own. From the decks of the proas and from about
the fire on shore, where another feast was beginning, the Moro men
were watching me.

Then I understood for the first time the depths of Moro cruelty. I
was to be baited there until, crazed by hunger, I flung myself to an
awful death upon the rocks below. I wondered how many men, perhaps
braver soldiers than I, had gone down there before me.

I would not. If die I must, I would at least cheat those gibbering
fiends of their show. I would die as that other man had done, far
in the cave and out of sight. I dragged myself in, drank from the
little stream of water, and lay down. I must have slept, or lain in
a stupor for several hours, since, when I recovered myself again,
it was late afternoon.

From where I lay I could see the bag of cocoanuts swing in the
breeze. Perhaps it had blown nearer and I could reach it. I dragged
myself out to the mouth of the cave again. It was just as far away
as ever, and I too weak now to try to reach it. After a time I began
to realise that there was no noise from the revelers below. I looked
down. The bay was empty. The proas had gone, the men gone with them,
and not a breath of smoke rising from the ashes showed where their
fires had been. They must have put out their fires. Dimly I wondered
why. Anyway I had cheated them of their game. They had become
discouraged, waiting to see me die, and had gone.

These thoughts were passing weakly through my mind, when suddenly I
saw something which made me stand up, weak as I was. Far out across
the Strait of Mindoro a streamer of black smoke showed against the
sky. My eyes followed it to where a gray hull rested on the water. It
was one of our gunboats bound from Ilo Ilo back to Manila. I shouted,
faintly, forgetting that miles of space lay between her and myself. I
knew when I stopped to think that she was going from me. Even if she
had come near Coron she had passed while I lay asleep.

That was why the proas had gone. They had seen the streak of smoke,
and slipping behind the island of Coron had gone around Culion,
and so on, home.

I must have slept for some time after that, for when I was next
conscious of anything it was the forenoon of another day, and the cave
was flooded with the bright light of noon. I did not suffer anything
now. That seemed to have passed. I lay quite easy, and wondered what
it was that had aroused me. After a while I could tell. It was the
ceaseless twittering of