CHAPTER XI.
It was late in the afternoon when the Sacramento, slowly feeling her waysouthward, had come within view of El Fraile and Corregidor, looming uplike sentinels at the entrance to the great, far-spreading bay.
Butt and his assistants, with the field officer in command of thetroops, peered through their binoculars or telescopes for sign ofcruiser or transport along the rocky shores, and marvelled much thatnone could be seen. Over against the evening sun just sinking to thewest the dim outlines of the upper masts and spars of some big vesselbecame visible for three minutes, then faded from view. The passengersswarmed on deck, silent, anxious, ever and anon gazing upward at thebridge as though in hope of a look or word of encouragement.
It was midsummer and more when they left Honolulu, and by this time theAmerican force, land and naval, in front of Manila ought to be ample toovercome the Spaniards. But there was ever that vexing problem as towhat Aguinaldo and his followers might do rather than see the great citygiven over to the Americans for law and order instead of to themselvesfor loot and rapine. The fact that all coast lights thus far wereextinguished was enough to convince the Sacramento's voyagers that theywere still unwelcome to the natives, but both the shipmaster and thecavalry officer commanding had counted on finding cruiser, or despatchboat at least, on lookout for them and ready to conduct them to safeanchorage. But no such ship appeared, and the alternative of going aboutand steaming out to sea for the night or dropping anchor where he laywas just presenting itself to Butt when from the lips of the secondofficer, who had clambered up the shrouds, there came the joyous shout:"By Jove! There's Corregidor light!"
Surely enough, even before the brief tropic twilight was over anddarkness had settled down, away to the southward, at regular ten-secondintervals, from the crest of the rock-bound, crumbling parapet onCorregidor Island, a brilliant light split the cloudy vista and flasheda welcome to the lone wanderer on the face of the waters. It could meanonly one thing: Manila Bay was dominated by Dewey's guns. The Yankee wasmaster of Corregidor, and had possessed himself of both fort andlight-house. In all probability Manila itself had fallen.
"Half speed ahead!" was the order, and again the throb of the engineswent pulsing through the ship, and the Sacramento slowly forged aheadover a smooth summer sea. At midnight the pilot and glad tidings wereaboard, and at dawn the decks were thronged with eager voyagers, and agreat, full-throated cheer went up from the forecastle head as the gray,ghost-like shapes of the war-ships loomed up out of the mist and dottedthe unruffled surface.
But that cheer sank to nothingness beside one which followed fifteenminutes later, when the red disk of the sun came peeping over the low,fog-draped range far to the eastward and, saluted by the boom of themorning gun from the battlements of the old city, there sailed to thepeak of the lofty flag-staff the brilliant colors and graceful folds ofthe stars and stripes.
The three-century rule of Castile and Aragon was ended. The yellow andred of Spain was supplanted by the scarlet, white, and blue of America,and in a new glory of its own "Old Glory" unfolded to the faintly risingbreeze, and all along the curving shore and over the placid waters rangout the joyous, life-giving, heart-stirring notes of the Yankeereveille.
For long hours later there came launches, bancas, and cascoes from fleetand shore. The debarkation of the cavalry began in the afternoon. Theyhad left their horses at the Presidio, six thousand miles away, and weretroopers only in name. The officers who came as passengers got ashore inthe course of the day and made their way to the Ayuntamiento to reporttheir arrival and receive their assignments.
The Red Cross nurses looked in vain for the hospital launch that, it wassupposed, would hasten to convey them to comfortable quarters adjoiningthe sick-wards or convalescent camps. They listened with the deepestinterest to the description of the assault of the 13th of August thatmade Merritt master of Manila, and the elders, masculine and feminine,who knew something of what battle meant when American was pitted againstAmerican, looked at each other in wonderment as they heard how much hadbeen won at cost of so little.
Sandy Ray, kissing Marion good-by and promising to see Stuyvesant in thenear future, went over the side with his troop and, landing at the stonedock at the foot of the Paseo de Santa Lucia, found himself trudgingalong at the head of his men under massive walls nearly three centuriesold, bristling with antiquated, highly ornamented Spanish guns, andstreaked with slime and vegetation, while along the high parapets acrossthe moat thousands of Spanish soldiers squatted and stared at them insullen apathy.
