LUKBAN
Gen. Vicente Lukban is flanked by his captor 1st. Lt. Alphonse Strebler( left) and 1Lt. Ray Hoover( right), officer-in-chargemof the guard over him, February 1902.
of ammunition, but his aide escaped. Strebler knew the teniente was the last link to the elusive Lukban. He was the link between Lukban and the messenger. So Lukban must be nearby, Strebler reasoned. Sure enough, the teniente talked after being grilled by the American that the guerrilla chief was just two hours away from where they stood at that very moment.
Leaving the packers and a small guard behind, Strebler started at once with the rest of the column, as fast as the brush and the rocks permitted, up the mountain, now with the teniente as guide. There were no trails, which meant it was a path less taken. In 45 minutes, Strebler’ s men were within 50 yards of Lukban’ s hideout. Here he halted the column and sent 10 men, under Sergeant Bayona, over the mountain ridge, with orders to lie down in the brush in front and to the right of the three houses. No one was allowed to fire any shot. As soon as the native scouts were in that position, he advanced at a run with his column towards Lukban’ s hut, hoping to surprise the rebel leader.
When Lukban heard the noise of feet running over the coral rocks, he came to the door with his secretary, to whom he had just been dictating a letter addressed to Capt Basilio Diaz, of Matuguinao.
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