te guard to the open stairway,
it afforded ample cover for escape, when, alarmed by Nita's cry, Gray and
the corporal came springing to her aid. To Gray himself it gave only a
few minutes' forgetfulness of his trouble, for, smarting under the sting
of a woman's only half-hidden disdain, he would have welcomed with almost
savage joy some fierce battle with a skillful foe, some scene in which he
could compel her respect and admiration. He was still smarting and stung
when at last that opportunity came.

Long will Manila remember the night! It followed close upon the heels of
warnings that for weeks held every officer and man to his post of duty.
Day after day the strain increased. The Insurgents, crowding upon our
outposts in front of Santa Mesa on the north and of Santa Ana on the
south side of the Pasig, had heaped insult and threats upon our silent
sentries, compelled by orders to the very last to submit to anything but
actual attack rather than bring on a battle. "The Americans are afraid,"
was the gleeful cry of Aguinaldo's officers, the jeer and taunt of his
men. The regulars were soon to come and replace those volunteers, said
the wiseacre of his cabinet, therefore strike now before the trained and
disciplined troops arrive and sweep these big boors into the sea. And on
the still, starlit night, sooner perhaps than his confederates within the
walls intended, the rebel leader struck, and, long before the dawn of the
lovely Sunday morn that followed, the fire flashed from forty thousand
rifles in big semicircle around Manila, and the long-expected battle was
on.

Hours after dawn, hours after the attack began, the --teenth were in
extended battle order to the south of Malate confronted by thickets of
bamboo that fairly swarmed with Insurgents, yet, only by the incessant
zip and "whiew" of their deadly missiles and the ceaseless crackle of
rifle fire, could this be determined; for with their smokeless powder and
their Indian-like skill in concealment nothing could be seen of their
array. Over to the westward on the placid waters of the bay the huge
Monadnock was driving shell after shell into the dense underbrush across
the abandoned rice fields and the marshy flats that lined the shore. Over
to the east resounding cheers and crashing volleys, punctuated by the
sharp report of field guns, told that the comrade brigade was heavily
engaged and, apparently, driving the enemy before them. To right and left
their voluntee