d surplices, who led the way, bearing a cross and two
candles. They started by playfully kicking each other, and this soon
developed into angry words, so that I expected a free fight. One
of them tucked his unbuttoned cassock round his neck, and egged the
other two on. The coffin followed on a lighted bier, and the string
of mourners followed meekly behind, no doubt looking upon this display
as nothing out of the common.

The interior of the church was very cold and bare, and there were no
seats. I learnt that the American and the Filipino Padre did not hit it
off together. There were one or two opposition schools in the village,
run by Filipinos, who did their utmost to prevent the children from
learning the language of the hated Americanos. The American did
not make himself any more popular by pulling down the old street
sign-boards bearing Spanish names, and substituting ugly card-board
placards marked in ink with fresh names, such as America Street,
McKinley Street, and Roosevelt Street; he had also named a street
after himself! Later on I learnt that this American schoolmaster
was a kind of spy in the American secret police, and that he had to
listen outside Filipino houses at night to overhear the conversation
of suspected insurgents. I was told this by Victoriano, my Filipino
servant in the mountains, who often accompanied the American in his
nightly rounds, and was the only man in the secret. This Victoriano,
whom I always called Vic for short, was the best servant that I
have had during my wanderings in any part of the world. He spoke
Spanish and knew a little English, as he had once been a servant
to an Englishman near Manila. With my small knowledge of Spanish,
and his smattering of English, we hit it off very well together. He
acted as gun-bearer, cook, laundry maid, housemaid, interpreter and
guide. Later on he told me that he had been an officer in the insurgent
Aguinaldo's army, and that he had been imprisoned by the Spaniards for
four years on the island of Mindanao for belonging to a revolutionary
society. He was a tall, thin fellow of only thirty-two years of age,
and yet his present wife in Florida Blanca was his sixth, all the
others being dead. I used to chaff him about having poisoned them,
which much amused him. After some days the American returned, and he
told me of a very good spot in which to collect up in the mountains,
so one morning I started off with Vic for a long stay in these mountain