There don't none of 'em speak no
English but me, and all I can do is to interduce you, and tell 'em
that you ain't no spy, and that you are very sorry you ever ran up
agin this here town. And I guess I'll be expressin' your sentiments
exactly, won't I?" Archie nodded, but in his heart he felt that he
wasn't sorry he had run up against the town. This Bill Hickson, in
himself, was a character worth going miles to meet, and if what he
said was true, Archie stood a good chance of seeing the notorious
Aguinaldo, with his army of Filipinos, before the day was over.
When he reached the lower floor, he found several men lounging about
in another poorly furnished room, and they were all similar in
appearance to the men he had seen at the door the night before. They
looked at him in an indifferent way, and didn't seem surprised that he
should be walking about without restraint. Bill Hickson stepped up to
some of them, and, after a few words in some language Archie didn't
understand, motioned for the boy to step up. He was told to shake
hands with "all the gents," and after he had done so he was offered a
cigar, and Archie began to realise that it was a very good thing that
he had a friend at the Filipino court. He thought, too, that if these
men were samples, Aguinaldo had a very poor lot of retainers, and
later on he perceived the real cause for the failure of the rebels to
do anything more than keep up a constant retreat.
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