Page:The Campaign of the Jungle.djvu/75

Rh "Heaven alone knows, my lad," responded the old tar. "Bein' as how they ain't cannibals, I don't reckon they'll eat us up," and he smiled grimly.

"They think we are spies."

"Thet's so."

"Do you know that they shoot spies—and do it in short order, too?"

"And why shouldn't I know it, Larry? I've heard tell on it often enough. But they have got to prove we air spies first, ain't they?"

"They'll do what they please. I believe half of these Filipinos think the Americans are nothing but cut-throats. They can't conceive that we should want to come here and govern them for their own good."

"Because they would rather govern themselves, even if they made a mess of it, than be under anybody's thumb nail, Larry. Howsomever, thet ain't the p'int jest now. The p'int is, kin we git out o' here before they settle to do wuss with us?"

"Get out? You mean break jail?"

"Exactly. We don't want to stay here if we kin git out, do we?"

"To be sure not." Larry leaped up from the bench upon which he had been resting and ran to