At noon the regiment halted at a grassy spot, where there were trees, and made their dinners from their knapsacks.  The officers warned them to go carefully, or they would find themselves without provisions before returning to Manila, for they had been so sure of catching the rebels at the town behind that they had neglected to bring along many supplies.  Now, of course, they didn’t know how long it would take them to find them,—­ two days at least, and probably longer.

Archie had stocked his knapsack with some food from the old headquarters in the town, so that he felt safe for a few days, at any rate.  He ate carefully, however, and was careful not to waste anything, for he realised that he might be called upon to aid some of the soldiers before long,

Dinner over, the regiment marched on again, for the officers now began to think that they had made a mistake in not pursuing the fleeing rebels the night before.  They met several Spaniards, who told them that Aguinaldo had marched all night long without stopping, so that he was now at least thirty-six hours ahead of them, and some of the men began to be discouraged, saying that it was no use following him up with such a small force.  “Other regiments have tried to find him in this way, and none of them have succeeded,” said one of the privates to Archie.  “They keep us marching for three or four days, and finally they decide to return to Manila, without having found any trace of the rascal beyond hearing that he had passed this way or that.”

The officers couldn’t depend upon what the natives told them of Aguinaldo’s movements, for, almost without exception, they were in his favour, and always lied to the Americans to try to throw them off the track.  It was due to this that they proceeded very cautiously, and still, notwithstanding their extreme care, they found themselves, when night came on this first day, in a small village where no one had seen anything of the rebel army.  There was no denying the fact that they were off the trail, and the colonel stormed about in a terrible way when he learned of their mistake.  There was no use going back in the dark to hunt for a trail they had mistaken in the daylight, so the regiment remained in the village overnight.  They were a lot of very discouraged men, and the officers were enraged at the mistake, for which there was no one but themselves to blame.

Early in the morning they retraced their way, and started off in an opposite direction to the one taken yesterday.  It seemed that this must certainly be the path taken by the rebels, but the regiment marched until nearly noon without seeing any signs of them.  Then, when they had halted for dinner, the colonel decided to let the men rest while two companies were sent ahead to reconnoitre, and report as to whether there were any signs of men having passed this way.  He was beginning to think that the whole affair would be a wild-goose chase, and he decided that, if these companies found nothing, the whole regiment would return to Manila forthwith, probably to be the laughing-stock of the army there.