Maidie's knight and champion indeed! His duty called him with hisfellows to a far-away suburb up the Pasig River. Her duty held her toawait the movements of the sisterhood, and what she might lack forsympathy among them was made up in manifest yet embarrassing interest onpart of the tall young aide-de-camp, for Stuyvesant was bidden to remainaboard ship until suitable accommodation could be found for him ashore.
Under any other circumstances he would have objected vehemently, but,finding that the Red Cross contingent was to share his fate, and thatMiss Ray was one of the dozen condemned to remain, he bore his enforcedlot with Christian and soldierly resignation.
"Only," said Dr. Wells, "one would suppose that the Red Cross wasentitled to some consideration, and that all preparation would have beenmade for our coming." It was neither flattering nor reassuring, nor,indeed, was it kind, that they should be so slighted, said thesisterhood that evening; but worse still was in store, for on themorrow, early, the Esmeralda came steaming in from Hong Kong, where,despite her roundabout voyage, the Belgic had arrived before theslow-moving Sacramento had rounded the northern point of Luzon, and, onthe deck of the Esmeralda as she steered close alongside the transport,and thence on the unimpeded way to her moorings up the Pasig, in plainview of the sisterhood, tall, gaunt, austere, but triumphant, toweredthe form of the vice-president of the Patriotic Daughters of America.
For two days more the Sacramento remained at anchor in the bay over amile from the mouth of the river, and for two days and nights the RedCross remained aboard, unsought, unsummoned from the shore. Thesituation became more strained than ever, the only betterment arisingfrom the fact that now there was more space and the nurses were nolonger crowded three in a room. Mrs. Dr. Wells moved into that recentlyvacated by the cavalry commander, and Miss Ray and her now earnestfriend, Miss Porter, were relieved by the desertion of their eldestsister, who pre-empted a major's stateroom on the upper deck.
Butt stirred up a new trouble by promptly coming to Miss Ray and biddingher move out of that stuffy hole below and take Major Horton's quarters,and bring Miss Porter with her "if that was agreeable."
It would have been, very, but "Miss Ray's head was level," as the purserput it, and despite the snippy and exasperating conduct of most of thesisterhood, that wise young woman pointed out to the shipmaster thattheirs was a semi-military organization, and that the senior, Mrs. Dr.Wells, and one or two veteran nurses should have choice of quarters.
By this time Miss Porter's vehement championship of her charming andmuch misjudged friend had excited no little rancor against herself. Themore she proved that they had done Miss Ray injustice, the less theyliked Miss Ray's advocate. It is odd but true that many a woman finds itfar easier to forgive another for being as wicked as she has declaredher to be than for proving herself entirely innocent.
One thing, anyhow, Miss Porter couldn't deny, said the sisterhood,--shewas accepting devoted attentions from Mr. Stuyvesant, and in hercapacity as a Red Cross nurse that was inexcusable.
"Fudge!" said Miss Porter. "If it were you instead of Miss Ray he was inlove with, how long would you let your badge keep him at a distance?"
The sun went down on their unappeased wrath that second night in ManilaBay, and with the morrow came added cause for disapprobation. Before thenoon hour a snow-white launch with colors flying fore and aft steamedalongside, and up the stairs, resplendent, came Stuyvesant's generalwith a brace of staff officers, all three precipitat
ing themselves onthe invalid and, after brief converse with him, all three sending theircards to Miss Ray, who had taken refuge on the other deck.
And even while she sat reflecting what would be the wiser course, thegeneral himself followed the card-bearer, and that distinguishedwarrior, with all the honors of his victorious entry fresh upon him,inclined his handsome head and begged that he might present himself tothe daughter of an old and cherished friend of cadet days, and seatedhimself by her side with hardly a glance at the array of surroundingfemininity and launched into reminiscence of "Billy Ray" as he wasalways called, ana it was some little time before she could say,--
"Will you let me present you to Dr. Wells, who is practically mycommanding officer?" a request the general was too much of a gentlemannot to accede to at once, yet looked _not_ too much pleased when hewas led before that commanding dame, and then distinctly displeased as,taking advantage of her opportunity, the indignant lady burst forth withher grievance:
"Oh! This is General Vinton! Well, I must say that I think you generalshave treated the ladies of the Red Cross with precious little courtesy.Here we've been waiting thirty-six hours, and not a soul has come nearus or shown us where to go or told us what to do, while everybody elseaboard is looked after at once."
