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Boy Scouts in the Philippines
Or
The Key to the Treaty Box
By Scout Master G. Harvey Ralphson
Author of "Boy Scouts in Mexico; or On Guard with Uncle Sam." "BoyScouts In the Canal Zone; or The Plot Against Uncle Sam." "Boy Scouts inthe Northwest; or Fighting Forest Fires."
Copyright 1911.M. A. Donohue & Company.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Eleotrotyped, Printed and Bound by M. A. Donohue & Co.
Boy Scouts in the Philippines; or The Key to the TreatyBox.]
CONTENTS
I. Black Bears and Wolves
II. It's Up to the Boy Scouts
III. The Midnight Visitor
IV. The Signals in Grass
V. On the Rim of the China Sea
VI. The Low Call of a Wolf
VII. A Missing Motor Boat
VIII. Wigwags from the Beach
IX. Two Keys to the Treaty Box
X. A Hot Night in Yokohama
XI. A Fairy History of Japan
XII. Pat Takes a Big Chance
XIII. Of the Wild Cat Patrol, Manila
XIV. The Senator's Son Seeks a Key
XV. Signal Lights in the China Sea
XVI. For Piracy on the High Seas
XVII. The Flare of a Rocket
XVIII. The Man Behind the Door
XIX. Boy Scouts Unearth Plot
Boy Scouts in the Philippines
OR
The Key to the Treaty Box
CHAPTER I.
BLACK BEARS AND WOLVES.
"Wake up--wake up--wake up!"
Frank Shaw, passenger on the United States army transport _Union_, SanFrancisco to the Philippines, awoke in his cabin to find the freckledface of Jimmie McGraw grinning above him.
"What's the use?" he demanded, sleepily and impatiently. "It will beonly another roasting day on a hot deck on an ocean fit to stew fish in.What's the use of getting up? I'm going to sleep again."
Frank's intentions were all right, but he did not go to sleep again. Ashe turned over and closed his eyes, Jimmie seized him deftly by theshoulders and dumped him out on the scarlet rug which covered the floorof the stateroom.
Frank was seventeen and Jimmie was younger, and so there was a mixtureof legs and arms and vocabulary for a moment, at the end of which Jimmiebroke away and made for the door, which he had thoughtfully left open asa means of retreat.
Left thus alone on the tumbled blankets of the bunk from which he hadbeen hustled, Frank rubbed his eyes, threw a pillow at his tormentor,and began making his way toward his cozy nest, much to Jimmie's disgust.
"Aw, come on!" the boy urged, still standing in a safe place by thedoorway. "It's hot enough to melt brass in here, an' the siren's beenshoutin' for half an hour! That means land--the Philippines! Perhaps youthink you're lookin' for Battery Park, in little old New York! Get upan' look out of the port, over the rollin' sea, to the land of thelittle brown men!"
Looking through the doorway, over the boy's shoulders, Frank smiledserenely at what he saw and sat waiting for something to happen. ThenJimmie was propelled headlong into the room, where he landed squarely ontop of the drowsy boy he had dragged out of bed. There was anotherscramble for points, and then two boys of about seventeen showed theirfaces in the doorway, laughing at the mix-up on the floor.
The transport's siren broke out again in its long, shrill greeting ofthe land which lay above the rim of the sea, and Frank, catapultingJimmie against the wall at the back of the bunk, hastened to the openport and looked out.
The boys who had entered the cabin so unceremoniously were Ned Nestorand Jack Bosworth, who were traveling with Frank and Jimmie to thePhilippines, the party being under the direction of Major John Ross, ofthe United States Secret Service.
They had left Panama about the middle of April, and it was now not farfrom the first of June, the transport having been delayed for a week atHonolulu, where she had put in for supplies. The boys had enjoyed thetrip hugely, but were, nevertheless, not displeased at the sight ofland.
Leave it to the lads themselves, and this was a Boy Scout expedition,although there was a serious purpose behind it. Ned Nestor and JimmieMcGraw were members of the Wolf Patrol, Ned being the Patrol Leader,while Frank Shaw and Jack Bosworth were members of the famous Black BearPatrol, both of the city of New York.
Those who have read the first two books of this series[1] will readilyunderstand the object of this journey to the Philippines, but for theinformation of those who have not read the books it may be well to statehere that while in Mexico and the Canal Zone Ned Nestor had been able torender valuable services to the United States government.
[Footnote 1: Boy Scouts In Mexico; or, On Guard with Uncle Sam. BoyScouts in the Canal Zone; or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam.]
At the close of his work in the Secret Service department of the CanalZone government, he had been invited to accompany Major Ross to thePhilippines for the purpose of assisting in the uncovering of an allegedtreasonable plot against the peace of the Islands and the continuedsupremacy of the United States Government there.
