THE SUBMARINE MINE
Having told the reader as much as was necessary to enable him to
understand my subsequent proceedings, and the real forces at work in
the underground struggle which produced the tragedy of the Dogger
Bank, I will suppress the remainder of my adventures in Tokio.
When I left the capital of my new country I wore around my neck,
under the light shirt of chain mail without which I have never
traveled for the last twenty years, a golden locket containing the
miniature portrait of the loveliest maiden in the East or in the
West.
It was a pledge. When little, tender fingers had fastened it in its
place, little moving lips had whispered in my ear, "Till peace is
signed!"
I had decided to return to the capital of what was now the country of
my enemies, by much the same route as I had left it.
To do so, it was necessary to run the blockade of Port Arthur, or
rather to feign to do so, for the Japanese Minister of Marine had
been asked by my friend Katahashi to give secret instructions to
Admiral Togo on my behalf.
In order to ensure a welcome from the Russian commander, and to
dispel any suspicions, I planned to take in a cargo of Welsh steam
coal.
Through an agent at Yokohama I chartered a British collier lying at
Chi-fu, with a cargo for disposal. Leaving the Japanese port on a
steamer bound for Shanghai, I met the collier in mid-ocean, and
transferred myself on board her.
As soon as I had taken command, I ordered the skipper to head for
Port Arthur.
This was the first intimation to him that he was expected to run the
blockade, and at first he refused.
"I'm not afraid--myself," the sturdy Briton declared, "but I've got a
mixed crew on board, Germans and Norwegians and Lascars, and all
sorts, and I can't rely on them if we get in a tight place."
I glanced around at the collection of foreign faces and drew the
captain aside. He, at least, was an Englishman, and I therefore
trusted him.
"There is no danger, really," I said. "Admiral Togo has had secret
orders to let me through. This cargo is merely a pretext."
The rough sailor scratched his head.
"Well, maybe you're telling the truth," he grunted. "But, dang me, if
I can get the hang of it. You might belong to any country almost by
the cut of your jib; you say you've fixed things up with the blessed
Japs, and you're running a cargo of coal for the blessed Rooshians.
It's queer, mortal queer, that's all I can say. Howsomdever----"
I took out a flask of three-star brandy, and passed it to the
doubting mariner.
He put it first to his nose, then to his lips.
"Ah! Nothing wrong about that, Mister," he pronounced, as he handed
back the flask.
"It's a fifty-pound job for yourself, no matter what becomes of the
cargo," I insinuated.
The worthy seaman's manner underwent a magic change.
"Port your helm!" he yelled out suddenly and sharply to the man at
the wheel. "Keep her steady nor'-east by nor', and a point nor'. Full
steam ahead! All lights out! And if one of you lubbers so much as
winks an eyelid, by George, I'll heave him overboard!"
The crew, who had shown a good many signs of uneasiness since my
coming over the side, seemed to think this last hint worth attending
to. They slunk forward to their duties, leaving the captain and
myself to pace the quarter-deck alone.
We steamed swiftly through the darkness till we began to see the
search-lights of the Japanese fleet like small white feathers
fluttering on the horizon.
"Come up on the bridge," the skipper advised. "Got a revolver handy?"
I showed him my loaded weapon.
"Right! I ain't much afraid of the Japs, but we may have trouble with
some of that all-sorts crew I've got below."
By and by the white plumes became bigger. All at once a ship lying
dark on the water, scarcely a mile away on the weather-bow, spat out
a long ribbon of light like an ant-eater's tongue, and we found
ourselves standing in a glare of light as if we were actors in the
middle of a stage.
There was a howl from below, and a mixed body of Lascars, headed by
one of the Germans, rushed toward the helm.
"Back, you milk-drinking swabs!" the skipper roared. "As I'm a living
man, the first one of you that lays a hand on the wheel, I'll fire
into the crowd.
"Hark ye here!" their commander said with rough eloquence. "In the
first place, it don't follow that because you can see a flashlight
the chap at t'other end can see you. Second place, no ship that does
see us is going to sink us without giving us a round of blank first,
by way of notice to heave to. Third place, if we do get a notice, I'm
going to stop this ship. And, fourth place, you've got five seconds
to decide whether you'd rather be taken into Yokohama by a prize crew
of Japs, or be shot where you stand by me and this gentleman."
The crew turned tail. Before five seconds had elapsed, not a head was
to be seen above decks, except that of the man at the helm, who
happened to be a Dane, to be first mate, and to be more than
three-parts drunk.
