Islands, where they fell in with the savage Tagals and lost some valuable documents and their money belts. Returning to Hong Kong, they joined Admiral Dewey's fleet, bound for Manila Bay, and served on the Boston during the great naval battle in which the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed. Going ashore later on, they passed through many adventures in and near Manila, trying to get back their belongings and trying to save the firm of Raymond, Holbrook & Smith from losing a valuable business connection in Manila proper.
Among those who participated in some of these adventures was the second mate of a schooner, a Yankee by the name of Watterson Brown. The sailor had a father living on the island of Luzon, and one day Oliver and Dan came upon this old man while some natives were trying to rob him. The elderly man died from wounds inflicted in the struggle, and left to his son some papers relating to the fortune mentioned at the opening of this chapter. These papers had been turned over to Watt Brown, as he was called, and when the second mate was mortally wounded in a battle with some Chinese pirates, he had turned over the documents to Oliver, stating that if he could find the fortune he might keep it, knowing full well that Oliver would give his chum Dan a fair share of his findings.
