the water,
and we were thus enabled to see that our third ship, the _Yahiko Maru_,
had also succeeded in reaching the berth assigned to her, and was at
that moment in the very act of sinking, close to the Pinnacle Rock, a
great monolith which rose high out of the water on the western side of
the harbour's mouth. Thus far, therefore, everything had gone well with
the expedition; and now all that remained was for the fourth ship, the
_Yoneyama Maru_, to close up the gap that still remained.

I looked round to see if I could see anything of her, and presently the
shifting of the searchlight beam from the _Yahiko_ revealed her coming
along in fine style, and heading straight for her appointed berth.
Hitherto, the Russian batteries had been too busy, attending to us
others, to take much notice of her, and she appeared to be all ataunto
and quite uninjured. I felt curious to see what was going to happen to
her, and gave my crew the order to "Easy all, and lay on your oars!"

As I did so, a Russian destroyer--I could not tell whether it was the
craft that had torpedoed the _Fukui_, or another--emerged from the
darkness, heading straight for the _Yahiko_, as though to run her down!
Would they dare? I wondered. Surely not. But if they did not, there
was no reason why the _Yahiko_ should not; she was a stout-built,
merchant steamer, and, old as she was, would shear through the
destroyer's thin plating as though it were brown paper. If I had been
in charge of the _Yahiko_, I would not have hesitated an instant, indeed
I would have jumped at the chance, and in my excitement I leaped to my
feet and, making a funnel of my hands, yelled frantically:

"_Yahiko_ ahoy! Give her the stem, man; give her the stem!"

But at that precise moment the Russian guns opened again, this time
directing their fire upon the _Yahiko_, and my hail was effectually
drowned by the crash of the explosions.

I am of opinion that, a moment later, the commander of the _Yahiko_ saw
his chance, just too late to fully avail himself of it, at all events
the bows of the steamer suddenly swept round, and although the destroyer
instantly shifted her helm, she was too late to entirely avoid a
collision; the rounding of the _Yahiko's_ bow struck her and roughly
shouldered her aside, both craft reeling under the impact; and at that
instant the destroyer let fly every gun that would bear, the fire from
them actually scorching the Japanese crew, who were at tha