CHAPTER III
AN ADVENTURE ON THE PASIG RIVER
"Hurrah, Luke! I reckon I am going to see a bit of fighting at last."
It was Larry who spoke, as he rushed up to his old friend, LukeStriker, now one of the gun captains on board the _Olympia_. It wasthe day after the young tar had paid the visit to Ben.
"Fighting? where?" demanded the Yankee gunner. "Do you mean to say ashow the _Olympia_ is goin' to do some scoutin' alongshore, lad?"
"No, the ship is going to remain right where she is. But GeneralLawton is going to take an expedition up the Pasig River from SanPedro Macati to the Laguna de Bay, and some of the sailors are goingalong to help manage the cascos and other boats. I just applied for aplace, along with Jack Biddle, and we both got in."
"And why can't I get in?" returned Luke, eagerly. "This hereeverlastin' sitting still, doin' nuthin', is jest a-killin' of me."
"You might apply, although there are already more volunteers than theywant," answered Larry. He told his old friend how to make thenecessary application, and soon Luke had joined the expedition; andthe three friends hastened ashore and on board a shallow rivertransport, which was to take them and a number of others up to SanPedro Macati.
The brief journey to the latter-named village was without incident.Here Larry found assembled a body of about thirteen hundred soldiers,infantry and cavalry, and with them two hundred picked sharpshooters,and two guns manned by members of the regular artillery. Owing to thesickness of the commanding general, General Lawton took personalcharge of the expedition.
No man was better fitted for fighting in the Philippines than MajorGeneral Henry W. Lawton, who had but lately arrived in the islands,and who was destined to die the death of a hero upon the firing line.Of commanding appearance, being six feet three inches in height andweighing over two hundred pounds, he was a soldier by nature and anatural leader among leaders. He had fought all through the greatCivil War with much credit to himself, and it was he who, during thegreat Apache Indian uprising, followed the crafty Geronimo throughmountain and over desert for a distance of nearly fourteen hundredmiles, and at last caused him to surrender. For this, it is said, theIndians called him "Man-who-gets-up-in-the-night-to-fight," and theyrespected him as they respected few others.
With the outbreak of the war with Spain General Lawton was in hiselement, and when the army of occupation sailed for Santiago he waswith them; and it was this same Lawton who stormed El Caney andcaptured it, as related in "A Young Volunteer in Cuba." When GeneralShafter wanted to call Lawton away from El Caney, after the troops hadbeen fighting many hours, Lawton sent him word, "I can't stop--I'vegot to fight," and went forward again; and in less than an hour theSpanish flag at the top of the hill was down, and Old Glory had takenits place.
General Lawton was addressing several members of his staff when Larryfirst saw him at San Pedro Macati. He stood, war map in hand, in frontof the river landing, a conspicuous figure among the half-dozen thatsurrounded him.
"He's a fighter--you can see that," whispered Larry to Luke, who stoodbeside him. "Just look at that square-set jaw. He won't let up on therebels an inch."
"Jest the kind we're a-wantin' out here," responded the Yankee gunner."The more they force the fightin' the sooner the war will come to anend. He's coming toward us," he added, as General Lawton stepped fromout of the circle around him.
"You are from the _Olympia_, I believe?" he said, addressing Luke.
"Yes, general," replied the old gunner, touching his forelock, whileLarry also saluted. "We volunteered for this expedition."
"You look all right, but--" General Lawton turned to Larry. "I'mafraid you are rather young for this sort of thing, my lad," he wenton.
"I hope not, sir," cried Larry, quickly. "I've seen fighting before."
"He was in the thickest of it when we knocked out Admiral Montojo,general," interposed Luke. "You can trust him to do his full share,come what may."
"Oh, if he was in that fight I guess he'll be all right," respondedGeneral Lawton, with a grim sort of a smile. And he turned away tooverlook the shipping of some ammunition on one of the tincladgunboats which was to form part of the expedition.
The troops were speedily on the cascos, which were to be towed byseveral steam launches and escorted by three tinclads. Although Larryand his friends did not know it till several hours later, thedestination was Santa Cruz, a pretty town, situated on a slight hilloverlooking the placid waters of the Laguna de Bay. The general's planwas to reach the lake by nightfall, and steal over the silent watersin the dark until the vicinity of Santa Cruz was gained, in hopes thatthe garrison might be caught "napping," as it is called.
