Major Marble fortunately arrived at this moment and saved the lad from becoming more deeply involved. He gave them the latest news. “Tillotson’s father is keeping the wires hot,” he told them. “We are ordered to spare nothing to recapture him, but of course we shall do that anyway. The general has wired back the good news the señor has brought, that Tillotson is believed to be a prisoner and alive.” Before the party dispersed, Phil confided to his hearers his plan to explore the river and his intention to start that very night. “Then you will visit me on my ranch?” Rodriguez exclaimed gladly. “Everything I have is at your service,” he added with the grandiloquent air of a Spanish gentleman. Phil nodded gratefully, realizing that unlike the Spaniard, whose form of address the native copied, Rodriguez made no empty offer. “I believe,” the lad continued, a spark of enthusiasm in his voice, “that a gunboat of the tonnage of this vessel is capable of reaching the insurgent stronghold.” “If you can accomplish that,” Major Marble exclaimed excitedly, “you and your ‘Mindinao’ will make an enviable name for yourselves, for once that stronghold is taken we shall have many surrenders throughout the island.” “Why not force the insurgents to concentrate on Matiginao,” Phil asked earnestly, “and attack them there?” “The general has already sent out orders,” Major Marble told them, smiling at the lad’s eagerness, “to attack the insurgents wherever they can be located and for all the troops to concentrate on Palilo, leaving small garrisons in the towns to guard the peaceful natives. He is working up a big plan to attack this stronghold with a large force, and will undoubtedly take the field in person. He is determined to rescue Tillotson, and will give Espinosa no rest until he is captured or killed.” The midshipmen listened in delight to this plan, which fitted in so well with their own ideas. The major soon departed, promising short work in destroying the bridge if the lads discovered the river to be navigable above the house of Rodriguez. O’Neil was ordered to have a boat’s crew of four men ready to leave the gunboat at one o’clock at night. The distance to Rodriguez’s ranch was somewhat over fifteen miles and the lads did not desire to be seen, so they would pass at night and be safely within friendly land by sunrise. Rodriguez left them soon after to return by land and promised a hearty welcome on their arrival up the river. Promptly at one o’clock the expedition started. O’Neil had provided the usual gear for surveyors; a compass, a lead line, and also a rifle for each man and a revolver for himself. Silently they shoved off and rowed with muffled oars up the river, and under the bridge, built substantially in the days of the Spaniards. “A few charges of dynamite would settle it,” Phil thought. Already O’Neil had uncoiled his lead line and was sounding in the channel of the river.