Part 34 (2/2)

This, indeed, is a wholesome truth that it would be well to remember always. An army sent into the field cannot prosper and give a good account of itself unless its more peaceful departments are in a state of perfection. For supposing the transport and supply fail, where would all the hungry men and horses obtain food? Gra.s.s can generally be had in abundance for the animals, but even grazing is often scarce. As for the men, they may by great good fortune pick up plenty to keep them going, but the chances are, especially if they have entered the enemy's country, that they will find little, and even then only after a long and fatiguing search, during which they may suffer heavy loss by the fire of the enemy. Therefore, the army which possesses an efficient supply department, following ever upon its heels, will be far more capable of success than an ill-fed force of men, who, after a long day in the field, must perforce wander away to find food. Of no less importance, too, is the medical department. Men who are exposed to hards.h.i.+p and rough work will almost inevitably fall ill, and who is to look after them, and those who are wounded in action, when they are helpless, if organized hospitals, each with an efficient staff, are not attached to the force? Men would die untended by the roadside, while the number of sick would increase by leaps and bounds till they hampered the army, and destroyed all hope of rapid movement, and therefore of success.

Mr.Brindle had given most of the news, and to bring the events of the war up to date it is necessary to add only a little. Fourteen thousand men, together with the new Astor Battery, were sent to San Francisco, and from there, owing to the lamentable want of transports, were conveyed in batches to the scene of operations in and about Manila, in the Philippines. This naturally caused delay, so that many weeks pa.s.sed before active measures could be taken. This expedition was commanded by General Wesley Merritt.

And now a small but extremely important incident had upset all calculations. Cervera and his fleet had arrived at Santiago, and it was at once necessary that the town and harbor should be subdued, and the fleet destroyed. Admiral Sampson, who, after the _Merrimac's_ adventurous voyage, had made several reconnaissances in force, declared that to rush the entrance was impossible. He called urgently for troops, and General Shafter was at once ordered to hold himself and twenty-six thousand men in readiness to sail from Key West.

Hal stayed at the hacienda for a week, and then he rode away for the coast, still disguised as a Spanish soldier.

Almost every night while at Eldorado he had heard the guns of the American fleet playing upon Santiago and its forts, the noise on two occasions, when the dynamite gunboat, named the _Vesuvius_, was in action, being prodigious. When he arrived on the seacoast, he at once hid in a big grove of palms.

”From here I ought to be able to get some idea of the movements of the fleet,” he said, seating himself upon a rock, and lifting a pair of gla.s.ses to his eyes. ”It seems as if a landing were intended.”

He was not mistaken, for some cruisers were steaming slowly along the coast as if searching for an opening. Suddenly they turned sh.o.r.ewards, and their guns began to fire upon a small fort.

”Now is my chance,” thought Hal. ”By riding hard I ought to be there in time to join any landing-party that may be sent ash.o.r.e. They have chosen Daiquiri.”

He jumped into his saddle again and cantered off. An hour later he rode boldly down to the sh.o.r.e, to a point from which a small pier projected.

A party of American marines had just landed, and Hal found himself at once a prisoner amongst friends.

”Why, who aer this? Come off that 'ere moke!” cried one of the marines, grasping his bridle. ”You must be the durndest fool as ever wur, or perhaps you're what's wuss, and that's a cove what goes back on his pards.”

”I am nothing of the sort,” Hal answered, with a laugh. ”I am British born, and American just now for choice. You would do me a great favor if you would drop the point of that bayonet, my friend.”

”Wall, that kind er knocks me all ter pieces!” the marine answered, starting back in astonishment, while a roar of laughter burst from his comrades. ”A Britisher, and no durned son of a Don after all! At any rate, hop off it right away, and come along slippy. You may be a pard, as yer say; but then yer mayn't. Ef it aer that sort er way, it'll be a case with yer.”

He took Hal by the sleeve, and conducted him to the officer in charge of the party, where explanations were soon made and accepted.

”Where are you going now?” the officer asked. ”I presume you've come here on purpose?”

”Yes; I wish to get aboard the flags.h.i.+p,” Hal answered. ”I was there before, and, in fact, only left a week ago, when I managed to get ash.o.r.e.”

”Ah, you did? Then come along right here, sir, and tell us how the Dons are doin'. Then, if you wish it, I'll send you aboard the admiral's s.h.i.+p. But if you'll take my advice, you'll remain with us. We're the advance landing-party.”

”I will with pleasure,” Hal replied; ”and if you wish it, will act as guide.”

”That would suit finely. Say, do you know Guantanamo, the port forty miles east of Santiago?”

”Yes; I have been there once. I rode from the hacienda to it, and followed forest paths all the way.”

”Then you'll be very useful, for it's there that we're goin' to land.

We're here for the night only.”

This indeed was the case, and the marines encamped close beside the pier that night, Hal taking up his quarters with them, and making use of the opportunity to borrow a suit of American clothes; for it was no joke being dressed as he was, and running the gantlet of the abundant chaff which his Spanish uniform attracted. We will do him the justice, however, to say that he made a very fine, soldierly looking fellow in his unaccustomed kit, and would have taken first place for size and general air of manliness among the Spaniards quartered in Santiago, or, for the matter of that, in any part of the island.

”You'd get copped as sure as eggs if you met any of the enemy,” was the remark which one of the marines made to him. ”As soon as you'd put yer head into one of the Dons' camps you'd find a tidy lot er bullets fizzin' close by yer nose, for I reckon they don't show many of your sort. There's somethin' about you, young mister, that looks like beef, good old honest roast beef, the stuff that Britishers boast of, and the same that them Froggies and others of the same sort sneer at, and jist wish they could crow about. But get it off--I mean them togs, else p'raps the sentry yonder will be makin' a mistake, and sendin' a plug of daylight through yer.”

On the following day the marines re-embarked, and steamed along the coast to Guantanamo, where three cruisers and two gunboats at once entered the roads, and rapidly dispersed the Spanish garrison. Then the _Panther_, a transport, carrying 850 marines, steamed in. The men at once disembarked, Hal accompanying them. They encamped on a hill near a village called Playa del Este, and pushed their pickets into the bush, which grew down close to the water's edge. On their right, Caimamera, another village, was in flames, having been deserted and fired by the Spaniards.

”Mr. Marchant,” said the officer in charge, to whom Hal had been introduced, ”will you take a rifle and help the boys?”

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