For the time being the sailors were separated one from another, eachbeing put in charge of a casco, the shallow rowboats being joinedtogether in strings of four to six each, and pulled along with many ajerk and twist by the puffing little launches, which at times camealmost to a standstill.
"We won't reach the lake by sunrise, and I know it," remarked one ofthe soldiers to Larry, who stood in the bow of the casco with an oar,ready to do whatever seemed best for the craft. "We've a good manymiles to go yet."
At that instant the casco ahead ran aground in the shallow river, andLarry had all he could do to keep his craft from running into it. Asthe two boats came stem to stern one of the soldiers in the craftahead called out to those behind:--
"Say, Idaho, do you know where we are bound?"
"Bound for Santa Cruz, so I heard our captain remark," answered one ofthe soldiers in Larry's boat. "Got any tobacco, North Dakota?"
"Nary a pipeful, wuss luck," was the response; and then the linestraightened out as the casco ahead cleared herself from the mud, andthe two boats moved apart once more.
"Are we really going to Santa Cruz?" questioned Larry, as soon as hegot the chance. "I thought we were bound for the north shore of thelake."
"I can only tell you what I heard the captain say," answered thesoldier, with a shrug of his shoulder. "General Lawton ain't blowinghis plans through a trumpet, you know."
"I hope we do go to Santa Cruz," mused Larry, as he thought of whathad been said of Benedicto Lupez. "And if we take the town I hope wetake that rascal, too."
The best laid plans are often upset by incidents trifling inthemselves. It was the dry season of the year, and the Pasig River,usually broad and turbulent, was now nothing better than a muddy,shallow creek, winding and treacherous to the last degree. As nightcame on the expedition found itself still in the stream and many milesfrom the lake, and here cascos and launches ran aground and a generalmix-up ensued.
"Hullo, what have we run up against now?" growled the lieutenant incharge of the soldiers in Larry's boat. "Can't you keep out of themud, Jackie?"
"I'm doing my best," panted the youth, as he shoved off for at leastthe fourth time. "With the lines forward and aft pulling one way andanother it's rather difficult to keep to the channel, especially inthe dark."
"Oh, you're only a boy and don't understand the trick," growled thelieutenant, who was in a bad humor generally. "I don't see why theylet you come along."
"Our boat is doing about as well as any of them," answered Larry,bound to defend himself. "Two boats are aground to our left and threebehind us."
"See here, don't talk back to me! You tend to business and keep us outof the mud," roared the lieutenant, in worse humor than before.
An angry retort arose to Larry's lips, but he checked it. "A quarrelwon't do any good," he thought. "But what a bulldog that fellow is--asbad as Quartermaster Yarrow, who caused me so much trouble on the tripout here."
On went the cascos once more, around a tortuous bend and past a bankfringed with bushes and reeds. The mosquitoes were numerous, likewisethe flies, and everybody began to wish the journey at an end.
"We'd better make a charge on the insects," growled one old soldier."They are worse nor the rebels ten times over," and, just then, manywere inclined to agree with him. Tobacco was scarce or smoking wouldhave
been far more plentiful than it was.
Midnight came and went, and found the expedition still some distancefrom the lake. A few of the soldiers were sleeping, but the majorityremained wide awake, fighting off the marshland pests, and aiding inkeeping the cascos and launches from running high and dry in the mud.Had it not been for the tinclads it is doubtful if the Laguna de Baywould have been gained at all by more than half of the craft composingthe turnout. But they came to the rescue time and again, and so theexpedition crawled along, until, at four o'clock, the clear sheet ofwater beyond was sighted.
They were making the last turn before the lake was gained when thecasco ahead of that steered by Larry went aground once more, draggingLarry's craft behind it. The youth did all he could to back water, butin vain, and once more they heard the unwelcome slish of mud undertheir bottom.
"Now you've done it again!" howled the lieutenant, leaping up from hisseat. "You numskull! give me that oar." And he tried to wrench theblade from Larry's hand.
"It was not my fault," began the youth, when the officer forced theblade from him and hurled him back on one of the soldiers. Then thelieutenant tried to do some poling for himself, and got the oar stuckso tightly in the mud that he could not loosen it.
Burning with indignation, Larry felt himself go down in a heap, andat once tried to get up again. At the same time the soldier beneathhim gave him a shove which pitched him several feet forward. He landedup against the lieutenant with considerable force, and in a twinklethe officer went overboard, head first, into the water and mud wherethe casco had stuck fast.