CHAPTER NINE.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE KINSHIU MARU.
By the time that we were fairly out at sea, it was pitch dark, not astar to be seen, and to add still further to the obscurity, a light mistgathered, as it so often does in the Japan Sea, so that by eight o'clockit was only with the utmost difficulty that we were able to discern asmall junk which we had in tow, and which had been employed by us tofacilitate the landing of the troops. The weather still continuedovercast, and the play of sheet lightning gradually grew more vivid andfrequent; but there was no wind, and not much sea; and as time went on Ibegan to think, with Yagi, that Takebe's apprehensions had beengroundless, and that we were in for nothing worse than, may be, athunderstorm, after all.
I spent a couple of hours in the saloon that night, watching theinfantry officers, of whom there were six, playing some wonderful gameof cards, of which I could make nothing, and then strolled up on thebridge to see what the weather was like, and to have a yarn with Yagi,before turning in for the night. It was still hazy and very overcast,but there was not a breath of air save the draught created by the motionof the ship, and there was a very beautiful display of sheet lightning,almost continuous, which lighted up the clouds, the mist, and the sea inthe most marvellous manner.
The ship was then heading south-east, with all her lights burningbrightly, as in duty bound, and I was sitting astride a camp-stool, withmy shoulders resting against the port rail of the bridge, while Yagi,also occupying a camp-stool, sat facing me. He was spinning some yarn--a sort of Japanese fairy tale, it seemed to be--about a geisha, while Iwas staring contemplatively into the darkness over the starboard bow,watching the wonderful play of the lightning, when suddenly, as a flashlighted up the gloom, I thought I caught a momentary glimpse of three orfour dark shapes, about a mile away, broad on the starboard bow. If Ihad really seen those shapes, they could only be ships, _and they wereshowing no lights_; I therefore ruthlessly cut into the skipper's yarnby directing his attention to the point where the momentary vision hadrevealed itself.
"What is that you say?" he exclaimed. "Ships without lights? Then itmust be our Admiral, still hunting for the Vladivostock squadron. Well,we have not seen them, and we had better tell him so, and at the sametime inquire whether he has any fresh orders for us. Mr Uchida,"--tothe chief officer,--"our squadron is away out there, somewhere on thestarboard bow. Have the goodness to honourably make our night signal,as I wish to speak the Admiral."
Uchida hurried away and, the signal lanterns being always kept ready forimmediate use, in less than a minute they were hoisted. Meanwhile therehad been no further lightning flashes to illuminate the darkness, and Irose to my feet, for we were still steaming ahead at full speed, and Ihad a feeling that we must be drawing pretty close to the strangers. AsI did so, our signal was answered by the imperative order: "Stopimmediately!" And at the same instant a brilliant and protractedflicker of sheet lightning revealed four large ships, not more thanthree cables' lengths distant. The leading ship was a big lump of afour-funnelled cruiser, the funnels coloured white, with black tops, andshe carried three masts. The second craft was very similar in generalappearance to the first, also having four white, black-topped funnels,and three masts. The third was a two-masted, three-funnelled ship;while the fourth was of distinctly ancient appearance, being of theperiod when sails were as much used as steam. She had two funnels, andwas barque-rigged, with royal yards across, but she was now under steam,with all her canvas furled. We had no such ships in our fleet, while Iinstantly identified the barque-rigged craft as the Russian cruiser_Rurik_, of the Vladivostock squadron! That squadron, then, for whichAdmiral Kamimura was especially hunting, was actually at sea, and we hadfallen in with it!
There was not the least doubt about it. In every wardroom and gunroomof every Japanese warship there was an album containing a beautiful,complete set of photographs of every ship in the Russian navy, each shipbeing pictured from at least four different points of view; and it was apart of every officer's duty to study these photographs until he hadacquired the ability to identify at sight any Russian warship he mightchance to encounter. Thus, in the leading ship of the squadron insight, a moment's reflection enabled me to recognise the _Rossia_, with,astern of her, the _Gromoboi_, then the _Bogatyr_, and finally the_Rurik_.
"Jove!" I exclaimed. "We've done it now, with a vengeance, Yagi.Those four ships comprise the Russian Vladivostock squadron; and we areright under their guns! Stop her, man, for heaven's sake. It is theonly thing you can do. If you don't, the beggars will sink us out ofhand."
