among themselves. Each soldier had his Krag
on the ground beside him in case of danger, the rifle of the man who
was undressing being in a far corner of the room.

Suddenly, at a word from their leader, the Moros seized their wicked
_barongs_ and simultaneously attacked the men playing cards, beheading
one poor fellow at a single blow, and fearfully cutting the three
others. One died almost immediately, and the second fell unconscious,
while the third, who was cut across the side of the head and neck,
feigned death and so escaped with his life.

The soldier who was partly undressed, seeing that he could not reach
his rifle, felt it was only a matter of seconds before his turn should
come. But the Moros, having obtained all the firearms, escaped into
the forest, leaving him unharmed. As hastily as possible, he lifted
the still unconscious man into the boat, which had been hidden in the
bushes against just such an emergency, the wounded soldier who had
feigned death helping with all his little strength, though he was so
grievously hurt that he had literally to hold on his head with his
hands, the cords on one side of his neck being severed. Fortunately,
the jugular vein escaped the keen knife's edge, else he would not
have been alive; but it was with no little difficulty he helped the
unwounded man push off from shore.

All night they rowed, the wounded man working with one hand, despite
his fearful suffering, and all the next day, the blazing tropic sun
shining down on their unprotected heads. Once they were beached on a
coral reef, and it was all they could do to get the boat off again
into deep water. Meanwhile the third soldier died, but at last the
survivors of the massacre, in a pitiable condition, reached the post,
carrying between them the already putrefying corpse of their comrade.

Scarce waiting to hear their gruesome story, the commanding officer and
most of his company put off in _bancas_ for Balambing, the unwounded
man accompanying them for the purpose of identification. Arriving
late in the afternoon, the soldiers quickly surrounded the town before
any Moro could escape in his _prau_, and the rapidity with which the
Philippine Mohammedan can drop from his house, built on poles over
the water, and paddle away is little less than miraculous.

The head men of the village were then summoned by the American captain
and ordered to hand over the murderers and the stolen rifles, or lead
the way to the hiding-