"It is a matter entirely out of my jurisdiction, madame," answered thegeneral with grave and distant dignity. "In fact, I knew nothing of thearrival of any such party until, at the commanding general's thismorning, your vice-president--is it?--was endeavoring to----"
"Our vice-president, sir," interposed the lady promptly, "is in SanFrancisco, attending to her proper functions. The person you saw is notrecognized by the Red Cross at all, nor by any one in authority that_I_ know of."
General Vinton reddened. A soldier, accustomed to the "courtesiesindispensable among military men," ill brooks it that a stranger and awoman should take him to task for matters beyond his knowledge orcontrol.
"You will pardon me if in my ignorance of the matter I fancied the ladyin question to be a representative of your order, and for suggestingthat the chief surgeon is the official to whom you should address yourcomplaint--and rebukes. Good-morning, madame. Miss Ray," he continued,as he quickly turned and led that young lady away, "two of my staffdesire to be presented. May I have the pleasure?"
There was no mistaking the general's disapprobation of the official headof the sisterhood as represented on the Sacramento. Though he and hisofficers remained aboard an hour, not once again would he look towardsDr. Wells or seem to see any of the party but Miss Ray,--this, too,despite the fact that she tried to explain matters and pour oil on suchtroubled waters.
Captain Butt sent up champagne to the distinguished party, and Miss Raybegged to be excused and slipped away to her stateroom, only to beinstantly recalled by other cards--Colonel and Mrs. Brent, other oldfriends of her father and mother. She remembered them well, andremembered having heard how Mrs. Brent had braved all opposition and hadstarted for Hong Kong the day after the colonel steamed for Manila; andtheir coming with most hospitable intent only added to the poor girl'sperplexities, for they showered welcomes upon her and bade her get herluggage up at once. They had come to take her to their own roof. Theyhad secured such a quaint, roomy house in Ermita right near the bayshore, and looking right out on the Luneta and the parade grounds.
They stormed at her plea that she must not leave her companions. Theybade her send for Miss Porter, and included her in their warm-heartedinvitation; but by the time Maidie was able to get a word in edgewise onher own account, and begged them to come and meet Mrs. Dr. Wells and theRed Cross sisterhood, they demurred.
The general, in Marion's brief absence, had expressed his opinion ofthat official head, and the Brents had evidently accepted his views.Then Vinton and his officers loudly begged Mrs. Brent to play chaperonand persuade Miss Ray and Miss Porter to accompany them in their finewhite launch on a visit to the admiral on the flag-ship, and saidnothing about others of the order.
The idea of seeing Dewey on his own deck and being shown all over theOlympia! Why, it was glorious! But Miss Ray faltered her refusal, evenagainst Miss Porter's imploring eyes. Then Stuyvesant declared he didn'tfeel up to it.
The general went off to the fleet and the Brents back to shore withoutthe girls. But in the course of the afternoon four more officers came totender their services to "Billy Ray's daughter," and none, not even ahospital steward, came to do aught for the Red Cross, and by sundownMaidie Ray had every assurance that the most popular girl at that momentin Manila army circles was the least popular aboard the Sacramento, andKate Porter cried herself to sleep after an out-and-out squabble withtwo of the Band, and the emphatic assertion that if she were Marion Rayshe would cut them all dead and go live with her friends ashore.
But when the morrow came was it to be wondered at that Miss Ray haddeveloped a high fever? Was it not characteristic that before noon, fromthe official head down, from Dr. Wells to Dottie Fellows, the mostdiminutive of the party, there lived not a woman of their number who wasnot eager in tender of services and in desire to be at the sufferer'sbedside? Was it not manlike that Stuyvesant, who had shunned thesisterhood for days, now sought the very women he had scorned, andbegged for tidings of the girl he loved?