Part 9 (2/2)

Then, suddenly, an idea occurred to me. The _Kins.h.i.+u Maru_ had in tow a small junk, or lighter, which we had used to facilitate the landing of the soldiers at Iwon. Where was she now?

Crouching low under the cover of the bulwarks, to avoid being seen by those aboard the _Rossia_, I slipped aft and, cautiously peering over the taffrail, saw that she had drifted right in under the _Kins.h.i.+u's_ counter, where she was momentarily threatening to bilge herself against the steamer's iron rudder, as the two craft ground against each other on the 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 the vivid brilliance of the searchlight beam that covered the stern-half of her, and it immediately occurred to me that if I could but climb down into her, un.o.bserved, and cut her adrift, I might possibly contrive to avoid entering a Russian prison after all.

No sooner thought of than done; the moment was propitious, the towing hawser lay under my hand, and in another moment I was down upon her tiny forecastle, hacking away at the gra.s.s rope with my pocket-knife. The blade was keen, as a sailor's knife should always be, and with a few vigorous slashes the hawser was severed and I was adrift. Then, taking advantage of the heave of the two craft, I managed to move the junk until she lay entirely in the shadow cast by the _Kins.h.i.+u's_ hull.

At this juncture I heard the gruff voices of Russians overhead, on the transport's deck, and, thinking discretion the better part of valour under the circ.u.mstances, dropped off the junk's short fore deck into her shallow hold and there concealed myself, lest any inquisitive Russian should peer over the bulwarks, catch sight of me, and order me up on deck again. I don't know whether it occurred to any of the enemy to look over the side, but I do not think so; at all events, if they did, n.o.body took the trouble to come down and search the junk; and in a few minutes the voices ceased; I took it that the visitors had gone below to search the s.h.i.+p. If they had, what would happen to them, with over a hundred armed j.a.panese soldiers down there?

I had not long to wait for an answer to this question. About two minutes of silence succeeded to the sudden cessation of the Russians'

voices on deck, and then the m.u.f.fled crack of a pistol-shot rang out from the _Kins.h.i.+u's_ interior, instantly followed by a shout of ”Banzai Nippon!” and the crack of several rifles; there arose a sudden outburst of yells and execrations in Russian, a stampede of many feet along the deck, the sounds of a scuffling hand-to-hand fight, a volley of orders from the Russian officer in command of the boarding party, a hoa.r.s.e hail from one of the wars.h.i.+ps, and then the rattle and splash of oars hastily thrown out. Evidently, the j.a.panese soldiers had given the intruders a warm reception.

The hurried departure of the boarding party was quickly followed by a rolling volley of rifle-fire from the _Kins.h.i.+u_, apparently directed upon the retreating boats, for I heard cries and groans which seemed to proceed from them. Then, from the _Rossia_ came the sudden, snapping bark of her quick-firers and machine-guns, and a storm of missiles crashed through the transport's thin bulwarks or flew whining overhead, intermingled with shrieks, groans, and excited shouts from the j.a.panese soldiers, who had evidently resolved to die fighting, rather than surrender. The sounds awakened the fighting instinct within me; I felt that, 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 short deck, intent upon climbing aboard the _Kins.h.i.+u_ again. And then I found that during the short period of my seclusion, the junk had parted company, and was now a good twenty feet distant from the transport.

True, I might jump overboard and swim the intervening s.p.a.ce, and I was actually poising myself for the dive when the question flashed into my brain: 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 stern dipped, the end did not reach within a couple of feet of the water. I recognised that whether I would or not, I must now stay where I was, for return to the steamer was impossible. And while I stood there on the junk's short fore deck, watching the scene with fascinated eyes, that awful, unequal duel went on between the j.a.panese rifles and the _Rossia's_ machine-guns; the soldiers frenziedly yelling ”Banzai Nippon!” between each volley, while the Russian gunners plied their pieces in grim silence. The _Kins.h.i.+u's_ deck, I knew, must be by this time a veritable shambles, for the Russian cruiser lay close aboard, and her machine-guns could sweep the transport's decks from stem to stern; moreover, the rapid and ominous slackening of the rifle-fire testified eloquently to the frightful carnage that was proceeding. The cries of ”Banzai Nippon!” were no longer thundered forth in a defiant roar, but were raised by a few voices only, which were almost drowned by the dreadful shrieks and moans of the wounded and dying.

