CHAPTER IX
GILBERT REACHES A CONCLUSION
"If that fellow has been playing me for a fool, he had better look out for himself!"
Such was the conclusion which Nuggy Polk reached, after thinking over what he had learned and what had taken place between himself and Gilbert since the two had met on the road outside of Manila. The young man was thoroughly out of humor, and was aching to "pitch into" the young lieutenant.
"Well, Nuggy, you look as black as a thunder-cloud," said Jerry Nickerson, as he strolled up. "Don't take what I said so much to heart. I only wanted to give you a friendly bit of advice."
"I know you did; and it's too bad that you didn't give it to me before," answered the young man, bitterly, and before he had a chance to think twice.
"Why, what do you mean? Has something happened?"
"It has and it hasn't. That lieutenant's name is
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