uel north of the Pasig, and again in Paco and Ermita to the south,
strong regiments were stationed in readiness to suppress the first sign
of the outbreak so confidently predicted by the Bureau of Military
Intelligence. In a great semicircle of over twenty miles, girdling the
city north, east and south, the outposts and sentries of the two
divisions kept watchful eyes upon the Insurgent forces surrounding them.
Aguinaldo and his cabinet at Malolos to the north had all but declared
war upon the obstinate possessors of the city and had utterly forbidden
their leaving the lines of Manila and seeking to penetrate those broader
fields and roads and villages without. Still hugging to its breast the
delusion that a semi-Malaysian race could be appeased by show of
philanthropy, the government at Washington decreed that, despite their
throwing up earthworks against and training guns on the American
positions, the enemy should be treated as though they never could or
would be hostile, and the privileges denied by them to American troops
were by the American troops accorded to them. Coming and going at will
through our lines, they studied our force, our arms, equipment, numbers,
supplies, methods; and long before the Christmas bells had clanged their
greeting to that universal feast day, and the boom of cannon ushered in
the new year, all doubt of the hostile sentiments of the Insurgent
leaders had vanished. Already there had been ominous clashes at the
front; and with every day the demeanor of the Philippine officers and men
became more and more insolent and defiant. Ceaseless vigilance and
self-control were enjoined upon the soldiers of the United States, nearly
all stalwart volunteers from the far West, and while officers of the
staff and of the half-dozen regiments quartered within the city were
privileged each day to stroll or drive upon the Luneta, there were others
that never knew an hour away from the line of the outposts and their
supports. Such was the case with Stewart's regiment far out toward the
waterworks at the east. Such was the case with the Primeval Dudes on the
other side of the Pasig, lining the banks of the crooked estuary that
formed the Rubicon we were forbidden to cross. Such was the case with
Canker and the --teenth in the dense bamboo thicket to the south, and so
it happened that at first Armstrong and Billy Gray saw nothing of each
other, and but little of the White Sisters, probably a fortunate thing
for