Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/222

194 "We might do a whole lot if we kept out of sight and popped them off one at a time."

"Well, we haven't anything but the knife and the empty pistol, and to risk a hand-to-hand struggle would be foolhardy. We had better keep out of sight."

"And leave those poor chaps to their fate?"

"No. Let us follow the crowd. Perhaps we'll be able to do something for them in the dark, if we are not caught ourselves."

The Filipinos with their prisoners were now turning to the right, toward another mountain pass from that which the young sailors had been traversing. The two youths waited until they were almost out of sight, then followed stealthily by moving from tree to tree and bush to bush. They were tremendously interested and wondered who the prisoners could be.

"They look to me like sailors," observed Walter. "But their clothing is in such tatters it's all guesswork."

As they followed the others, the boys kept a constant lookout behind, that they might not be surprised from that direction. In this fashion fully a mile was covered, when the Filipinos called a halt