Page:On to Pekin.djvu/60

42 Monday night the preparations for departure—so far as they affected the young lieutenant—were complete. This being so, he asked for leave of absence for several hours, which was readily granted; and off he went to hunt up Nuggy Polk.

Captain Ponsberry had described the young man as tall and thin, with a short, stubby mustache and eyes which shifted continually. He was said to have stopped at the Hotel for American Gentlemen, as one of the native resorts had lately been pompously rechristened.

Gilbert found the hostelry without much difficulty, and on inquiry at the desk learned that Nuggy Polk had left the place that morning.

"He was not sure if he would be back," said the clerk. "He wanted to visit the soldiers' encampment up at the water-works. Perhaps you will find him there."

The water-works are several miles to the eastward of Manila, at a spot where a few months before some severe fighting had taken place between the Americans and the insurgents. Gilbert decided to journey thither, and hired a pony for that purpose.

The young lieutenant had been over this ground