Page:A Sailor Boy with Dewey.djvu/106

92 I kept my eyes open for wild animals, but nothing of size presented itself, although I detected something moving near the mountain top, probably some Philippine goats. There were countless birds, and in a dark corner of the canyon I roused up half a dozen bats, none of which, however, offered to molest me.

Coming to a truly beautiful spot, where a tiny mountain stream formed a waterfall that leaped and danced in the sunshine striking through some flowered brushwood, I threw myself down and gave myself up to reflection.

What a variety of adventures had I passed through since leaving home! In Hong Kong the days had not passed without incident, and now here I was, cast away on the island of Luzon, minus my money and the documents I had been intrusted to deliver, and in a land that was practically in a state of war.

And yet I knew absolutely nothing of the important events which were transpiring in what might be called the outer world. I did not know that the war between Spain and the inhabitants of of Cuba had reached its height and that the relarelations between Spain and the United States had culminated in the total destruction of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, and that we were on the verge of war with the Spaniards in consequence. Nor did I know how my father was