by the brave Cespedes of Bayamo in October of that year, with less than fifty men beneath it; but by the middle of November there was an organized army of twelve thousand behind it. They fought like patriots, all the world knows. Next to your own starry flag, it is the most beautiful of banners. A red triangular field, whose base formed the extreme. width of the flag at the left end, was broken only by a central white star, and its apex pierced the second division of four stripes, alternately white and blue. These four stripes represent the four states on the island under the hoped-for Cuban Republic; the white stripes are the promise of peace and the unalter

able purity of motive in the movement; the stripes of blue are symbolic of the everblue skies above Cuba; the triangle was significant of the fact that the members of the Junta designing the emblem were all master masons; the

red field reminds

us that liberty can only be bought by blood; and the single white star is the universal and sacred pledge that Cuba shall at last add another star to that grand constellation of Statehood in your own country, the American union."

The guardia civil, having performed their noble task of washing away the image of Cuba's ensign of freedom, rode rapidly away. Perhaps the fact that they were very near to the border of the insurgents' district caused them to accelerate their speed.

At daybreak next morning, our travelers were awakened by a loud thumping and hallooing at the door of the old inn. Don Manuel sprang from his bed, took one hasty glance from the balcony, and then, in light attire, descended as precipitately as a nimble sleep-walker to the court below.

The American, greatly fearing they had received another visit from the guardia civil, dressed hurriedly and carefully, and with a cocked revolver in his hand crept to the balcony, to find his friend hilariously greeted and embraced by a party of mounted yeomen who had just arrived. The newcomers were armed with machetes, carbines, and pistols, as if for brigandage or revolution, as the American could dimly see through the half-night light in the narrow calle beneath. By giving close attention to a few hasty, low-spoken words, the American learned that they were a party of Cuban insurrectionists, who,

having been informed of the presence of a band of the guardia civil at the inn, had ridden all night to capture them, but arrived too late.

Don Manuel saw that here was an opportunity to reach the camp of the insurrectionists not to be let pass. These men were a part of Colonel Marti's command, and he determined to go back with them. Horses were saddled, they paid their score, and in a twinkling were alongside their new-found friends, munching delicious oranges for their stomachs' sake on their way through a grand old forest. The mahogany-trees in that part of the island grow to a marvelous size. Along the southern coast some are so large that it requires five men, finger-tips to tips, to reach around one.

No doubt any stranger on so remarkable a journey as the American was taking would fall upon conditions for observation and study of remote Cuban life and characteristics, and to Stevens it was a delight. He had never been far into the interior before, and it was all new to him. There were twenty Cuban patriots in the party, "mounted and armed with such outrageous prodigality that therein seemed their chief danger. Don Manuel, bright, intelligent, alert, with all those quickened perceptions" which hope seemed to inspire, talked cheerfully of the time when the Cuban flag should wave over every city and fort of the land.