Knowing little of what there was to be done, or of what was expected ofhim, Ned had accepted the invitation to enter the Secret Service,stipulating only that his chums should be permitted to accompany him toUncle Sam's new and somewhat unruly possessions in Asia.
"I won't go if we can't make a Boy Scout outing of it," he had insisted."I shall be glad to be of service to the government, but I want the boysto have a jolly time, too. There must be plenty of opportunities foradventure in the Philippines," he had added, thinking of the many oddcustoms of the tribes of natives on the twelve hundred islands thatconstitute the group.
"I shall be only too glad to have your friends go," the Major hadreplied, "for I understand that they contributed not a little to thesuccess of your efforts in Mexico and the Canal Zone."
"I couldn't have done a thing without them," had been Ned's generousreply, and so it was all arranged.
However, only three of the boys who had accompanied Ned from New York tothe Canal Zone had been at liberty to go to the Philippines, the othersreluctantly turning back home. The three to go were now assembled in thecabin occupied by Frank Shaw, looking out to the dim line of land.
Frank Shaw was the son of the owner and editor of an influential dailynewspaper in New York, Jack Bosworth was the son of a wealthy board oftrade man, and Jimmie McGraw was a Bowery newsboy who had attachedhimself to Ned Nestor, his patrol leader, just before the visit toMexico and had clung to him like a puppy to a root, as the saying is,ever since.
"Come on, boys," Ned said, after an inspection of the ocean through theport, "let's go on deck. We can see the whole show from there."
The boys trooped up to the rail and were soon joined by Major Ross. Itwas now a little after dawn, and a sunrise breeze was lifting littleripples on an otherwise motionless sea. Spread out, a couple of milesaway, was the outline of shore the siren was greeting.
It was a low coast, stretching away to right and left until lost in themists of the morning. It looked monotonous and furry with forests,deserted and still, but in time the presence of man became observable.
A river wound down out of the trees and broke over a bar
set against itsmouth in the sea. On the right bank of the stream a tin roof glistenedin the early sunlight. Wherever there is a tin roof there iscivilization in some degree, though this seemed to be a sleepy one.
Presently the call of the siren brought forth a boat, not in the littlebay, but up the river a few hundred yards. It moved down to thecoastline with only the canopy, which was of faded scarlet cloth, andthe heads of the rowers in view above the tops of the bushes andcreepers which lined the stream.
The land smoked under the rising temperature brought on by the climbingsun, and Jimmie chuckled as he nudged Frank's arm.
"I see your finish there," he said. "A boy as fat as you are will meltover there. There's nothin' left of the brown men in the boat but theirheads!"
Frank looked along the bow-shaped shore, over the palms, now touchedwith the red light of a hot morning, and wiped his streaming forehead.
"This doesn't look good to me!" he said. "I thought we were going toManila!"
"Didn't Ned tell you about it?" asked Jack Bosworth.
"Not a word."
"Well, we're going to disembark here; I don't know the name of theplace, or even if it has one, and make our way among some of theseislands in a motor boat. There are a lot of secret service men at Manilawho don't want to mix with us kids!"
"That's nice!" Jimmie cried. "We won't do a thing to 'em! We'll put itover 'em good, you see if we don't! I reckon Ned Nestor can give any of'em half a string an' win out, at that!"
"Of course he can," Jack replied, "but I'm not kicking at this way ofdoing things. I'm thinking of the motor boat, and the long days andmoony nights in the seas among these islands!"
"It will be great!" Jimmie admitted.
There was a short pause, and then he added, thoughtfully:
"Who's goin' to run the boat?"
"I can run it," was the reply.
"Yes, you can!"
"I own one," insisted Jack.
"Yes, an' you hire a man to run it!" Jimmie grinned. "I don't believeyou can run a hand cultivator!"
"Of course not!" laughed Jack. "But I can operate a motor boat," headded.
"You can?" demanded Jimmie, with an exasperating grin. "Then perhaps youcan tell me if the motor boat we're goin' to have has pneumatic brakes?"
"Sure it has!" laughed Jack. "And it also has a rudder that you canunship and use as a safety razor. You might open up a barber shop withit, only the eminent citizens over here don't have any more whiskersthan a squash."
"You're gettin' dippy!" Jimmie shouted, darting away to the spot whereNed and the Major were standing.
Directly a flag broke out over the tin roof and in a short time the boatwas at the transport's side. Full of enthusiasm, and with high hopes forthe immediate future, the boys and the Major descended to the shakylittle craft and the transport steamed off, her rails lined withsoldiers and civilians cheering the boys and wishing them good luck.
The last voice they heard as the boat crossed the bar and swung into thesluggish current of the river was that of Captain Helmer, who had madechums and companions of the boys on the way over.
