opium, and naturally
aggrieved and indignant at such unheard-of treatment. "He did not tell
us how much he wanted! He did not even ask us to pay!" Retained in
responsible positions in the office of the collector of customs, two
Spanish officers of rank were presently found to have embezzled some
twelve thousand dollars in some six weeks of opportunity. "But this is
outrage! This is scandalous!" quoth they, in righteous wrath on being
bidden to disgorge and ordered before a court-martial. "We have nothing
but the customary perquisite! It is you who would rob us!" From highest
to lowest, in church, in state, in school,--in every place,--there
seemed no creed that barred the acquisition of money by any means short
of actual robbery of the person. As for thieving from the premises, the
Filipino stood unequalled--the champion sneak-thief of the universe.

And the sentries this night, softly lighted by a waning old moon, were
on the lookout everywhere among the suburbs for two malefactors
distinctly differing in type, yet equally in demand. One, said the
descriptions, compiled from the original information of Zenobia Perkins,
Spinster; residence 259 Calle Real, Ermita; occupation, Vice-President
and Accredited Representative for the Philippine Islands of the
Patriotic Daughters of America, and the additional particulars later
obtained from Lieutenant Gerard Stuyvesant, aide-de-camp to General
Vinton, 595 Calle Real, Malate--one, said the descriptions, was a burly,
thick-set, somewhat slouching American, in clothing of the sailor
slop-shop variety, a man of five feet six and maybe forty years, though
he might be much younger; a coarse-featured, heavy-bearded man, with
gray eyes, generally bleary, and one front tooth gone, leaving a gap in
the upper jaw next the canine, which was fang-like, yellow, and
prominent; a man with harsh voice and surly ways; a man known as Sackett
among seamen and certain civilians who probably had made their way to
Manila in the hope of picking up an easy living; a man wanted as Murray
among soldiers for a deserter, jail-bird, and thief.

The other malefactor was less minutely described. A native five feet
eight, perhaps. Very tall for a Tagal, slender, sinewy, and with a tuft
of wiry hair and sixteen inches of shirt missing. "For further
particulars and the missing sixteen inches, as well as the hair, inquire
at Colonel Brent's, Number 199 Calle San Luis, Ermita."

It seems that soon after dark th