"They will probably do that in any case," growled Yagi, as he laid hishand on the engine-room telegraph and rang down an order to stop theengines. "But, as you honourably say, Captain, it is the only thing tobe done, although it means the interior of a Russian prison for allhands of us."
As the _Kinshiu's_ engines stopped, the _Rossia_ turned her searchlightsupon us, brought her guns to bear, and lowered two boats, the crews ofwhich we could see were armed to the teeth. And at the same moment twodestroyers loomed up out of the darkness, one of which stationed herselfon our port bow, while the other placed herself upon our starboardquarter, each of them with their tubes and guns manned. Evidently, theRussians did not mean to leave us the smallest loophole for escape.
The six Japanese infantry officers, noting the stoppage of our engines,came rushing up on deck to learn what was the matter; and upon hearingthat the strange ships which had stopped us were Russian warships,hurried away below again, presumably, I thought, to give orders of somesort to the troops under their command.
The _Rossia_, with the way she had on her, had by this time closed towithin about twenty-five fathoms of us; and at this juncture an officeron her bridge hailed, ordering our skipper to send a boat.
"Good!" ejaculated Yagi. "We will do so. But we will not go aboard the_Rossia_. Oh, no. We will slip away in the darkness and make for theland. And you will honourably accompany us, will you not, Captain? ARussian prison has no attractions for you, eh?"
"You are right, my friend, it has not," I answered; "for which reason Imust decline to accompany you. Because you will never get away, Yagi.How can you, with those searchlights turned full upon us, and thosedestroyers where they are?"
"Nevertheless, I shall try," answered the skipper; and he turned away tobellow an order to the crew to clear away and lower the port lifeboat,the port side being shielded from the glare of the searchlights. Then Iheard him order the chief officer to superintend the lowering of theboat, and at the same time to smuggle an extra breaker of water and abag or two of biscuits into her.
Then he turned again to me. "If you will not come with us, what willyou honourably do, my friend?" he demanded.
"Oh," said I, "I shall join the infantry officers below, and see whatthey are going to do." And without further parley, I ran down theladder and made my way below to the saloon, where I found the sixofficers sitting at the table, looking very pale and grave.
"Well, gentlemen," I cried, "here we are, in a nice little Russian trap.What do you propose to do?"
"We thought at first of performing hari-kari," said one of them. "ButCaptain Nagai, with whom you were discussing the subject of hari-kari,only the night before last, appears to have come round to your way ofthinking that it is better to live for the Emperor than to die for him.He argues--as you did--that a dead man can do nothing for his Emperor,whereas a living man may be able to do many things; in which statementthere is truth. Therefore we propose to surrender to the Russians, inthe honourable hope that we may be able to effect our escape, sooner orlater, and return to fight for Nippon. What do you honourably proposeto do, Captain?"
"Oh," said I, "to surrender seems the most sensible thing to do, anddoubtless I shall do it--eventually. Meanwhile, however, I think I willtoddle up on deck again, and see how Yagi and the ship's crew aregetting on. They are going to try to slip away in the ship's lifeboat,you know?"
"Banzai!" cried o
ne of the officers. "I hope they will honourablysucceed. But, having decided to surrender, I think the safest place isdown here. Doubtless we shall soon see you again."
"Y-e-s,--possibly," I replied. "But I shall not surrender until thelast moment; so, if you do not see me again, you may conclude that Ihave found some means of effecting my escape, and have seized them."
Saying which, I shook hands with them all round, and returned to thedeck. During my brief visit to the saloon, Yagi and his men had gottheir boat into the water, and were now pulling boldly for the _Rossia_;but I noticed that directly they passed out of the area of radiance castby the searchlight, they shifted their helm sharply and, crossing thecruiser's bows, were evidently endeavouring to slip past her in thegloom of her own shadow.
Then, suddenly, an idea occurred to me. The _Kinshiu Maru_ had in tow asmall junk, or lighter, which we had used to facilitate the landing ofthe soldiers at Iwon. Where was she now?
