CHAPTER XXIX
LARRY IS SENTENCED TO BE SHOT
To go back to Larry, at the time mentioned by Dan Leroy, when the boyhad been following the old sailor and the scout along the cliffoverlooking the valley in which both the Filipino and the Americantroops were encamped.
The adventures in the swamp had been exceedingly tiring, and the youthcould scarcely drag one foot after the other, as the party of threehurried along over rocks and through thickets which at certain pointsseemed almost impassible.
"O dear! I'll be glad when this day's tramp comes to an end," hethought. "I wonder how far the American camp is from here?"
He tried to look across the valley, but there was a bluish vaporhanging over trees and brush which shut off a larger portion of theview. The party had been walking over a trail which now brought themdirectly to the edge of the cliff. Here the footpath was scarcely twofeet wide, and was backed up by high rocks and thorn bushes, aroundwhich it was difficult to climb without injury.
The men were as tired as the boy, and it must be confessed that for ahalf hour or more they paid little attention to Larry. Gradually theyouth lagged behind, until those ahead were lost to view around asharp turn of the cliff.
And it was then that an accident happened which put Larry in greatperil all in an instant. In trying to make the turn, the boy got holdof a slender tree by which to support himself. Leroy and Boxer hadgrasped the same tree, and their swinging around had loosened itsfrail hold on the rocks, and as Larry grasped it, down went thesapling over the edge of the cliff, carrying the youth with it.
Down went the sapling over the edge of the cliff.--_Page281._]
The boy had no time to cry out, and he clung fast, not knowing whatelse to do, until the tree landed with a mighty crash on the top ofanother tree at the foot of the cliff. The sudden stoppage causedLarry to loose his hold, and he bumped from limb to limb in the treebelow until he struck the ground with a dull thud; and then for thetime being he knew no more.
When the boy came to his senses, he found it was night and pitch darkunder the thick tree, through the branches of which he had fallen. Herested on a bed of soft moss, and this cushionlike substance had mostlikely saved him from fatal injury.
His first feeling was one of bewilderment, his next that his left footfelt as if it was on fire, with a shooting pain that ran well up tohis knee. Catching hold of the foot, he felt that the ankle was muchswollen, and that his shoe-top was ready to burst with the pressure.Scarcely realizing what he was doing, he loosened the shoe, at whichpart of the pain left him.
"I suppose I ought to be thankful that I wasn't killed," he thought,rather dismally. "I wonder where Leroy and that scout are? I don'tsuppose it will do any good to call for them. The top of that cliffmust be a hundred feet from here."
The fall had almost finished what was left of Larry's already raggedsuit, and he found himself scratched in a dozen places, with a bad cutover one eye and several splinters in his left hand. Feeling in hispocket, he found several matches which Leroy had given him on leavingthe prison cave, and he lit one of these and set fire to a few driedleaves which happened to be ready to hand.
The light afforded a little consolation, and by its rays the boy madeout a pool of water not far off, and to this he dragged himself, toget a drink and then bathe the ankle. This member of his body had beenso badly wrenched that standing upon it was out of the question, as hespeedily discovered by a trial which made him scream with pain.
"I'm in for it now," he thought. "With such an ankle as this, I can'tgo on, and what am I to do here, alone in the woods and withabsolutely nothing to eat? I'd be better off in a Filipino prison."
Slowly the night wore along, until a faint light in the east announcedthe coming of day. During the darkness the jungle had been almostsilent, but now the birds began to tune up, and here and there Larryheard the movements of small animals, although none of the lattershowed themselves.
It was more pleasant under the big tree than down by the pool, andas daylight came on, Larry dragged himself back to his firstresting-place. As he came up to the tree he saw a broken branchresting there and on it a bird's nest containing half a dozen speckledeggs.
"Here's a little luck, anyway," he murmured, and taking some of thetree limbs, he made a fire and cooked the eggs in the hot ashes. Whenthey were done, he broke off the shells and ate the eggs, and althoughthe flavor was by no means to be prized, yet they did much towardrelieving the hunger he had felt before taking the fall over thecliff.
The day that followed was one which Larry says he will never forget,and for good reason. Neither human being nor beast came near him, andeven the birds flying overhead seemed to give him a wide berth. Timeand again he cried out, but the only answer that came back was theecho from the cliff, repeating his own words as if in mockery.Occasionally he heard firing at a great distance, but toward nightfalleven this died out. He could scarcely move from his resting-place, andit was not until darkness came on that the pain in his ankle subsidedsufficiently to allow of his sleeping in comfort.
The long sleep did the boy a world of good, and when he awakened hefound the swelling in his ankle gone down, along with much of thepain, and on getting up he found that he could walk, but it must beslowly and with care. He was again hungry, and his first effort wasto supply himself with something to eat.
To bring down even a small animal was out of the question, but hethought he might possibly knock over a bird or two, and with this inview cut himself several short, heavy sticks. The birds were comingdown to the pool to drink, and watching his chance he let fly with thesticks and managed to bring down two of the creatures, and theseformed the sum total of his breakfast, although he could have eatentwice as many. There were a number of berries to hand, but these herefrained from touching, fearing they might be poisonous.
Larry felt he must now go on. To gain the top of the cliff was out ofthe question, so he decided to strike out directly for the southwest,feeling that this must sooner or later bring him into the Americanlines. To be sure, he had first to pass the Filipinos, but this couldnot be helped, and he felt that the best he could do would be to keephis eyes and ears open and walk around any body of the enemy that hemight discover, instead of trying to steal his way straight through.This would require many miles of walking, and on the sore foot, too,but this hardship would have to be endured.
