"I shall be safe." replied the youth. "I used that $20,000 in buying guns and ammunition, and have already a stronger force than I ever had. My troops are near at hand even now, and Manila is not so peaceful as she seems." "You do not know. The heavy guns of the battleships have been mounted at Corregidor and Caney, and the 160,000 Spanish troops in the city laugh at the idea of America ever being able to take it." "Yet America will take it. The American fleet will be here and will win, and then they will give us freedom. Within a few months the Filipinos will be free, and then Ambrosia Lonzello will become Ambrosia de Saguanaldo." The young girl flushed with combined embarrassment and pleasure. "It can not be," she said. "I am not worthy of you. I shall seek with you the freedom of the Filipinos and then I shall die and leave you free to marry a woman who has a name." "Fie, Ambrosia. I will give you my name, and there will be none in Luzon more honored than that. Many have tried for the good that now we shall attain. It must come. The very fact that we have waited for it so long proves that it must be near. Luz de mi vida [2], it is so." "I wish," the girl began wistfully, then stopped abruptly. "Father is so bitter against you. I always wish you with me, yet you never come but I am anxious you should go, lest staying mean your death." "Fear not, Ambrosia," said the youth. "They call me the Fox of Luzon, and I find my way where they do not suspect. I was with your father yesterday and he never knew." "Oh, take no risk," plead the girl, throwing herself in his arms. "Te amo con todo el corazon. [3] You must, you must be careful. Oh, it is sad, so sad. If they would only let us have a chance the people might be so happy. Luzon is a beautiful island. It seems to me like Paradise, the garden of the Lord; and yet for us it is purgatory." "Some day we shall be released from purgatory, chuleta [4]. The prayers of our forefathers will prevail." "Camillo, come inside, or they will see you." She drew the young man into the shadows, and into the house. There the lovers talked undisturbed. They talked of things that to them were the most momentous--their own loves and their individual plans, the hope and future of the island which had been their home all their lives. Little did they know that time was working for them and through them more momentous changes that should affect continents and end completely the feudal in the capitalistic.