nd
pontoons were hoisted in and secured, and the boats, as they returned,
were run up and swung inboard; the various captains hied them to the
bridges of their respective ships, from the steam-pipes of which white
feathers of steam were escaping; and at midday, just twelve hours after
Frobisher's midnight visit to the admiral, the signal for departure
floated up to the yard of the _Ting Yuen_. The fleet steamed slowly and
majestically out of the roadstead, in two columns, with the transports
well away to starboard, on the opposite side from which the enemy might
be expected to appear; the torpedo-boats spread themselves out fan-wise,
carrying out their office as scouts; and the course was shaped for
Wei-hai-wei, under the guns of which the transports would be safe from
capture.

They had been steaming for about five hours, and had covered a little
more than a quarter of the distance to Wei-hai-wei, when a puff of smoke
burst out on board one of the torpedo-boats, the one farthest away to
port, or toward the north-east, followed by the sharp, ringing sound of
one of her twelve-pound quick-firers. This was the signal agreed upon,
should the enemy heave in sight; and the fact that the little craft had
already turned and was steaming at full speed toward the flagship gave
sufficient proof that the long-expected moment had at last arrived. In
fact, by the time the torpedo-boat reached the _Ting Yuen_ it was
possible to make out no fewer than thirteen coils of smoke away on the
eastern horizon, showing that the enemy's fleet was arriving in force,
steaming in line abreast, and that it outnumbered the Chinese squadron
by three ships. Thus, as two of the latter were not fit to take their
place in the fighting line, the ratio was about one and a half to one in
favour of the Japanese, so far as numbers were concerned.

Judging from the numbers that nearly, if not quite, the whole of the
Japanese fleet was present, Ting immediately ordered the transports to
break away and make for Wei-hai-wei at full speed, the men-of-war
undertaking the duty of preventing any of the enemy getting past and
going in pursuit--in itself an unlikely contingency, since the Japanese
admiral would need all his ships if he was to gain a victory over
China--the transports consequently quickened their pace, being all fast
steamers, and gradually began to draw away from the slower and more
unwieldy battle squadron. And here it may be stated that they w