At the Fall of Port Arthur: or, A Young American in the Japanese Navy

"Tell the officer of the deck. They shan't get off with my money if I can help it."

Rushing away, Larry soon acquainted the proper officer with what he had discovered – telling as much about the robbery as seemed necessary. The officer was interested, and, what was even more to the point, liked the young American.

"Do you wish to go to yonder ship and confront the men?" he asked.

"Try me and see!" answered Larry, excitedly. "I mean, yes, sir," he stammered. "And will you let Luke Striker go, too?"

The officer agreed, and soon another small boat put off from the warship, and Larry and Luke, with the officer, were speedily landed on the deck of the brig.

"You're a fine rascal, to rob me!" cried Larry, rushing up to Shamhaven. "And to rob Captain Ponsberry, too!"

Shamhaven had not expected this encounter, and for the moment he was dumbstruck. He gazed from Larry to Luke as if they were ghosts.

"I – I – who are you, anyway?" he stammered. "I don't know you," he added, striving to regain his composure.

"Yes, you do know me, and you know Luke Striker, too," answered the young gunner's mate.

"What does this mean?" asked the captain of the brig, while a number of others looked on with interest.

"I'll tell you what it means, sir," said Larry, and did so. "He has got to give up my money belt and my money, and give up Captain Ponsberry's money, too."

At this moment Peterson came up and was promptly collared by Luke.

"Stop! Don't you vos touch me!" cried Peterson. "I ain't noddings done, no."

"You helped Shamhaven to rob me," came from Larry.

"No, he done it all alone! I no touch noddings!"

"Oh, shut up!" roared Shamhaven, in disgust. "I never robbed anybody. If you lost your money Peterson must have taken it."

A quarrel ensued between the evildoers, in the midst of which came a cry from the Shohirika.

"An enemy is in sight!"

At once all attention was turned to the warship. Scarcely a minute elapsed when a signal was displayed:

"A battleship, and she is trying to escape up the coast!"

"To the boats!" roared the Japanese officer on the deck of the brig. "To the boats at once! This investigation will have to be postponed. We shall expect you to remain as you are" – the latter words to the captain of the big brig.

"As you will," was the smooth answer.

A rush was made for the two small boats, Larry and Luke being hustled along with the crowd. Soon they put off for the warship, which was already preparing to follow the Russian battleship that had been seen.

"I didn't get my money, after all," grumbled the youth. "But perhaps I'll get it later – if that ship of the enemy doesn't sink us," he added.

As soon as they were on board of the Shohirika again, the cruiser started after the battleship. But the enemy had a good lead, and it was some time before the Japanese warship could command a full head of steam, which meant everything to her. Then, when steam was to be had in plenty, there came a breakdown in the engine room, causing a delay of twenty minutes.

"We'll never catch her, – at least, not to-day," said Luke, and he was right. Darkness found the battleship still three miles away. Half a dozen shots were fired at her, but none took effect. Then night ended the pursuit.

In the morning nothing was to be seen of the enemy and those on the Japanese warship were much depressed, for they had fancied that an encounter might add greatly to their laurels. But shortly before noon the lookout announced the approach of another ship.

"A Russian cruiser!" was the cry.

This was correct – the vessel was the auxiliary cruiser, Pontomuk, formerly a steamer in the Siberian trade. She was manned by a fierce and swarthy-looking body of sailors and marines, and carried a first and second battery of no mean proportions.

"I'll wager we have got some work cut out for us now," said Larry, and he was right. Finding she could not run away from the Shohirika the Russian auxiliary cruiser came steaming up and let drive at close range, – a broadside that raked the Japanese warship from end to end with deadly effect. The Shohirika answered immediately, and both the steering wheel and the rudder were smashed on the enemy's ship.

"Phew! but this is hot work!" panted Larry, as all those around the gun worked like Trojans.