Needless to say the warning shot was not fired.
We steamed steadily on through the fleet, every vessel of which was
probably by this time aware of our presence. The search-lights
flashed and fell all around us, but not once did we have to face
again that blinking glare which tells the blockade runner that the
game is up.
But there was another peril in store on which we had not reckoned.
The sea all around Port Arthur had been strewn with Russian mines!
Unconscious of what was coming, we steamed gaily past the last
outlying torpedo-boat of Admiral Togo's squadron.
"Through!" cried my friend the skipper, pointing with a grin of
delight at the Port Arthur lights as they came into view around the
edge of a dark cliff.
And even as he looked and pointed, there was a terrific wave, a rush,
a flare and a report, and I felt myself lifted off my feet into
mid-air.
I fancy I must have been unconscious for a second or two while in the
air, for the splash of the sea as I struck it in falling seemed to
wake me up like a cold douche.
My first movement, on coming to the surface again, was to put my hand
to my neck to make sure of the safety of the precious locket which
had been placed there by my dear little countrywoman.
My second was to strike out for a big spar which I saw floating amid
a mass of tangled cordage and splinters a few yards in front of me.
Strange as it may seem, only when my arms were resting safely on the
spar, and I had time to look about me and take stock of the
situation, did I realize the extreme peril I had been in.
Most dangers and disasters are worse to read about than to go
through. Had any one warned me beforehand that I was going to be
blown up by a mine, I should probably have felt the keenest dread,
and conjured up all sorts of horrors. As it was, the whole adventure
was over in a twinkling, and by the greatest good luck I had escaped
without a scratch.
By this time the forts at the entrance to Port Arthur, attracted, no
doubt, by the noise of the explosion, were busily searching the spot
with their lights.
The effect was truly magnificent.
From the blackness of the heights surrounding the famous basin, fiery
sword after fiery sword seemed to leap forth and stab the sea. The
wondrous blades of light met and crossed one another as if some
great archangels were doing battle for the key of Asia.
The whole sea was lit up with a brightness greater than that of the
sun. Every floating piece of wreckage, every rope, every nail stood
out with unnatural clearness. I was obliged to close my eyes, and
protect them with my dripping hand.
Presently I heard a hail from behind me. I turned my head, and to my
delight saw the brave skipper of the lost ship swimming toward me.
In another dozen strokes he was alongside and clinging with me to the
same piece of wood, which he said was the main gaff.
He was rather badly gashed about the head, but not enough to threaten
serious consequences. So far as we could ascertain, the whole of the
crew had perished.
I confess that their fate did not cost me any very great pang, after
the first natural shock of horror had passed. They owed their death
to their own lack of courage, which had caused them to take refuge in
the lowest part of the ship, where the full force of the explosion
came. The captain and I, thanks to our position on the bridge, had
escaped with a comparatively mild shaking.
The steersman would have escaped also, in all probability, had he
been sober.
In a very short time after the captain had joined me, our eyes were
gladdened by the sight of a launch issuing from the fort to our
assistance.
The officer in charge had thoughtfully provided blankets and a flask
of wine. Thus comforted, I was not long in fully recovering my
strength, and by the time the launch had set us on shore my comrade
in misfortune was also able to walk without difficulty.
The lieutenant who had picked us up showed the greatest consideration
on learning that we had been blown up in an attempt to run a cargo of
coal for the benefit of the Russian fleet. On landing we were taken
before Admiral Makharoff, the brave man whom fate had marked out to
perish two months later by a closely similar catastrophe.
The story which I told to the Admiral was very nearly true, though of
course I suppressed the incidents which had taken place in Tokio.
I said that I had been charged to deliver a private communication
from the Czar to the Mikado, sent in the hope of averting war, that I
had arrived too late, and that, having to make my way back to
Petersburg, I had meant to do a stroke of business on the way on
behalf of his excellency.
My inspector's uniform, which I had resumed on leaving Yokohama,
confirmed my words, and Admiral Makharoff, after thanking me on
behalf of the navy for my zeal, dismissed me with a present of a
thousand rubles, and a permit to travel inland from Port Arthur.
Needless to say I did not forget to say good-by to my brave
Englishman, to whom I handed over the Russian Admiral's reward, thus
doubling the amount I had promised him for his plucky stand against
the mutineers.
I have hurried over these transactions, interesting as they were, in
order to come to the great struggle which lay before me in the
capital of Russia.