Tarcila malabanan katigbak autobiography of malcolm

Nobody knew anything about Macario's early life; but everybody knew that he was a robber, the chief of a gang which used to haunt the country about the shores of Laguna De Bay and rob merchants coming from Manila. It was in the days when no railroad line existed in the Philippines, when all trips by water had to be made by bancas, cascos, and small, slow steamboats, and all overland journeys had to be made in carromatas, carts, or on horseback. Macario was known to be the fiercest among the highwaymen. He had foiled all attempts of the guardias civils to capture him. A price was set on his head.

It was nine o'clock on a Christmas eve. The past week macario and his gang had had plenty to do, for it was the week when many merchants went to manila and back to their towns. Macario was alone. He stationed himself in a grove of bamboo trees a little distance from the solitary road some miles from the town of Calamba. The night was dark and a cool wind was blowing across the lonely fields,