good
spiel through my interpreter, telling them that from now on all who
worked for me would be free from the hard toil of stripping--nothing
to do but field work--and all that. I thought that they would admire
this new evidence of the American genius, would pile over each other
in their desire to work for me.

"I nodded to the mechanic: he cranked the engine and it got off to a
fine start and before throwing in the clutch that hooked it up with
the stripper I looked out over the silent, brown-faced crowd. I had to
grin at their expectant, half-scared attitude: the old chief stood
right in front of the big machine--he was uncertain about it all, but
game. I threw her in and waved to the feeders, who tossed in the great
stalks as the big iron arms started to revolve in the air. It did make
an infernal racket--but it did strip hemp. The fiber came out of one
end, the juice ran into a trough--oh, it worked great.

"I spent a minute or two seeing that everything worked right, then I
turned triumphantly to the crowd. But, Lord--there wasn't any crowd--I
saw the last of their brown backs disappearing into the brush!

"All but the old chief. He stood right there; stiff with fright, I
guess! I stopped the machine and went over to him to ask him to tell
his young men to work for me as he could see how easy it would be for
them, now that I had this machine."

He paused, laughing ruefully. "But I didn't get a chance to say a
word. He took one last look at the now quiet iron monster, clucked
that peculiar 'Tuk!' in which they express the maximum of emotion,
uttered two words--'_Americano devils!_'--then stalked away as rapidly
as his bent old legs would carry him. He disappeared into the
woods--and hasn't been seen since!

"And worst of all, all of my Bogobos quit me, so that instead of
cornering the labor market in Davao I lost most of what I had! I'm
punching the bag every day now, getting in shape to greet the next
_hombre_ that tries to sell me a machine!"

He joined goodnaturedly in the laugh which filled the room and when it
subsided turned to the Major gratefully.

"Major, my hemp lay rotting in my fields: it meant serious loss to
me--it would have wiped me out. But Lieutenant Terry heard about it
and without saying anything to me, went among the Bogobos and
persuaded sixty of them to work for me--the most I ever had was
thirty-one. He has a wonderful hold upon them--they will do anything
he says: and I'm not the o