A Black Hole in Manila.

Hastings Standard, Issue 215, 8 January 1897, Page 4

A Black Hole in Manila.

A TALE OF SUFFERING

] Continued from our last issue.] | " Suddenly there was a clatter of feet and some soldiers came running to the grating. It did not take long to grasp the situation. Out came their swords, and in an instant Han Kir was bleeding from an awful wound across the throat. They cut at the great Mestizo like demons ; but Han Ivai hung on, biting and smarling like a beast. " Finally, one of the soldiers knelt and drove his sword straight down behind Han Kai's collerbone and into his chest. It was the stroke that Spanish matadors use in killing a bull. Slowly Han Kai's head lolled back, and slowly his huge muscles grew limp. His arms uncoiled, hung a little, and then down he came on the stone floor with a great crash, the dead lieutenant storing down on him with horrible bursting eyes from the grating above. " Soon afterwards night came on, but it brought no relief. I had fought my way to the grating on the floor, through which I breathed the hotodours of the beach in great gulps. All about me men were fighting and struggling like maniacs, yet almost without noise. " Near by, my brothers lay senseless under the feet of their madden fellows. I hauled them out with many a blow and curse, and placed their faces to the grating. After a time they revived. " As time passed, a stupor seemed to fall upon us. Dozens fell upon the floor, and lay heedless of the feet that trampled upon their faces and necks. There were no complaints—only halfhuman squeaks and gibbers, like the noises made by rats in a trap. " About ten o'clock, as nearly as I could judge, the moon topped the bastions of the fort, and a clear, white shaft of light slanted into the dungeon. It seemed to rob the night of the invisible terror of smotheration, only to bring out, with an awful distinctness, the horrors that could be seen. " The dungeon was bathed in a sort of blue light, like that of an inferno. The floor was covered with a tangled carpet of men. Hands were clenched into stony rigour. Breasts heaved deep and stertoriously. Faces shone ghastly in the moon-light, with lips drawn back from the gleaming teeth, and twitching spasmodically. " Above we could hear the steady tread of the heedless sentry, and beneath the hungry lapping of the sea. The tide was rising ; and, thank God I thought to myself—the cold sea water will refresh us. " Pretty soon those of us who lay about the floor grating were enabled to reach the underrunning waves with our hands. We lapped up the water in our palms, and threw it over the prostrate and half-senseless tangle of men. Some it revived ; others it made angry. " Then it dawned upon my mind that the Spaniards had put us there to suffocate. The thought was horrifying. The breathless spells between the run of the waves grew further and further apart. The sea was now coming in, with a long, weeping cry that I kn\v was a death song. " The shift of moonlight had shifted. I could see in the lambent glow that some of the dead men lay with their faces under the water. Others, who who were drowning, tossed their hands about, weak and helpless. One reclined against the wall, with the water lapping about the shoulders. The triangular knife scar that marks all our clan gleamed white on his knee. I saw with a dull intelligence that the scar was on a level with his nose. When the water reached the scar the man would drown. " It crept up and up, to chin and lifs, and then to his nose. Then, with one weak, strangling gasp and the vague tossing of the hands, he was gone. I could not help him. The wat'»r was up to my shoulders, and I began to feel the heavy sense of oppression that comes before asphyxiation. " Then right in the larelike fan of moonlight I saw the hat of my brother, Tiin« l>o\v. It was almost on a level with the water, and I could see his forehead under if. lie was dead. " Summoning all my strength, I crawled up the slanting floor through the water toward the little door. I do not know why I wanted to go there. One place was as good to die in as another. But T crawled on slowly and weakly over the multitude of senseless men. Some of them struck at me, like men in a nightmare. Others tried to bite me. " I passed three dead leaders of our organisations. I crawled over the body of a bov who hail joined us on the day previous. T made my way slowly past the burned an 1 eyeless brother of Han Kai, who was moaning feebly over his deed. •'I reached the little door, toppled over weekly against it. and fell with niv face to the floor. 1 think that fall saved my life. A thin, cool stream of pure air assailed my nostrils. It was so thin and faint that 1 could scarcely locate it. What a heaven it was! I w "ill have fought for that crevice with niv life. It came from on infinitesimal crock under the door. '• Before many minutes I was a new man. Just us tbe pale shaft of moonlight was fading away I sank into a .-nrt of fevered doze that was first cousin to come. " When I awoku the small grating in the ceiling was growing gray with the dawn. All around the edges of the dungeon the gaunt dead were grouped into horrible statuary. On one side lay tbe Christian who had praised God, with the tet-th of a Mestizo clenched in his throat. The fares of many of the dead nun were torn by tbe fingers of their com {Minions. •• Mv mind had become so dull by suffering that I did not mind it mufh. lle>e ii.d then; were im*n who ex hibited some signs of intelligence. It wte ewy to m Out many others w#rt

dying. The tide had left the floor again, and the green mossed walls were reeking with the smell of the salt sea. " What was to be our fate ? I did not know, and I cared very little. Both my brothers were dead, and I was alone. I would far rather have died than to spend another night in that place. Fifty - four men had been smothered to death and drowned. Twenty others were so far gone that they could not possibly recover. A hundred of us were still in comparatively good condition. " Why not try t> ose as a dead man, and be carried jut with them '? The thought came on me like a flash. I would try it, at least. " For an hour or more I waited patiently for the appearance of the Spaniards. They came at last, and so suddenly that I barely had time to fling myself down and haul a dead man across my face. " I will do justice to the one gleam of humanity I have ever observed in the Spanish nature. " ' Too bad,' said one ; 'we would have had fun hanging them.' " That was humane and considerate. After awhile men came with stretchers and began to carry away the dead. When my turn came I held my breath. A Spanish doctor knelt down and felt my heart. ' Why,' said he, ' this man is alive !' There was astonishment and regret in his voice. He rolled me over and felt my pulse. ' Take him to the hospital,' he said. So I was bundled off to the hospital with about twenty-five others. Those of my companions who were on their feet in the dungeon when the doctor arrived were doomed to pass another night there. I felicitated myself on my luck. I moaned and talked deliriously and made believe I was tremendously sick. Consequently I was more lightly guarded than the others. The eyeless brother of Han Kai had the cot next to I mine, and it was evident that he could not live long. All day I moaned and tossed in the hospital. At six o'clock Han Kai died. There were only two more sick men in the room where I lay, and they were insensible. Pretty soon two men came in with a stretcher. They placed the dead man on it, and covered the body with a blanket, and went away. Then came the inspiration that saved my life. I sprang from my cot, and, lifting the dead man in my arms, placed him in it. As quickly as possible I then lay down on his cot and covered myself with the blanket. Half an hour afterwards they returned, and, without a word, lifted the stretcher and carried it out to the dead waggon. I was dumped into it on top of six other dead Mestizos, and away we went for an unknown destination. We passed along the closely-guarded streets, and turned' along the quays towards the shipping. Here, iu an open space, we were dumped out unceremoniously, like so many sacks of meal. We were visited by dogs, hogs, and children. The dogs barked at us, the children pelted us with stones, and the hogs rooted about us. 'My dead companions did not seem to mind it; but I had a lively fear of some of the stones, and I was profoundly grateful when darkness came on. It must have been ten o'clock when I rose to my feet and slipped quickly away through the darkness. I got away scot free. There was absolutely not a living thing in sight. There was a cordon of soldiers around the city, however, and I was afraid to attempt an escape to the country. I hid between two dark buildings until about midnight, when I slipped aboard the Ilong Kong steamer and stowed myself away. I shall return whenever such a thing is practicable."