Crouching low under the cover of the bulwarks, to avoid being seen bythose aboard the _Rossia_, I slipped aft and, cautiously peering overthe taffrail, saw that she had drifted right in under the _Kinshiu's_counter, where she was momentarily threatening to bilge herself againstthe steamer's iron rudder, as the two craft ground against each other onthe swell. The forward half of her lay in the deep shadow of the_Kinchiu's_ stern--a shadow rendered still deeper and more opaque by thevivid brilliance of the searchlight beam that covered the stern-half ofher, and it immediately occurred to me that if I could but climb downinto her, unobserved, and cut her adrift, I might possibly contrive toavoid entering a Russian prison after all.
No sooner thought of than done; the moment was propitious, the towinghawser lay under my hand, and in another moment I was down upon her tinyforecastle, hacking away at the grass rope with my pocket-knife. Theblade was keen, as a sailor's knife should always be, and with a fewvigorous slashes the hawser was severed and I was adrift. Then, takingadvantage of the heave of the two craft, I managed to move the junkuntil she lay entirely in the shadow cast by the _Kinshiu's_ hull.
At this juncture I heard the gruff voices of Russians overhead, on thetransport's deck, and, thinking discretion the better part of valourunder the circumstances, dropped off the junk's short fore deck into hershallow hold and there concealed myself, lest any inquisitive Russianshould peer over the bulwarks, catch sight of me, and order me up ondeck again. I don't know whether it occurred to any of the enemy tolook over the side, but I do not think so; at all events, if they did,nobody took the trouble to come down and search the junk; and in a fewminutes the voices ceased; I took it that the visitors had gone below tosearch the ship. If they had, what would happen to them, with over ahundred armed Japanese soldiers down there?
I had not long to wait for an answer to this question. About twominutes of silence succeeded to the sudden cessation of the Russians'voices on deck, and then the muffled crack of a pistol-shot rang outfrom the _Kinshiu's_ interior, instantly followed by a shout of "BanzaiNippon!" and the crack of several rifles; there arose a sudden outburstof yells and execrations in Russian, a stampede of many feet along thedeck, the sounds of a scuffling hand-to-hand fight, a volley of ordersfrom the Russian officer in command of the boarding party, a hoarse hailfrom one of the warships, and then the rattle and splash of oars hastilythrown out. Evidently, the Japanese soldiers had given the intruders awarm reception.
The hurried departure of the boarding party was quickly followed by arolling volley of rifle-fire from the _Kinshiu_, apparently directedupon the retreating boats, for I heard cries and groans which seemed toproceed from them. Then, from the _Rossia_ came the sudden, snappingbark of her quick-firers and machine-guns, and a storm of missilescrashed through the transport's thin bulwarks or flew whining overhead,intermingled with shrieks, groans, and excited shouts from the Japanesesoldiers, who had evidently resolved to die fighting, rather thansurrender. The sounds awakened the fighting instinct within me; I feltthat, let happen what would, I must be among those gallant fellows,doing my share of the work; and I nipped out from under the junk's shortdeck, intent upon climbing aboard the _Kinshiu_ again. And then I foundthat during the short period of my seclusion, the junk had partedcompany, and was now a good twenty feet distant from the transport.True, I might jump overboard and swim the intervening space, and I wasactually poising myself for the dive when the question flashed into mybrain: How was I to get aboard, how climb the vessel's smooth iron side.There were no ropes hanging overboard, save the severed towing hawser,and I had cut through that so high up that even when the steamer's sterndipped, the end did not reach within a couple of feet of the water. Irecognised that whether I would or not, I must now stay where I was, forreturn to the steamer was impossible. And while I stood there on thejunk's short fore deck, watching the scene with fascinated eyes, thatawful, unequal duel went on between the Japanese rifles and the_Rossia's_ machine-guns; the soldiers frenziedly yelling "BanzaiNippon!" between each volley, while the Russian gunners plied theirpieces in grim silence. The _Kinshiu's_ deck, I knew, must be by thistime a veritable shambles, for the Russian cruiser lay close aboard, andher machine-guns could sweep the transport's decks from stem to stern;moreover, the rapid and ominous slackening of the rifle-fire testifiedeloquently to the frightful carnage that was proceeding. The cries of"Banzai Nippon!" were no longer thundered forth in a defiant roar, butwere raised by a few voices only, which were almost drowned by thedreadful shrieks and moans of the wounded and dying.