Half a mile was covered in a slow and painful fashion, when Larryreached a small clearing, and here he sat down to rest on a fallentree and to examine the ankle, which he was afraid was again swelling.He was engaged in looking at the wounded member, when a rough Tagalogvoice broke upon his ears.
"What do you here?" demanded a heavy-set native, in his own tongue, ashe strode forward, gun in hand, followed by several others.
Larry was startled and leaped up. In a twinkling he found himselfsurrounded, and several Mausers were levelled at his head.
To resist would have been the height of foolishness, and Larry did nottry. The Tagals asked him a number of questions in their own tongue,but he shook his head to show them that he did not understand. Ontheir part, not one could speak English, so neither party couldcommunicate with the other.
The natives, however, soon understood that he was alone, and when hepointed to his ankle and limped, also understood that he had sprainedthat member. One went into the bushes, and presently returned withsome leaves, which he crushed and packed inside of the boy's stocking.The juice of the leaves proved very cooling, and presently much ofthe pain from the sprain went away.
The Tagals were bound for the cliff, but by a route different fromthat which Larry had travelled. As the boy was unarmed and couldscarcely hobble along, they did not take the trouble to bind him inany way. He was made to march with half of the crowd before him andthe others behind; and thus they proceeded until the cliff wasreached, at a point where the jungle hid a series of rough stepsleading to the top. Beyond the top of these steps was a mountaintrail, which by nightfall brought them to a plat
eau where wereencamped at least three hundred Filipinos of all classes, the Tagalspredominating.
A shout went up as Larry appeared, and he was at once recognized asone of the prisoners who had escaped from the caves, which were fullyfour miles away.
"So they have caught you again?" remarked an under-officer, as hestrode up with a sinister smile on his swarthy countenance. "You didnot get very far."
"No, I had a bad fall and lamed my foot," replied Larry, as cheerfullyas he could. He was never one to "cry over spilt milk."
"A fall? Where?"
"I fell over the high cliff just below here."
"And you live to tell it? Impossible!"
"No, it is true. I fell into a large tree, and that broke my fall. ButI was badly scratched up, and my ankle was sprained."
"A rare fall truly, boy. It would have been better, though, if you hadbeen killed."
"Thank you; I like that!"
"I say it because you are a prisoner who has tried to escape from us.Do you know the fate of all such?"
At these words Larry could not help but shiver. He knew what theofficer up at the cave prison had said,--that any prisoner trying toescape would be shot at the first opportunity which presented itself.
"Surely, you would not kill me for trying to get away?" he criedquickly.
The under-officer shrugged his shoulders. "It is not for me to changeour regulations of war, boy. Your words prove that you knew beforehandthe risk you were running."
"Yes, yes--but-- You would try to get away too, if our soldiers caughtyou."
"Possibly--I understand you treat your prisoners very badly."
"Our prisoners are treated as well as yours. And we would not kill aFilipino for having tried to escape,--unless, of course, he was shotin the attempt."
"It is you who say that--I have heard vastly different stories; howour men were starved and shot down without mercy,--not one man, buthundreds of them. I have it from friends in Manila that your GeneralOtis is a monster who would rather kill than save at any time."
"Your friends have told you that which is not true!" exclaimed Larry,warmly. "If anything, General Otis is too kind-hearted, especiallywith those who have done their best to put the city in a state ofrebellion and those who have tried to burn it to the ground. I supposeyour friends had a purpose in telling you what was not true."
"I take my friends' words in preference to yours, boy," was the angryanswer. "Who are you that come to take our country away from us--thecountry that we tried so hard to liberate from the iron grasp ofSpain? The land is ours, and no Americans shall govern us. We willfight to the last,--from the cities to the towns, and from the townsto the villages, and then to the mountains, from one island toanother,--and you shall never conquer us, no matter how large an armyyou send from across the ocean. But, bah, I am talking to a mere boy,when I might have better sense." And turning on his heel theunder-officer strode away, out of humor with himself as well as withLarry.
The youth felt utterly crushed, and sitting down on a rock, with aheart as heavy as lead, he wondered what was going to happen next.Would they really shoot him? The thought was agony itself.
There were no other prisoners in the camp, so he was left for a longtime alone, although several soldiers kept their eyes upon him, thathe might not wander away. Soon supper was served, and one of theTagals brought him a bowl of rice and meat. It must be confessed thathe was now tremendously hungry, and ate all of what was given him,despite his down-heartedness.
The meal finished, the Filipinos were sitting around their camp-fires,when a certain General Drummo was announced. At once there was aparade, which the general reviewed with satisfaction. The newcomer wasserved with supper, and then Larry was brought before him.
The general had his head full of his plans for the morrow and gave theboy but scant attention.
"You knew the risk you ran when you stole away," he said, in brokenEnglish. "It is true you are but a boy, yet I'll wager you can use agun better than some of our own men. I cannot pardon you, for thatwould be setting a bad example. So I hereby sentence you to be shot atsunrise to-morrow,--and may your death be an example to others who arethinking of escape."
Before Larry could say a word, if indeed he wanted to speak, he wasled away to a hollow back of the camp. Here he was tied fast to atree, and two soldiers were detailed to guard him until the hour forhis execution should arrive.