won't allow yourself to be
warned."

"Warned--that's not the question. But this desire of yours to scent
Japanese intrigues everywhere, to figure out all politics by the
Japanese common denominator, and to see a Japanese spy in every coolie
is becoming a positive mania. No, I can't agree with you there," added
Webster, who seemed to regret the passionate outburst into which his
temperament had betrayed him.

"Really not?" asked Harryman, turning in his comfortable wicker chair
toward Webster and looking at him half encouragingly with twinkling
eyes.

Such discussions were not at all unusual in the Club at Manila, for they
presented the only antidote to the leaden, soul-killing tedium of the
dull monotony of garrison duty. Since the new insurrection on Mindanao
and in the whole southern portion of the archipelago, the question as to
the actual causes of the uprising, or rather the secret authors thereof,
continually gave rise to heated discussions. And when both parties, of
which one ascribed everything to Japanese intrigue and the other found
an explanation in elementary causes, began to liven up, the debate was
apt to wax pretty warm. If these discussions did nothing else, they at
least produced a sort of mental excitement after the heat of the day
which wore out body and mind alike, not even cooling down toward
evening.

The Chinese boy, passing quickly and quietly between the chairs, removed
the traces of the Webster thunderbolt and placed fresh bottles of soda
water on the table, whereupon the officers carefully prepared new
drinks.

"He's a spy, too, I suppose?" asked Webster of Harryman, pointing with
his thumb over his shoulder at the disappearing boy.

"Of course. Did you ever imagine him to be anything else?"

Webster shrugged his shoulders. A dull silence ensued, during which they
tried to recover the lost threads of their thoughts in the drowsy
twilight. Harryman irritably chewed the ends of his mustache. The smoke
from two dozen shag pipes settled like streaks of mist in the sultry air
of the tropical night, which came in at the open windows. Lazily and
with long pauses, conversation was kept up at the separate tables. The
silence was only broken by the creaking of the wicker chairs and the
gurgling and splashing of the soda water, when one of the officers,
after having put it off as long as possible, at last found sufficient
energy to refill his glass. Motionless as seals on the sandhills in the