Then, suddenly, there occurred a frightful explosion, the _Kinshiu Maru_was hove up on a mountain of foaming water which belched forth fire andsmoke, the air became suddenly full of flying splinters and wreckage, aheavy fragment of which smote me full upon the forehead and knocked meback into the junk's hold, and as my senses left me I was dimlyconscious of a wailing cry, pealing out across the water, of "Sayonara!"(Farewell for ever). It was the last good-bye to Emperor, country, andall who were nearest and dearest to them of that heroic little band ofJapanese infantry-men who preferred to die fighting gloriously, ratherthan win inglorious safety by surrender. The Russians had made an endof the affair by torpedoing the transport, and she must have sunk withina very few minutes.
When I recovered my senses it was broad daylight. For a few moments Iknew not where I was, or what had happened to me, but I was conscious ofthe most splitting headache from which I had ever suffered in my life.The next thing that dawned upon me was that I was lying in the bottom ofa small craft of some sort, which was rolling and plunging mostatrociously on a short, choppy sea, that I was chilled to the verymarrow, and that water was washing about and over me with every motionof the boat. I was wet to the skin and, although shivering with cold,my blood scorched my veins as though it were liquid fire.
I sat up, staring vaguely about me, and then became aware of a curiousstiff feeling in the skin of my face. Putting my hands to my head, tostill the throbbing smart of it, I found that my hair was all cloggedwith some sticky kind of liquid which, upon looking at my hands, I foundto be blood, evidently my own. This at once explained the curious stifffeeling of my face; it was probably caused by dry caked blood. But, tomake sure, I sprang open the case of my watch--the polished surfaceserving well enough for a mirror--and gravely studied my reflectedimage. I must have presented a ghastly sight, for my whole face was amask of blood, out of which my eyes glared feverishly. Then, as Icontinued to stare at the interior of my watch-case, wondering what itall meant, my memory of the events of the preceding night--I knew itmust be the preceding night, because my watch was still going--all cameback to me, and I understood where I was.
Scrambling giddily to my feet, I looked about me and saw a bucketrolling to and fro on the junk's bottom-boards. The sight suggested anidea to me and, taking the bucket and the end of a small line which Ibent on to the handle, I somehow managed to hoist myself up on to thesmall foredeck and, lying prone--for I dared not as yet trust myself tostand--I lowered the bucket, and drew it up again, full of clean,sp
arkling salt-water. Into this I plunged my head, keeping it immersedas long as my breath would allow, meanwhile removing the blood from myface and hair as well as I could. The contact of the cold salt-watermade my lacerated forehead and scalp smart most atrociously, yet itrelieved my headache and greatly refreshed me. Then, stripping off mywet shirt, I tore a long strip from it and, thoroughly saturating it inthe clean salt-water, bound up my wound as best I could, after which Ifelt distinctly better.
Then, sitting on the little deck, I looked about me to see if I coulddiscover any traces of last night's horror; but there was a moderatebreeze blowing, and I instantly recognised that the junk must havedrifted several miles from the spot where the disaster had occurred.There was nothing to be seen, no, not so much as a solitary scrap ofwreckage, within the radius of a mile, beyond which everything wasblotted out by a curtain of haze.
By this time I had pretty completely recovered my senses, and was ableto fully realise my situation. I was wet, cold, feverish, and horriblythirsty, and was the sole occupant of a small, leaky junk of abouttwenty-five tons, without masts or sails, these having been removed inorder the better to fit her for the duty of carrying troops. She had apair of sweeps aboard, it is true; but they were so ponderous that eachdemanded the strength of four men to work it; they were therefore quiteuseless to me, even had I known precisely where I was, which I did not.All I knew was that I was some fifty miles, or thereabout, to thesouthward and eastward of Iwon; but I might as well have been fivehundred miles from the place, for all the means I had of returning toit, or even of making a shot at Gensan. The fact was that I was adriftin a hulk; and the utmost that I could do was to keep her afloat, ifpossible, and patiently wait for something to come along and take me offher.
