Page:On to Pekin.djvu/79

Rh soon the boat was comfortably filled, although not crowded.

Besides the soldiers, there were a regimental band, a hospital corps, a number of officers' families, and half a dozen newspaper correspondents. There were also others on board whose presence were to surprise the young lieutenant greatly.

"Well, lieutenant, how do you feel?" asked Major Morris, as he met Gilbert in one of the gangways.

"First-rate, major, but rather sorry to leave the Philippines, after all."

"Precisely my case. We had many a lively campaign there, didn't we?"

So the talk ran on until night shut out a view of the city, leaving only the electric and other lights to twinkle in the darkness. There was but little sleep on board. At sunrise all were astir, and a little while later the steamship turned her head for the entrance to Manila Bay. Two hours sufficed to pass Corregidor Island; and then it could be said that the voyage to China was fairly begun.