"Good hunting!" he cried, through his megaphone, and the marine bandstruck up "Home, Sweet Home," "just to give us a cheerful mood onentering this desolate land!" as Major Ross declared.
"Do they all think we're goin' huntin'?" asked Jimmie, as the windrowsof salt water heaped up by the transport grew smaller and lapped on thebeach.
"Sure they do," replied Jack. "Do you think the Major told them we weregoing into the jungles to catch a few recruits for the federal prison atManila? Nice thing, that would be!"
"There are just two persons, so far as I know, outside of the SecretService headquarters at Washington, who know what we are up to," MajorRoss said. "These are Colonel Hill, of the Canal Zone force, and CaptainGodwin, who is to receive us here."
The brown oarsmen tugged and strained at the oars, and the waters of theriver came up to the rim of the native boat and crept in and spreadthemselves over the rotten floor. The boys were all glad when the prowtouched the little dock at the lone pueblo where Uncle Sam's flagsnapped in a breeze which was coming over the trees, bringing with it amusty smell of decaying undergrowth.
Captain Godwin met them at the landing with great hand outstretched. Hewas a stout, brown-faced man of fifty, with muscles like iron and a mindall stuffed and tucked in with the glory of the United States. He wasproud of the service he had passed the greater part of his life in, andwas proud of the record for efficiency he had made. A kindly, bluff,seasoned old man of war, with soft blue eyes and a hard hand.
"I should have sent the _Manhattan_ after you," he said, afterintroductions had been made, "only there's something the matter with herbatteries."
"You bet there is!" laughed Jimmie. "The only battery that never getsunder foot or loses a shoe is at the foot of Broadway, in little old NewYork!"
"Hardly at the foot of Broadway," Jack began, but Jimmie interrupted.
"Never mind," he said, "if we know where it is! You go an' fix up thismotor boat of the name of _Manhattan_, an' we'll have a ride."
"The boat will be ready by to-morrow morning," the Captain said, smilingat the friendly arguments of the two boys. "I presume you have yourinstructions?" he added.
"I have them here," Major Ross said, rather sternly, as he took a sealedpacket from his pocket.
"When and where are you to open that packet?" asked the Captain.
"On my arrival at this place," was the dignified reply.
The Major seemed to be of opinion that the Captain was stepping on hisofficial rights.
"Then we'll go up to the house and you look them over while I see whatcan be found to celebrate this auspicious event! I don't often have thepleasure of meeting four happy, husky, hungry boys fresh from the UnitedStates!"
"You're the goods, all right!" shouted Jimmie. "But how did you guess wewere hungry?"
Captain Godwin laughed and clapped both his broad palms on his knees.
"How did I know?" he roared. "That's a good one! As if the boys weren'talways as hungry as black bears!"
"There are two Black Bears in the party!" Jimmie said.
"And two Wolves!" Jack added.
Captain Godwin looked from face to face in smiling wonder, and the boysthrust all kinds of Boy Scout signs and words at him.
"I see," the Captain said, then. "I've heard of the Boy Scouts! And nowwe'll go up to the house. Never saw a Black Bear or a Wolf that wasn'thungry!"
The jolly Captain gave instructions to his servants and they promised,with many native grimaces and a waste of tribal vocabulary, to have asatisfying breakfast ready in half an hour. Then Godwin drew Major Rossand Ned to one side, his good-natured face assuming a grave expressionas he seated them in a private room of the rambling and wobbly oldhouse.
"There's something unexpected here," he began, as the Major sat with hissealed instructions in hand, "and I wish you would open your packetimmediately. To tell you the truth, I'm not a little worried."
The Major opened the packet and glanced hastily through several typedsheets. Then his keen eyes grew puzzled and he arose to his feet andlooked out of the window.
"Something here I don't understand," he said. "Where's this LieutenantRowe?"
"You are to confer with him here?" asked the Captain, and Major Rossnodded assent. "Do you know what information he possesses?" continuedthe Captain, "what papers he has in his possession?"
"My instructions say he has important documents."
"Well," said the Captain, arising to his feet, "now I'll take you to theplace where I last saw Lieutenant Rowe. He came here in the launch_Manhattan_, which you are to have use of, last night, and went to bedwithout talking much with me. I suspect that he brought the boat fromManila, though I can't be sure. Anyway, he brought with him only twoyoung men who did not seem to know much about the boat--Americans."
"Have you seen him, the Lieutenant, or either of the young men, thismorning?" asked the Major, impatiently. "
And why do you say you willtake us to the place where you saw him last? What is wrong here?"
"I don't know," was the reply. "There are no known hostile elementshere, and yet the little nipa hut where Rowe and his men lodged lastnight was found empty this morning--empty and the contents in disorder,the floor spotted with blood."