Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/97

Rh the time we reach the Philippines the war will be over, the back taps sounded, and everybody will have forgotten there was any fighting."

"Don't worry, Si; we'll see enough of it, I reckon. We think this trip long because the transport Central isn't the armored cruiser Brooklyn, that's all."

"I don't see any sign of land yet."

"If all goes right, they expect to sight land day after to-morrow," put in a soldier standing near. "I heard the captain telling one of the lieutenants so.

"Did he say where we were?"

"Somewhere off the north coast of Luzon."

"If that's the case, we must be near where my brother Larry was once wrecked," said Walter Russell, with a sudden show of interest. "You remember, Si, I told you about it, and how he was picked up by Commodore Dewey."

"Yes, I remember. But I can tell you, I don't want to be wrecked." And the Yankee boy shook his head vigorously. "From what I have heard, the people living in the northern part of Luzon are reg'larregular [sic] savages—used to be head-hunters, so an old soldier told me."

"I am anxious to learn how the war is