CHAPTER XVIIA DARING PLAN
Philstood silently by, his mind occupied over the details of a daring plan.
The exchange proposed by Espinosa was out of the question, even if Colonel Martinez had surrendered, which he had not done up to the present time; and until his sins in Luzon were forgiven Phil knew that he preferred his liberty. But this threat against Tillotson’s life worried Phil. Espinosa was sufficiently cruel to carry it out, he was sure.
Leaving the group of officers, who were still pondering over the contents of Espinosa’s communication, Phil went in search of Maria. There were points in his plan which she could throw light upon.
He found her in the house, heavy-eyed with sorrow and loss of sleep, but she greeted him with a smile and waited patiently until the room was empty before signing him to speak,for she saw that he had something of importance to communicate.
“How much dependence can we put upon Garcia as a guide?” he asked eagerly. “I have a plan, and all depends upon whether he can be trusted to lead us against Espinosa, if not willingly, then under intimidation.”
“Before they killed my father and carried away the treasure,” the girl answered, a spark of excitement entering her dull eyes, “Espinosa and Salas got the information necessary for their work from Garcia, bound and helpless where your sailors had left him. They refused to liberate him and hoped he would be killed by the Americans. You can be sure,” she added, “that he will take keen pleasure in running his enemies to earth.”
“And now for my favor from you,” the lad continued in a lower tone; “as Garcia will take Lopez’s place as guide for the soldiers to the trail up the mountain, I want twenty-five of your men whom you would trust to the death, under the command of Lopez, to take O’Neil and me as prisoners to Espinosa’s camp.”
The girl gave a low exclamation of surprised horror, regarding Phil fixedly, half believing the lad was out of his mind.
“I mean it,” he exclaimed earnestly. “It’s the only chance we have of saving Tillotson’s life. Your men must pretend to have deserted after the death of their master,” he dropped his voice as he saw the look of pain in Maria’s eyes at the mention of her father’s sad fate. “Lopez will claim to have taken us prisoners and then deserted to the insurgents. It’s a good plan,” he cried enthusiastically, “and is sure to be successful.”
Maria paled at the mere thought of such rashness, but seeing Phil could not be moved from his avowed intention, she gave her consent grudgingly.
The general was not so easily convinced. His natural and inherent cautiousness could not be changed even under the combined persuasion of the midshipman and his staff officers, Major Marble and Captain Blynn, who were both enthusiastic over the conception of such a daring strategy.
“The very impertinence of it will make it successful,” Major Marble exclaimed. “Theywill not believe that one could be so rash as to willingly place his life in danger.”
“You’ll have to stay with the gunboat,” Phil explained to Sydney, who was visibly put out that he too could not be allowed to go. “I shall take only O’Neil. The general has ordered that all the soldiers who can be spared from the garrisons throughout the island be despatched to rendezvous here and will need the ‘Mindinao’ to carry troops and shell the stronghold from the river. If you find it possible take her through the cañon; there is a trail on the other side from the westward. If you are successful we shall have them between our two parties.”
That evening Maria and her small brother followed their father’s body to his grave in the family cemetery. The general himself read the solemn burial service and a company of American infantry fired three volleys over the grave of the murdered patriot.
General Wilson established his field headquarters in the house of mourning and before three o’clock of the next day the first of the detachments of soldiers arrived and went into camp on the river slope.
“We shall have about one thousand rifles for the attack,” Captain Blynn told the midshipmen, after Phil had unfolded to him and Major Marble the details of his plan to rescue Lieutenant Tillotson, “and by to-morrow afternoon they should all be assembled here. The general,” he added, “is very much worked up over Espinosa’s threat, and realizes that it is not an empty one, but he still refuses to allow you to take this terrible chance.”
Within a short time Phil was summoned to the general’s room.
“I cannot allow you to take this risk,” he said kindly, a light of admiration in his eyes. “Why should two American lives be jeopardized to save one? And perhaps some will say that Lieutenant Tillotson does not deserve such a sacrifice at your hands.”
“That makes me more anxious to take the risk,” Phil urged. “We did not part friends, and I can’t help feeling that our quarrel has had some part in his misfortune.”
Under the confiding influence of the general’s manner, Phil told of his affair with Tillotson, doing his best to make a good case for his one time enemy.
The general shook his head thoughtfully.
“It is very hard for me to allow you to undertake such a rash adventure,” he answered, putting his hand affectionately on the midshipman’s shoulder, “but war is war, and if pluck will bring success, Tillotson’s life will be saved. Tell me now,” he added, seating himself and motioning Phil to a chair, “how far you have worked out the details of your plan, for every point must be covered; there must be no loophole for failure. Can you expect that each of your twenty-five men will keep the secret after they have mixed with the enemy?”
Phil outlined each step as he had thought it out during the last anxious twenty-four hours, while the general listened, his face grave and thoughtful.
They would start after nightfall, and by sending men ahead to announce their coming would be received by the insurgents with acclamation. They would spend the next day at the camp and Lopez would endeavor to keep his men from mixing with the enemy, and the next night the gunboat and as many troops as the general could muster would lay siege to the stronghold. The remainder Philhad not thought out. Chance alone must decide the outcome, but he hoped to save Lieutenant Tillotson’s life and their own, and maybe by Lopez and his men commanding the top of the trail they could aid the American troops in their fight for the stronghold. When the attack was made he would use Lopez’s men to prevent Espinosa from carrying out his threat against Tillotson’s life. The gunboat must use its fire against the fortifications, but be careful to direct its shell to the left of the stronghold, for he hoped that his own men would be at the right near the trail leading down the precipice.