Realising this, I proceeded to overhaul the junk, with a view toascertaining what were her resources. I remembered that a cask of freshwater had been put aboard her for the use of the troops while landingand embarking; and I soon found this, still more than half-full, snuglystowed away under her foredeck, with a lot of raffle consisting of oddsand ends of line of varying sizes, a fragment of fishing-net, a fewshort lengths of planking, and other utterly useless stuff. I drankdipper after dipper of water, until my raging thirst was quenched, andthen stripped off my clothes, wrung them out, and spread them to dry inthe wind while I rubbed my body dry with my hands, employing aconsiderable amount of exertion, in order to restore warmth to mycramped limbs. In this effort I was at length successful; and my nextbusiness was to search the other end of the junk, in the vague hope thatI might find something in the way of food; but there was none; thereforeI had to go hungry. I had a bucket, however, and with this I bailed thehooker practically dry, as much to pass the time and keep myself warm,as for any other reason. Then, having done everything that I couldthink of, all that remained for me was to wait as patiently as might befor something to come along and rescue me.
My position was by no means an enviable one. I had no food; but, forthe moment, that did not greatly matter, since the smart of my wound hadmade me feverish, and I had no appetite. On the other hand, I sufferedfrom an incessant thirst, which even the copious draughts of water inwhich I frequently indulged did little to allay. The weather wasovercast, and there was a thin mist lying upon the surface of the greysea which circumscribed my view to a radius of less than a mile, and theair was keenly raw. I recognised that it was necessary to keep myselfconstantly active, to counteract the effect of the chilly atmosphere,and this I did, bustling about, overhauling the raffle in the junk, andexecuting a good deal of utterly useless work, which I varied from timeto time by taking long spells of watching, in the hope of sighting somecraft to which I might signal for assistance. Also I repeatedly bathedmy head in sea water, which did a little toward reducing the feeling offeverishness from which I was suffering.
Toward the afternoon the conditions became more favourable. The cloudsbroke, the sun came out and took the feeling of rawness out of the air,so that I no longer suffered from the cold, and the mist melted away,affording me a clear view to the horizon. But the sea was bare; therewas not even so much as a blur of steamer's smoke staining the sky inany direction; and I began to wonder how long it might be before Ishould be picked up, or whether indeed I should be picked up at all. Iknew, of course, that the non-arrival of the _Kinshiu_ at Gensan wouldgive rise to speculation, and that probably a search for her would beinstituted along the course which she might be expected to steer, but Iwas already several miles from that course, and hourly drifting fartherfrom it. The question of importance to me was whether the search wouldextend over a sufficiently wide area to take me in.
The remainder of that day passed uneventfully for me; I could do nothingbeyond what I have already indicated; no craft of any description hovein sight; and toward sunset the pangs of hunger began to manifestthemselves. I watched the sea until night closed down; and then, whenit became so dark that further watching was useless, I crept in underthe fore deck among the raffle and turned in upon such a bed as I hadbeen able to prepare for myself during the day, in anticipation of thepossibility that I might be obliged to pass the night aboard the junk.
As might be supposed, under the circumstances, the earlier part of thenight at least was full of discomfort for me; but somewhere along in thesmall hours I dropped off to sleep, and eventually slept soundly, to beawakened by the noise of steam blowing off, close at hand. I startedup, listened for a moment to assure myself that the sound was not anillusion, and, satisfied that it was real, scrambled up on the junk'sdeck, to be greeted with the sight of several ships of war close athand. A single glance sufficed to assure me that my troubles were at anend; for the ships in sight were those of Admiral Kamimura's squadron,the _Idzumi_ being hove-to at less than a cable's length distant, in thevery act of lowering a boat. There were several officers on her bridge,and she was close enough to enable me to see that they were allscrutinising the junk through their glasses; I therefore waved to them,and was waved to in reply. A few minutes later the boat, in charge of alieutenant, dashed smartly alongside and the officer scrambled nimbly upthe junk's low side.
I think he had not recognised me until then, although we knew each othervery well. He gazed at me dubiously for a moment, then his hand shotout to grasp mine as he exclaimed:
"Hillo! my dear Swinburne, what does this mean; what are you doing here?And are you all alone?"
