114.

   The bobbing ships scraped against the steamer and ladders slammed against her. We were boarded by tall, long-legged stork like beasts. One of them strutted up to us and spoke. “Welcome to the Philippines! What’s with all the long faces?”
   “Your reputation proceeds you.”, murmured Nanette.
   “Our reputation of tearing our enemies to pieces and feasting on them? Lies, all lies. It’s amazing the things people get into their heads.”
   “Lies or no lies, don’t get any ideas.”, growled Pat.
    The Catamites strutted around the four of us sizing us up. “This is quite a menagerie.”,
one of them observed.
    “This is the threat to power and tyranny that the world waits for with bated breath?”,
laughed another.
    “Then so be it!”, announced the first. “Comrades, revolutionaries, inspiration of the
resistance, welcome!”
    “What do you want?”, Conrad asked.
    “Hawaii was an appetizer. We’re here to show you America’s next big leap to empire.
Come with us. You have nothing to fear.”
    Whether we had anything to fear or not, the Catamites made it clear we had no choice
but to board one of their sloops. They crowded around us. Their long, razor-sharp beaks brushed against us. Hot, wet breath puffed out of their nostrils. Their ogling eyes stared intensely at us. As we sailed toward the islands trembling in the haze, we looked longingly over our shoulders at the hulk of the El Telo. 
   One of the Catamites began to talk.