d of my store of optimism. It looks to me as if the Lieutenant had
been made way with."

"This leaves me stranded," the Major said. "I am ordered to act only
after acquiring later information concerning the situation, the same to
be delivered by Lieutenant Rowe. In the absence of that information,
what am I to do? My present orders may be all wrong."

"Perhaps," Ned suggested, "it may be well to visit this hut and see what
we can discover there. The Lieutenant may have gone out for a morning's
hunt."

"No such good luck as that," replied the Captain. "Why, the little
furniture the hut contains is broken to bits, and the floor is streaked
with blood! There was a fight in there last night, depend upon it!"

"And no one heard anything unusual during the night?" asked Ned.

"Not that I know of."

"Are the usual residents of this place, so far as you know, all here
this morning?" was the next question.

"I will ascertain that," said the Captain. "I learned of the strange
happening only a few minutes before your arrival."

The three left the house, the only one of size there, and proceeded down
a mushy street between huts and thickets until they came to a little
nipa hut set high on poles. They climbed the bamboo stairs and stood on
the swaying porch in front, seeing no one about the place.

The door stood wide open, and Captain Godwin was first to enter. There
was only one room in the hut, but there were two alcoves opening from
it--narrow little alcoves in which, evidently, bedding and articles not
wanted for immediate use were tucked away during the day.

As the Captain had stated, the apartment was in disorder. The mosquito
wiring had been torn from the three windows and the door and now lay in
a tangle on the floor. Bamboo chairs had been broken, and there was a
faint odor of whisky in the room. Major Ross glanced casually over the
interior and turned away.

"I can't stop here now," he said impatiently. "I've got to write a
report of this happening and get it to Manila. I suppose I can depend on
one of your men to deliver a letter for me?" he added, turning to
Captain Godwin.

"Yes, but it will mean a great delay," replied Godwin. "It will take at
least a week for a man in a swift canoe to go to Manila and return
here."

"It is unfortunate," grumbled the Major, "but I must, I suppose, endure
the delay. Unless," he continued, a sudden smile coming to his face as
he thought of the cozy club-life he had form