hours, were boarded tight. He wandered down to the little dock
and out to its end, looking over the rippled waters with eyes that
ached strangely. The light faded swiftly, taking with it the pall of
oppressive humidity and freeing the Gulf to the coolness of
approaching night. None of the fishing craft which usually dotted the
gulf at this hour had ventured out. Malabanan had indeed made himself
felt.

Terry stood near an upended pile, numb with disappointment over the
expected cablegram. The dusk yielded in the distance to a darkness
which crept toward him over the ever diminishing circle of water.

Suddenly his dulled faculties registered an insistent warning of
danger, he caught the slight creaking of a board behind him. Aroused,
he whirled to face two figures which had halted ten feet from him in
attitudes expressive of the stealth of their approach. In the dusk he
distinguished two unusually large natives dressed in coarse unstarched
crash, and wearing shoes. Each carried a bolo thrust in braided hemp
belts.

For a tense moment they maintained the pose in which he had surprised
them, then the shorter of the two, who was a pace in front, took a
slow step backward, uneasy in being the closer to the young American
whose eyes drilled him through the gloom.

Terry, idly fingering his pistol belt with his left hand, shifted his
gaze to the larger of the pair, then unconsciously took a step forward
to better see that queer face. In the shock of surprise he stopped
short and his right arm jerked back into a curious position that
brought the hand below and behind his holster. The left eye of the
big Tagalog glittered white in the night!

His impetuous, fearless step toward the pair had broken the spell
which held them motionless. The white-eyed native hesitated, glanced
uneasily at Terry's holster, then spoke in brief gutturals to his
companion. Lifting his hat in salutation he bade Terry a suave
"_Buenas Noches, Senor_," and turning, walked off the dock, his
consort close behind him.

Through the soft darkness Terry saw them mount two ponies which were
tethered to a tree near the end of the wharf, and heard the shrill,
mocking laugh aimed back at him by the smaller of the two as they
galloped away into the night.

As he made his way rapidly across the poorly lighted town he gave no
thought to the fact that the pair had evidently meant him harm,
speculating upon the peculiar birthmark in the eye of the larger
Taga