Lopez was ahead on the same quest as himself.
Hurrying forward, most of the time on a run, he overtook his father’s faithful servant just before darkness arrived, and together, unsparingly, they urged onward their tired men.
Gregorio’s keen eyes were ever on the trail; in his heart was a desperate resolve. The thought of escape of Espinosa maddened him beyond endurance. The newly made grave in the family burying grounds spurred him on to almost superhuman exertions. Lopez, hardened as he was to toil in the fields, kept pace with his untiring young master, but many of the pursuing natives were left far behind.
“We are nearly to Banate,” Lopez said intensely as they saw the high jungle slowly merge into nipa swamp. The cocoanut palms were becoming more and more infrequent and the mud of the trail clung to their tired feet.
So silently had they approached the little settlement at the foot of the hills rising from the delta of the river that the sudden barking of a dog caused them to stop in consternation.
With eyes open wide with anxiety and apprehension, Gregorio and Lopez pressed onward through the narrow street. They saw the natives were not as yet awake, the houses were closed and no human being was visible. On the ocean beach they saw many native boats hauled high above the tide. Anxiously they visited each in turn, but all were abandoned.
The sandy soil gave them no news of their quarry. Many footmarks were evident, but the tracks were so crossed and recrossed that even Gregorio gave up all hope of learning from them the direction taken by Espinosa and his men.
Gregorio stood in deepest dejection at the edge of the beach; his eyes sorrowfully scanned the dark waters. Had Espinosa turned off into the jungle, allowing him to go by, chuckling in his sleeve at the cleverness of his ruse? or had he embarked, and was he now sailing rapidly away toward freedom and wealth? Many of the straggling natives had now gathered about their chief and waited for his orders. They had ruthlessly entered the huts of the sleeping villagers and had dragged several of them trembling before their leaders.
“But a half hour ago a large proa was launched from down the beach,” a native villager spoke up. “It had been waiting, and we were commanded to keep indoors on penalty of being shot. Through my bamboo shutter I saw it start.”