talk (quite a number at
Ilagan could speak Spanish) made of her a sort of responsive idol
for the entire populace.

CHAPTER XII.

CROSSING THE SIERRA MADRES.

She remained at Ilagan until the middle of June, when it began to be
rumored that the Americans were preparing to invade the Cagayan valley,
not only soldiers from the south but with the "mosquito fleet" coming
up the river from its mouth at the extreme northern end of the island
of Luzon. Nobody in the city seemed to know just where Aguinaldo had
gone. Part of his advance guard had arrived in the city some three
months before, but he had not come, and his soldiers had soon departed
for the southeast, following the valley of the Pinacanalan river.

Tired of her surroundings and impatient to join Aguinaldo, Marie
departed by the same route that his soldiers had taken. From an
old native living all alone in a bamboo shack on the bank of the Rio
Masagan river, which empties into the Pinacanalan about eighteen miles
southeast of Ilagan, she learned that Aguinaldo and his troops had
started up the valley of the Masagan. This stream rises high up near
the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains which parallel the eastern
coast of northern Luzon for nearly five hundred miles, and are inland
from the coast from ten to thirty miles.

Marie had with her three trusted natives from Ilagan. She did not want
to spend another night alone in the mountains. After proceeding up
the Masagan for thirty-five miles to a place where its valley narrows
itself to a gorge, its bed was so strewn with huge boulders that it
became impossible to travel any longer on horseback; therefore, one
of the natives was sent back with the horses, and Marie and the two
others continued the ascent on foot, taking with them such equipment
and provisions as they could conveniently carry.

After many hardships they succeeded in crossing the range in safety
and soon found themselves descending the other side. A Filipino
scouting party was met at the evening of the first day's tramp down
the Pacific slope. They were well supplied with food--thing Marie and
her companions greatly needed. From them it was learned that Aguinaldo
and his body guard and quite a complement of Filipino soldiers were
secreted at the little town of Palanan on a small stream by the same
name, about ten miles back from the coast and lying directly east
of them on the journey which they were pursuing. This party escorted
t