Then, suddenly, there occurred a frightful explosion, the _Kins.h.i.+u Maru_ was hove up on a mountain of foaming water which belched forth fire and smoke, the air became suddenly full of flying splinters and wreckage, a heavy fragment of which smote me full upon the forehead and knocked me back into the junk's hold, and as my senses left me I was dimly conscious of a wailing cry, pealing out across the water, of ”Sayonara!”

(Farewell for ever). It was the last good-bye to Emperor, country, and all who were nearest and dearest to them of that heroic little band of j.a.panese infantry-men who preferred to die fighting gloriously, rather than win inglorious safety by surrender. The Russians had made an end of the affair by torpedoing the transport, and she must have sunk within a very few minutes.

When I recovered my senses it was broad daylight. For a few moments I knew not where I was, or what had happened to me, but I was conscious of the 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 of a small craft of some sort, which was rolling and plunging most atrociously on a short, choppy sea, that I was chilled to the very marrow, and that water was was.h.i.+ng about and over me with every motion of the boat. I was wet to the skin and, although s.h.i.+vering 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 curious stiff feeling in the skin of my face. Putting my hands to my head, to still the throbbing smart of it, I found that my hair was all clogged with some sticky kind of liquid which, upon looking at my hands, I found to be blood, evidently my own. This at once explained the curious stiff feeling of my face; it was probably caused by dry caked blood. But, to make sure, I sprang open the case of my watch--the polished surface serving well enough for a mirror--and gravely studied my reflected image. I must have presented a ghastly sight, for my whole face was a mask of blood, out of which my eyes glared feverishly. Then, as I continued to stare at the interior of my watch-case, wondering what it all meant, my memory of the events of the preceding night--I knew it must be the preceding night, because my watch was still going--all came back to me, and I understood where I was.

Scrambling giddily to my feet, I looked about me and saw a bucket rolling to and fro on the junk's bottom-boards. The sight suggested an idea to me and, taking the bucket and the end of a small line which I bent on to the handle, I somehow managed to hoist myself up on to the small foredeck and, lying p.r.o.ne--for I dared not as yet trust myself to stand--I lowered the bucket, and drew it up again, full of clean, sparkling salt-water. Into this I plunged my head, keeping it immersed as long as my breath would allow, meanwhile removing the blood from my face and hair as well as I could. The contact of the cold salt-water made my lacerated forehead and scalp smart most atrociously, yet it relieved my headache and greatly refreshed me. Then, stripping off my wet s.h.i.+rt, I tore a long strip from it and, thoroughly saturating it in the clean salt-water, bound up my wound as best I could, after which I felt distinctly better.

Then, sitting on the little deck, I looked about me to see if I could discover any traces of last night's horror; but there was a moderate breeze blowing, and I instantly recognised that the junk must have drifted several miles from the spot where the disaster had occurred.

There was nothing to be seen, no, not so much as a solitary sc.r.a.p of wreckage, within the radius of a mile, beyond which everything was blotted out by a curtain of haze.

By this time I had pretty completely recovered my senses, and was able to fully realise my situation. I was wet, cold, feverish, and horribly thirsty, and was the sole occupant of a small, leaky junk of about twenty-five tons, without masts or sails, these having been removed in order the better to fit her for the duty of carrying troops. She had a pair of sweeps aboard, it is true; but they were so ponderous that each demanded the strength of four men to work it; they were therefore quite useless 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 the southward and eastward of Iwon; but I might as well have been five hundred miles from the place, for all the means I had of returning to it, or even of making a shot at Gensan. The fact was that I was adrift in a hulk; and the utmost that I could do was to keep her afloat, if possible, and patiently wait for something to come along and take me off her.

