CHAPTER XIX
THE MEETING AT THE MOUNTAIN PASS
"Walter, we don't seem to be getting anywhere in particular very fast. Here we have been travelling about a week, over hills and streams, dodging the natives, and scurrying around for something to eat, and to what purpose? My feet are so sore I can hardly walk on them, and my legs ain't no better. I'm afraid we undertook a big job when we started to hoof it to Manila."
It was Si who spoke, as he dropped under a palm tree overlooking a wide stretch of marshland, with here and there an abandoned paddy field. It was midday, hot and muggy, and both youths were utterly exhausted by a walk of several miles in mud up to their ankles. The day previous it had rained for ten hours out of twelve, and they had slept that night in clothes which were saturated, so it is not to be wondered at that they were in ill humor.
"Better give yourself up to the Filipinos and have done with it," returned Walter, somewhat bitterly.
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