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152 frightful condition, but the soldiers moved forward with quiet determination, although the fierce heat soon made many of them drop from the ranks. At Guadalupe the two brigades separated, General Overshine's moving to the west, and General Wheaton's to the northwest, the object of General Lawton being to gather the enemy in between two fires.

It was not long after Ben's regiment had left Guadalupe that a scattering fire was heard ahead, and soon the report drifted in that the Filipinos, were strongly entrenched along the road leading to Las Piñas and the bay.

"We are ordered to the front, Captain Russell," said Major Morris, presently, and a minute later the battalion was on the double-quick across a rice field, with the second and third battalions behind them. Then a skirmishing line was formed, extending across the field, from a road on the right to a steep hill on the left. The road was occupied by some of the American artillery, who went ahead, taking "pot shots" at the hill whenever a crowd of Filipinos showed themselves.

In the rice field the sun was "sizzling," as more than one returned soldier has expressed it, and to rush forward and then drop down for a wait was