The Filipinos took her suggestions, and the entrenchments and places for the sentries were quickly, yet very wisely, arranged. It was during the dry season and the river was very low at the time. This made it possible to dig ditches on the sand bars which extended far out into the stream; and by throwing into the river the loose sand taken therefrom, to conceal these entrenchments by strewing over them some fresh-cut limbs and old under brush which had the appearance of having drifted to their lodgment. The Yorktown arrived off the mouth of the Baler river, April 11, as scheduled. Ensign Stanley went ashore, under a flag of truce, where, to his surprise, he was cordially received by the Filipino officers; but their exceptionally good behavior and the twinkle of their eyes told only too plainly to the ensign that something was wrong. He therefore returned to the Yorktown without having accomplished anything in particular. The next morning, at four o'clock, Lieutenant Gilmore and sixteen brave associates left the Yorktown in a row boat, and entered the mouth of the river. Ensign Stanley and Quartermaster Lysac were put ashore to reconnoiter. In a few minutes daylight broke forth and those left in the boat were discovered by the Filipino sentry who was walking his beat along the shore. He gave the alarm. Lieutenant Gilmore and his party could easily have pulled out to sea and gotten away, but humanity forbade it. What would become of the two scouts who went ashore? Their comrades in the boat could not desert them, so they rowed up the river into the very jaws of impending danger. Presently out of a concealed trench hundreds of armed Filipinos opened a deadly fire on Gilmore and his comrades, at only fifty yards distance. The water at this point was shallow. The boat got stuck in the mud. There was nothing to do but to fight. In a moment Morrisy fell dead, having been shot through the head; Dillon followed; then McDonald, then Nygard;--Marie was doing deadly work with her Mauser rifle. The Americans returned the fire as best they could; but what was the use. They could see nothing to fire at, so perfectly had the Filipinos screened their trenches; besides, the Filipinos were using smokeless powder. Four of Gilmore's men were already dead, two were mortally wounded and begging their comrades to shoot them before they fell into the hands of the Filipinos, and two more were slightly wounded. Most of the oars had been badly shattered by the enemy's rifle balls. In this moment of desperation, Ellsworth, Woodbury and Edwards jumped overboard and tried to push the boat out to mid-stream. It was no use; the tide was coming in and the current was so strong that they could not compete against it.