I answered his question by informing him, in as few words as possible,of what had happened to the ill-fated _Kinshiu Maru_, and then we gotdown into the boat and pulled across to the _Idzumi_, where Kamimura andhis officers were impatiently awaiting us. They gave me the warmest ofwelcomes, and would not even permit me to tell them my story, thelieutenant who had rescued me assuring them that he had already obtainedall the particulars and could tell it as well as I could. I wasaccordingly at once turned over to the care of the ship's surgeon, andmade comfortable in the sick bay, the squadron immediately resuming itscruise.
Now that the tension of looking after myself was relaxed, a reaction setin, with high fever, and for the next four days I was really ill, withfrequent intervals of delirium. But there were no complications of anykind, and by the end of the sixth day I was so far recovered as to beable to dress and sit up for an hour or two. Everybody aboard the_Idzumi_ was exceedingly kind to me, as kind indeed as though they hadbeen brothers; and this fraternal feeling of kindly interest was notconfined to the _Idzumi_ alone, Kamimura himself informing me, with asmile, that it had become quite a habit for the other ships to signal aninquiry as to my condition, every morning. As the officers of the shipcame off watch, they came tiptoeing along to inquire after me; and if Ihappened to be awake, and the doctor permitted it, they would sit andchat with me for half an hour or so before retiring to their cabins, bywhich means I gradually acquired all the missing links in the story ofthe squadron's abortive cruise.
From these conversations I gathered that after the squadron and the_Kinshiu_ parted company off Gensan,
while we in the transport headedfor Iwon, the squadron proceeded toward Vladivostock, being much delayedby a dense fog, through which it steamed at half-speed, each ship towinga fog buoy as a guide to the ship immediately following, though, evenwith this assistance, keeping touch was only accomplished with extremedifficulty. Thus they proceeded until, by dead reckoning, they arrivedat a point seventy miles south of Vladivostock, when, the weather beingmuch too thick to permit of fighting the enemy, even should the twofleets blunder together, Admiral Kamimura decided to retrace his steps,arriving at Gensan two days later. Here the Japanese consul boarded the_Idzumi_ and imparted to the Admiral the startling information that onthe previous day four strange warships, accompanied by a couple ofdestroyers, had appeared off the port, the warships being lateridentified as those constituting the Vladivostock squadron. Thedestroyers had entered the harbour, boarded a small Japanese craftloaded with fish, ordered her crew to get into her boat and go ashore,and had then torpedoed her; the expended torpedo being probably at leastas valuable as the ship which it sank! Later on, the Russian cruisershad entered the harbour, but had left again without doing any damage.In reply to an inquiry concerning the _Kinshiu Maru_, the consul repliedthat neither she nor her escort had yet returned. This informationcaused Admiral Kamimura some uneasiness, since there had been time forus to do all that we had been ordered to do, and to get back to Gensan;and the squadron was actually getting its anchors, preparatory to itsdeparture to hunt for the transport, when Commander Takebe with historpedo-boats arrived. Questioned as to the whereabouts of the_Kinshiu_, he expressed surprise at her non-arrival, briefly relatingparticulars of the discussion which had resulted in the transportleaving Iwon, unescorted, while he remained in harbour to see what theweather developments were going to be.
This was enough for Kamimura. Takebe's story, in conjunction with thatof the consul at Gensan, convinced the Admiral that something veryserious had happened; and he at once gave orders for the torpedoflotilla to proceed along the coast to hunt for news of the transport,while he, with his squadron, started off in chase of the Russians.
It was on the morning following this second departure of the squadronfrom Gensan, that they sighted the junk from which I was rescued. It ispossible that, in his eagerness to overtake the Russians, he might havepushed on without pausing to examine a small, apparently derelict junk,but for the fact that, fortunately for me, two or three of the_Idzumi's_ officers recognised her as the junk which the _Kinshiu_ hadtaken with her to facilitate the landing operations at Iwon.
After they had taken me off the junk, the Japanese had pushed aheaddirect for Vladivostock, in the hope of arriving there before theRussians. But in this hope they were disappointed. Upon their arrival,the Russian cruisers were seen to be already back in harbour; and allthat was accomplished was to drive precipitately back into the harbourtwo Russian destroyers which had the impudence--or the courage--to comeout and threaten them; and also to exchange a few shots with the Russianforts.