than twelve miles from our escape point. And we soon found obvious
 
evidence that the Japs had been on the hunt for us--evidence in
 
the shape of an empty .303 ammunition clip, and the remains of
 
food which the Jap search party had eaten.
 
          Shortly thereafter, on a morning while we were still
 
at breakfast, Captain Dyess was standing guard when he saw
 
 two armed Filipinos. The Filipinos saw Dyess at the same time,
 
 and one of them made motions as if he had attempted to fire. Dyess
 
called to the Filipinos, but they quietly faded into the jungle.
 
     Later that day we headed down a more open trail, and
 
shortly we met up with a native who agreed to take us where we
 
could find soldiers of the Filipino guerrillas. When finally we
 
made contact with these guerrillas, they admitted that two of them
 
had been the ones seen in the jungle by Dyess. They thought he was
 
a Jap, they said; one of them had taken careful aim on Dyess and
 
had pulled the trigger. Dyess owed his life to a faulty cartridge
 
or firing pin.
 
              But the Filipinos gave us news. They told us that a party
 
 of 16 of their guerrilla soldiers had ambushed a party of
 
more than 80 Japs who were on the hunt for us. The Filipinos had
 
shot down ten of the Japs, and then had retreated without harm
 
before the Japs were able to recover from their confusion. In
 
some manner they had learned that the Japs believed we had escaped
 
in an effort to round up guerrillas and attack the prison to avenge
 
the murder of McFee. As a result, 200 Japanese reinforcements had
 
been hastily added to the Jap garrison at the prison.
 
 
                                   -84-