it their arrival
under the guns of the Taku forts.

The torpedo-boats, on their return from the scouting expedition,
reported the sea clear of the enemy's war-ships, and the fleet
immediately proceeded on its way to Wei-hai-wei, which was reached the
following afternoon. Here things were in a state of almost hopeless
confusion, and the troops waiting to be embarked were scattered all over
the neighbourhood, foraging the countryside for provisions on their own
account. Some of the baggage had been put aboard the transports; some
could not be found at all; officers could not find their troops; and the
_men_ themselves did not know their own officers when they saw them: so
it was not until the fleet arrived and the Navy men began to take things
in hand that order began to be evolved out of chaos, and matters to
straighten themselves out gradually.

At length, however, the last man, the last horse, and the last rifle
were safely got aboard the transports, of which there were no less than
ten, and the fleet with its convoy got under way for the port of Wi-ju,
at the mouth of the Yalu, where the troops were to be disembarked.

The distance from Wei-hai-wei to Wi-ju is a little under two hundred
miles, and the voyage was completed without mishap in about twenty
hours, the whole fleet coming to an anchor in the roadstead just as the
first shades of evening were falling. There being no facilities at the
port for working during the night, the task of disembarkation was
deferred until the following morning, and the soldiers on board the
troop-ships seized the opportunity to indulge in a "sing-song" to while
away the evening--the last entertainment of its kind that many of them
were ever to take part in.

The transports were of course anchored nearest the shore, with the
war-ships outside of them for protection in case of a sudden raid by the
Japanese fleet; while outside of all, a mile distant, the seven
torpedo-boats steamed constantly to and fro, acting the part of
patrol-boats, and keeping a sharp look-out seaward, for the Chinese
would have been caught in a trap had the enemy appeared while they were
lying at anchor in the roadstead, unable to manoeuvre.

Night came down as black as the inside of a wolf's mouth; the air was
thick and heavy, difficult to breathe, and surcharged with electricity;
and to Drake, intimately acquainted as he was with these seas, it seemed
that a typhoon was more than probably brewing. There