Page:A Sailor Boy with Dewey.djvu/205

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ONE WAY OF ENTERING A FORTIFIED CITY.
189

"Let us move on along the streets until we see some signboard," I suggested. "We know what street the offices are on, and the number."

"That is so, Oliver. All right, come ahead;" and again Dan led the way.

"It's a regular Donnybrook Fair town," said Matt Gory. "Oi'm afther gittin' me a club!" and he picked up a stick lying in a gutter. Before long Dan and I armed ourselves in a similar manner.

As I have mentioned, Manila was now under military rule, and at every other street corner we came in sight of a soldier, walking slowly back and forth or lounging idly against a door-post smoking a cigarette on the sly and talking to some pretty native damsel. To pass these guards unobserved was by no means easy.

"Here is the right street!" exclaimed Dan, after a quarter of an hour had passed. "The numbers show that we cannot be more than four or five squares away from the offices."

"Does that clerk live be thim offices?" queried Matt Gory.

"Yes, he has two rooms upstairs," I answered. "If that money is still in the safe he must certainly be staying there to guard it."

Another block was passed, when Dan clutched me by the shoulder, and likewise pulled the Irish sailor back. "Look!" he whispered.