id. "I hope to be--useful."

They had reached the entrance to the government building: the Major
paused at the foot of the mahogany staircase to conclude earnestly:
"It is fashionable just now in Manila to decry this effort to
institute civil government among the Moros--but I know you are not of
the type to be influenced. Governor Mason is making good: you will
see that after you have been here a month. He is a wonder,
Terry,--probably the only man who could handle this situation with a
few Constabulary. Study, patience, and square-dealing, backed by
occasional use of troops, prepared the Moros for this experiment, and
Governor Mason is carrying it forward almost alone--opposing the
backward tendencies of Sululand with little else save personality,
inspiration and a wonderful knowledge of Malay character.

"You're going to like it down here," he wound up suddenly, confused by
his own unaccustomed oratory.

Mounting the polished stairway, they passed down the tall concrete
corridors and into the Major's office. He drew up a chair for Terry
and seated himself behind a desk whose orderly array of accessories
bespoke his methodical bachelor habits. The walls were covered with
large-scale maps of Moroland showing location of various tribes,
scattered settlements and district boundaries, with great blank areas
eloquent of the unknown character of unexplored fastnesses. The
crosses which indicated the distribution of Constabulary forces
controlled from his office dotted every sizable island: pins bearing
the names of government agents showed into what remote regions our
trail-breakers had penetrated. One purple-flagged pin showed a
veterinarian warring against a cattle plague in Jolo: a blue flag
thrust into one of the blank spaces of Mindanao indicated the
whereabouts of a fearless ethnologist from the Field Museum: a red
sticker bore the name of an engineer who had been out of touch for six
weeks, running the line of a new trail across the great bulk of
Mindanao. The map was symbolic of the Constabulary, whose duty it is
to know all, to protect all.

Leaving Terry to his study of the maps the Major spent an unapologetic
fifteen minutes clearing the mass of papers that had accumulated
during the lunch hour, then turned to him. For an hour he outlined the
salient problems which would confront the young officer in his new
assignment. He was all business, curt, concise, definite. He touched
upon the ordinary service activit