Realising this, I proceeded to overhaul the junk, with a view to ascertaining what were her resources. I remembered that a cask of fresh water had been put aboard her for the use of the troops while landing and embarking; and I soon found this, still more than half-full, snugly stowed away under her foredeck, with a lot of raffle consisting of odds and ends of line of varying sizes, a fragment of fis.h.i.+ng-net, a few short lengths of planking, and other utterly useless stuff. I drank dipper after dipper of water, until my raging thirst was quenched, and then stripped off my clothes, wrung them out, and spread them to dry in the wind while I rubbed my body dry with my hands, employing a considerable amount of exertion, in order to restore warmth to my cramped limbs. In this effort I was at length successful; and my next business was to search the other end of the junk, in the vague hope that I might find something in the way of food; but there was none; therefore I had to go hungry. I had a bucket, however, and with this I bailed the hooker practically dry, as much to pa.s.s the time and keep myself warm, as for any other reason. Then, having done everything that I could think of, all that remained for me was to wait as patiently as might be for something to come along and rescue me.

My position was by no means an enviable one. I had no food; but, for the moment, that did not greatly matter, since the smart of my wound had made me feverish, and I had no appet.i.te. On the other hand, I suffered from an incessant thirst, which even the copious draughts of water in which I frequently indulged did little to allay. The weather was overcast, and there was a thin mist lying upon the surface of the grey sea which circ.u.mscribed my view to a radius of less than a mile, and the air was keenly raw. I recognised that it was necessary to keep myself constantly active, to counteract the effect of the chilly atmosphere, and this I did, bustling about, overhauling the raffle in the junk, and executing a good deal of utterly useless work, which I varied from time to time by taking long spells of watching, in the hope of sighting some craft to which I might signal for a.s.sistance. Also I repeatedly bathed my head in sea water, which did a little toward reducing the feeling of feverishness from which I was suffering.

Toward the afternoon the conditions became more favourable. The clouds broke, 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; there was not even so much as a blur of steamer's smoke staining the sky in any direction; and I began to wonder how long it might be before I should be picked up, or whether indeed I should be picked up at all. I knew, of course, that the non-arrival of the _Kins.h.i.+u_ at Gensan would give rise to speculation, and that probably a search for her would be inst.i.tuted along the course which she might be expected to steer, but I was already several miles from that course, and hourly drifting farther from it. The question of importance to me was whether the search would extend over a sufficiently wide area to take me in.

The remainder of that day pa.s.sed uneventfully for me; I could do nothing beyond what I have already indicated; no craft of any description hove in sight; and toward sunset the pangs of hunger began to manifest themselves. I watched the sea until night closed down; and then, when it became so dark that further watching was useless, I crept in under the fore deck among the raffle and turned in upon such a bed as I had been able to prepare for myself during the day, in antic.i.p.ation of the possibility that I might be obliged to pa.s.s the night aboard the junk.

As might be supposed, under the circ.u.mstances, the earlier part of the night at least was full of discomfort for me; but somewhere along in the small hours I dropped off to sleep, and eventually slept soundly, to be awakened by the noise of steam blowing off, close at hand. I started up, listened for a moment to a.s.sure myself that the sound was not an illusion, and, satisfied that it was real, scrambled up on the junk's deck, to be greeted with the sight of several s.h.i.+ps of war close at hand. A single glance sufficed to a.s.sure me that my troubles were at an end; for the s.h.i.+ps in sight were those of Admiral Kamimura's squadron, the _Idzumi_ being hove-to at less than a cable's length distant, in the very 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 all scrutinising the junk through their gla.s.ses; I therefore waved to them, and was waved to in reply. A few minutes later the boat, in charge of a lieutenant, dashed smartly alongside and the officer scrambled nimbly up the junk's low side.

I think he had not recognised me until then, although we knew each other very well. He gazed at me dubiously for a moment, then his hand shot out to grasp mine as he exclaimed:

”Hillo! my dear Swinburne, what does this mean; what are you doing here?

And are you all alone?”

<script>