as the day he devoted to the sport,
for such I think he really regarded it. The 'cuadrilleros' would start
out in the morning with a list of the men who were wanted. A house
would be surrounded, and unless the man had been given some warning
of their coming, and had fled, he would be driven out. Then, if he
tried to escape, or refused to come with them, one of the 'bejuco'
'man-catchers' was swung with a practiced hand in his direction,
and, caught in a hundred places by its cruel, thorny hooks, he was
led to town, the journey in itself being a torture such as few men
would think they could endure. The whipping came later.

"It was not until Pedro fell into trouble that I came to know really
the worst of all this. Of course I knew in a way, I had seen the
'bejuco' poles, and the rattans, and the whipping bench, and sometimes,
of a Sunday, when I was in the village and could not go away, I had
heard cries from the tribunal such as white men do not often hear--such
as I hope no one will ever hear again, even from those places.

"Pedro was my Visayan servant, a good worker and a likable fellow in
every way. He came to me one Sunday morning in great distress. His
twin brother had been dragged into the tribunal that morning by the
'cuadrilleros,' and was at that very moment being flogged. Could I
not help him? Would I not go to the Governor and tell him that Pedro
would pay his brother's tribute as soon as he could earn the money?

"If course I would. I would gladly do more than that I would pay the
money myself and let Pedro earn it afterwards. The man's last wages,
I knew, had gone to pay his old father's taxes and his own. His family
lived some little distance inland.

"We lost no time in getting to the tribunal. Pedro told me on the
way, and I think he told me the truth, that his brother's tax was
not rightly due then, else he would have been ready with the money.

"I have always been glad I had Pedro wait outside the door of the
government house.

"His brother was bound upon the whipping bench, his body bare to the
waist. A row of stripes which ran diagonally across his bare back from
hip to shoulder showed where each blow of the rattan had cut through
skin and flesh so that the blood flowed back to mark its course.

"'Stop!' I cried, rushing forward to where the Governor was
standing. 'Stop! I will pay this man's tax. How much is it? Let him
up! I'll pay for him.'

"The Governor looked at me a moment, and, exc