“There are a great many chances for failure,” the general said thoughtfully as Phil finished, “but with your energy and perseverance I believe you will win.” He shook the lad’s hand warmly in parting.
“I wish I could go with you,” Maria said sadly as Phil bade her good-bye; “but you can put your full trust in Lopez. It was he who betrayed the Katipunan society to me to save my father’s life. How he got the information I do not know, but if his act were known his life would be forfeited.”
Without ceremony Phil and O’Neil, their hands tied securely with ropes made fast to their bodies and held in the hands of the make-believe deserting natives, filed along the narrow trail leading parallel to the fast flowing river. Two messengers had been sent ahead to notify the insurgent leader of the joyful tidings of the important captures. Their progress was rapid, and inside of three hours the house which had been the scene of Phil’s and Maria’s strategy was reached. There the party waited.
After what seemed an interminable time to the anxious prisoners, a challenge suddenly broke the stillness of the dismal woods and Phil’s old enemy, Colonel Salas, stood before him. A great joy shone from his dark vengeful eyes as he beheld the bound prisoners.
“My chief will be delighted to receive such distinguished visitors,” he laughed, kicking Phil viciously as he lay helpless upon the ground. “That is for your cleverness of yesterday,” he snarled. “We’ll see you are kindly treated. We shall give you all the refined initiations that we can think of to makeyour stay with us pleasant and then——” He stopped with a significant gesture.
“O’Neil,” Phil whispered after Colonel Salas had left him to join Lopez, who had assembled his men ready to advance, “I am afraid we are in for a pretty bad time of it. But if I ever get the opportunity I’ll make that little brown piece of pomposity pay for that kick he gave me.”
“Well, sir,” O’Neil replied evasively, “I may have been in worse situations—no doubt I have—but this one seems rather more complicated. I think we’ll have many kicks and worse to pay back before we can call our bodies our own and not footballs for these little brown brothers to score with.”
After a rapid parley the party were again in motion. Phil and O’Neil were roughly seized by two natives and forced ahead up the trail. Two or three times Phil’s foot slipped into yawning holes at either side of the trail, but each time he was dragged back to safety by the natives behind him.
“This whole place is trapped,” O’Neil whispered, pointing to where his foot had uncovered the top of a square hole some six feet deep, the lantern carried by a man in front betrayingto view the green bamboo spears at the bottom.
Phil shivered as he gazed down on the pointed sticks as sharp as a needle, and poisoned, he knew, with a deadly vegetable sap that would kill within the hour.
“Be careful, Mr. Perry,” O’Neil cautioned in a low, anxious voice. “These men know where the traps are, and will try to catch you if you make a misstep—but they might fail,” he added with a shudder.
A halt was called suddenly as they moved through a densely wooded section of the level trail, while several of Colonel Salas’ men moved cautiously ahead and appeared to work quietly in the jungle. After a few minutes they reappeared and signaled for the column to proceed.
“Spring traps,” O’Neil informed the midshipman. “They’ve detached them from their springs. If we hadn’t known they were there one of us would have caught his foot in a piece of innocent looking vine which would have pulled a trigger and sent twenty or more spears across the trail with force sufficient to penetrate a pine board.”
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 wasimpossible, 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?”
UP THE FACE OF THECLIFF
Phil could see him dimly by the light of the camp-fire outside. The man had been completely cowed. What terrible torture had been inflicted to cause him to become such an abject figure, groveling before them, his voice hollow, and in his eyes a light of unreasonable fear?
“It is Midshipman Perry and O’Neil from the gunboat, Tillotson,” the lad whispered. “We hope to save you if you will keep quiet and do just what we tell you.” Phil could have wept in pity at the sight of the physical wreck before him. He was shocked at the sight. Tillotson’s eyes were dull and the face empty of hope.
“You don’t know what you are saying,” he answered in a monotonous voice. “No one can be saved who is brought to this place. Death is the one avenue of escape. Oh! No one knows of the tortures I have endured from that fiend’s hands.” Then his face lit up for a second as he raised himself from the ground and stared at Phil, who had approached and stood looking down pityingly upon him. “How can you save me? Oh, tell me the truth. Are you not prisoners also?”
Phil seated himself by the side of the unnerved man and begged him to be calm and reserve his strength. After a few moments he told him of the plan and his hopes for success.
“Let us pray for success,” the captive cried weakly. “I had determined to throw myself off the cliff rather than undergo another day’s torture.”
Tillotson talked for an hour, gruesomely dwelling on the details of his horrible treatment by Espinosa. He told of his mission to the spy, with the letter which Phil had taken from the dead messenger at Binalbagan. The message was in Espinosa’s own handwriting, and warned the attackers of the gunboat’s approach.
“I see now that I have been repaid for my stupidity,” he moaned. “I believed that I could unmask him and earn the thanks of the general, but first I wished to get from him a full confession and implicate his accomplices. I showed him the letter and told him I would call at his house after visiting the sentries.” The overwrought officer broke down and sobbed for several minutes before continuing.“I was a child in his hands; I did not know his power. His followers trapped me and carried me away by water, bringing me to this awful place. Every day some new torture is devised for me. To-day I was suspended by my neck with only my toes on the ground. That was the worst so far. I don’t know what it will be to-morrow,” he ended with a shudder.
Phil tried to console him as best he could, but a great fear had entered his thoughts. If this terrible punishment had been meted out to Tillotson, what would the treacherous and cruel Espinosa devise for him? Surely something many, many times more horrible.