A happy thought came to Marie. She clasped her hands and muttered to herself, "I'll trade the cart for a suit of men's clothes and trade the harness for a sombrero," (bamboo hat.) Since the middle of the afternoon she had been driving parallel to a stream that wound its way, nearby, from the mountains across the plains to the sea. Villages along the banks were numerous. At night fall she was still in Tagalo territory. It was her own tribe. She soon found a place to stay over night. Her pony was turned loose in a vacant yard, with an old bamboo fence around it, and given some young rice. That evening while smoking cigarettes, and while inflaming the minds of the villagers with startling stories about the atrocities, of the American soldiers, Marie finally succeeded in making the trade which she had planned during the afternoon. Next morning, April 5, she rode on. Before her lay sixty miles of unknown territory to be covered during the next four days, if she were to reach Baler in time to warn the besieging Filipinos of the contemplated attack by the Americans. A half mile out from the village, Marie came to an abrupt turn in the road. Near by was a dense cluster of banana trees. She dismounted, and while her pony was nibbling young rice she went into the thicket and changed her attire. Then she tied a good-sized stone up in her old clothes and threw them into the river. As she stood on the bank watching them sink, she saw her shadow in the water. How changed she looked! The sombrero was such a relief in keeping the hot sun off her head. "Now, I'll not be recognized," thought she. "How nice it is to be dressed like a man. From now on I mean to play a man's part and be a full-fledged soldier." CHAPTER VIII. THE GILMORE INCIDENT Marie reached her destination late in the evening of April 9th, and she at once notified the officers commanding the Filipinos who were besieging Baler, what to expect. Knowing that with so small a force, if the Americans undertook to relieve the Spanish garrison, it would necessarily have to be done by way of the Baler river--as the town of Baler where the Spanish garrison was located is some two miles up the river from where it empties into the Pacific ocean, and the American troops were too greatly outnumbered by the Filipinos to make a land expedition safe,--she suggested to them the advisability of fortifying the river at specific intervals along either bank and of taking the precaution to cover the fortifications with freshly-cut brush so that the Americans could not locate them for the purpose of bombarding them in case they saw fit to load some of the smaller cannon on cascoes and make their way up the river for an attack in that way.