"An' it's going to be hotter!" ejaculated Luke. He sighted the piece with care. "There, Sally Jane, let her go!" And he pressed the electric button. Bang! went the gun with a roar that was deafening. Then the breech was thrown open and the smoke rolled out, filling the air with a smell that made them cough and sneeze. But nobody stopped work. In a trice the gun was cleaned and cooled and another shell pushed into place, and then the firing was repeated.

"She's coming alongside!" was the announcement from on deck. "All hands to repel boarders!"

"A hand-to-hand fight!" cried Larry, and scarcely had the words been uttered when there came a bump that hurled half the sailors flat. Up they sprang, and as order after order was delivered the marines and others ran for their guns and cutlasses, while the officers saw to it that their pistols were ready for use.

A wild, maddening yell came from the deck of the Russian ship, as marines and sailors poured over the side. An answering Banzai issued from the Japanese, and they met the first onslaught with vigor. Then came a fierce tramping over the deck, as the two conflicting parties moved first to one side and then the other.

"We are ordered up!" cried Larry, a few minutes later. "Here is where we have got to fight for it, Luke!"

"Right you are, lad. Do your best, and trust to Heaven for the rest!" was the Yankee tar's reply. And then, cutlasses in hand, both mounted to the deck, to engage in the fiercest hand-to-hand encounter either of them had ever experienced.

CHAPTER XXXI

A CALL TO REPEL BOARDERS

It was a battle royal from the start and for some time neither side had an advantage. Pistol shot was met by pistol shot, and a rifle gun placed on the upper deck of the Russian warship was balanced in execution by a similar gun mounted on the Shohirika. The slaughter created by both weapons was frightful, a dozen or more going down on either side each time a gun was discharged.

When Larry and Luke came out on desk the spectacle was enough to make the blood of the youth run cold, and it was only his previous experience in warfare which rendered him capable of doing what he knew was his duty.

"Charge on them!" came the cry in Japanese. "Kill them, or drive them back to their ship! Banzai!"

"Banzai! Banzai Nippon!" was the yell. "Hurrah for Japan!"

The Japanese had not expected a hand-to-hand fight and the closing in of the enemy aroused them as they had never been aroused before. For the first time Larry saw the sailors and marines awakened to their full fighting fury – a fury in which every Japanese scorns death and thinks that to die is glory for himself, his family, and his emperor. They leaped on the Russians with a ferocity that was appalling, and that first shock sent the Czar's men back to the deck from which they had come.

But the Russians were likewise aroused, and with cheers and yells they came on once more, leaping over the bodies of those who had fallen, and meeting shot with shot and cutlass stroke with cutlass stroke. Officers and men fought side by side, and many went down to a common death.

By instinct Larry and Luke kept close together, with the others from Luke's gun near at hand, and Steve Colton and Bob Stanford not far away. Each used his cutlass as best he could, warding off the blows of the enemy and dealing cuts whenever a chance appeared. Larry was glad that he had learned to use a cutlass so well, and soon found himself the match of almost any Russian who challenged him.

The fighting was now spread over the decks of both vessels, which were hooked together tightly and pounding broadside at every swell of the ocean. To attempt to blow up either ship would have been fatal probably to both – one dragging down the other – so no such attempt was made.

While the fighting was at its height, Larry suddenly found himself face to face with a Russian lieutenant of marines. The fellow had a pistol in his hand, and as Larry raised his cutlass to strike, he dropped the weapon on a level with the youth's head and pulled the trigger.

Had the bullet sped as intended it is likely Larry would have been killed. But just as the trigger fell, Luke, who was at Larry's side, knocked the pistol to one side with his cutlass and the bullet merely grazed Larry's hair. Then Larry leaped forward and gave the Russian lieutenant a thrust in the side which put the fellow out of the fight instantly.

For fully fifteen minutes the battle had now raged and it was growing hotter each instant. All of the available men on each ship were in the fray, and the cries and yells which resounded were deafening.