high." He had received a wireless message from the shore telling
exactly where the shell had struck, probably for the first time since
naval warfare began.

At the rear of the Japanese lines, where a naval lookout had been
erected, I saw several marines focusing horned telescopes on the
besieged forts. As soon as a shell landed one of the men would
telephone the exact location to the naval wireless station at Sesheco,
which relayed the message to the warships.

The fourth day of the siege was the most severe of the whole siege of
Tsing-tao. Gen. Johoji on the extreme left, with Gen. Barnardiston of
the British expeditionary force, was pressing the intrenched Germans
near Moltke Fort. Early in the morning Gen. Johoji had sent a
detachment against the triangular pumping station fort, as it was
deemed wise not to turn the siege guns on the place, because the fort
might be destroyed and the supply of water be cut off in the city
when the troops entered. The detachment approached the fort without
any resistance from the Germans, and, surrounding it, discovered that
there was a small garrison, which had barred itself inside. The
Japanese commanded the men to surrender, threatening to dynamite the
place. The steel door was opened and twenty-three Germans walked out.

The capture of this fort was the key for the final attack of the
Japanese, as it left the central fort and redoubts exposed to fire.

Late in the afternoon the fire became extremely heavy. The Germans
seemed to be making sharp resistance to the Japanese, lest they
advance within the quarter-mile zone of the redoubt walls. The
Japanese infantry, however, were sapping away, and as dusk settled
over the field we saw the bright flash of bursting shrapnel from the
German forts. It was the first shrapnel sent out by the Germans during
the siege.

Ten, twelve, fifteen, and sometimes even twenty shrapnel shells could
be counted bursting at one time, all in a straight line, over the
Japanese front line, and then the big German searchlights would flash
about the field. They would fall on fifteen or twenty Japanese sappers
on the top of their trenches placing sandbags, and then the flash
would disappear.

Thursday, Nov. 5, seemed only a repetition of what we had seen the day
before. All night long the firing kept up, and it was evident that the
German garrison at Tsing-tao was making stubborn and gallant
resistance.

That night the Japanese forces advanced 200 yards