The insurgents had probably
driven the family out of the country and had taken possession of the
house, which they had stripped of everything useful, leaving the
tapestries and works of art behind them.
These suppositions were cut short by the entrance of a man who
appeared to be a half-breed, and who immediately began to speak to
Archie in broken English. The fellow had a pleasant face, and
presented a fairly good appearance, and Archie wondered how he could
have come to this place. "I suppose you have been wondering," said the
man, "why you have been thrown into this room, and it won't take me
long to explain things. You see this town belongs to us just now, and
we don't propose to have any Yankee spies around here to tell Otis of
our whereabouts. There ain't no troops in this town now, but there's
likely to be any minute, and we patriots was sent here to take
possession of things and arrange quarters for our army. Let me tell
you that the Filipino army will be in this town to-day, and if you
don't look sharp you'll be the first prisoner to be shot. Aguinaldo
isn't a man to deal easily with spies, and if he thought you was out
here for that purpose he'd have you riddled with bullets in a minute."
The man came up to Archie and began to undo the ropes. "I reckon I can
trust you free for awhile, for there's no use in your trying to get
away, with the Filipino army all around the town.
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