Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/49

Rh surrounded, and a voice called out, in very bad English: "Americano, surrender, or we shoot him dead!"

Ben looked around, lowering his pistol as he did so. He saw the barrels of four rifles pointed at him and the barrel of a fifth pointed at Gilmore, who lay flat on his back, almost breathless with pain.

"I—I surrender!" gasped the lieutenant. "Don't kill me in cold blood!"

"Do you surrender, capitan?" demanded the voice which had spoken before.

Ben hesitated, but only for a moment longer. He saw several determined faces peering at him, saw that the Filipinos were ready to pull trigger at the word of command, and felt that the discharge of rifles would more than likely prove deadly.

"I surrender," he said quietly, and his heart sank as he uttered the words.

"The capitan will throw down his pistol and his rifle," went on the Tagalog leader.

Without ceremony Ben did as requested. The Tagals came out of the brushwood, and the Americans were quickly surrounded and searched, and all of their other weapons taken from them. Then the man named Riva came forward and claimed his rifle and