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Updated: September 22, 2025
Our animals were packed and mounted, and after fussing and quarreling with our ugly cochero as to whether he or we should carry the bulk of our baggage, we started. The distance was not great. It was down hill, and we had to pick our way with great care over the rough road, filled with loosened and separated blocks of ancient paving.
The villain demanded a double rate, and, while we were haggling, a bus of the Oriente drew in sight and I caught it as it was spinning up Calle San Fernando. When I crawled into the bus I wished that I had struck a bargain with the thief of a cochero, for I found myself in a seat beside the whining missionary.
Your cochero may point out a certain grove of orange-trees, now little more than a rank tangle, and tell you about the quinta of Don Esteban Varona, and its hidden treasure; about little Esteban and Rosa, the twins; and about Sebastian, the giant slave, who died in fury, taking with him the secret of the well.
Even then it was time that I hasten to the dock and board the steamer. I hailed a cochero and, leaving the Manila police to settle their own mysteries, got my baggage from the Oriente and rode through Binondo toward the waterfront. Now it occurs to me that I must set down in their order the events of that day in their proper sequence, which compels me to tell of my meeting with Mr.
Civil Guard: Internal quasi-military police force of Spanish officers and native soldiers. cochero: Carriage driver, coachman. cuarto: A copper coin, one hundred and sixty of which were equal in value to a silver peso. filibuster: A native of the Philippines who was accused of advocating their separation from Spain. filibusterism: See filibuster.
Again the cochero; we had told him that the stuff should go to the jefatura, and not to the hotel; he told us with great insolence that the jefatura was closed, and that it would be impossible to see the jefe and that the stuff would remain at the hotel; he followed us, when we went to the jefe's house, and great was his surprise when he found our order efficacious.
"Our King's, the King of the Indians." Basilio smiled and shrugged his shoulders, while the cochero again sighed. The Indians in the country places preserve the legend that their king, imprisoned and chained in the cave of San Mateo, will come some day to free them.
He had been delayed on the road for several hours because the cochero, having forgotten his cedula, was held up by the Civil Guard, had his memory jogged by a few blows from a rifle-butt, and afterwards was taken before the commandant.
Sinang's cochero, who was driving Sinang and her cousin in an elegant carriage, had the impudence to yell "Tabi!" in such a commanding tone that she had to jump out of the way, and could only protest: "Look at that brute of a cochero! I'm going to tell his master to train his servants better."
Before I could reply he had vaulted into the carriage, and was shouting at the driver. "Cochero, to the Barracks. Full speed ahead. Vamoose. Give way. Allez vite!" "But my seconds," I protested. "They can walk," he said. Already the horses were at a gallop, and as we swung around the wall of the graveyard and were hidden from the sight of the others, Lowell sprang into the seat beside me.
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