fectually
covered a landing, unless interfered with by a very powerful force. But
our visit was evidently quite unexpected, for we only found a small body
of Russian troops--about a hundred or so, with a squadron of Cossacks--
in possession; and a few shells from our torpedo-boats sent them to the
right-about in double-quick time. We destroyed the earthworks, and the
jetty, as a precautionary measure, and, having reconnoitred the country
for several miles in every direction without discovering anything very
alarming, returned to the ship the same night, without casualties of any
kind.

It was now about six o'clock in the evening. During the greater part of
the day the weather had been beautifully fine; but toward three o'clock
in the afternoon a heavy bank of dark, slate-coloured cloud had gathered
in the eastern quarter of the sky, so quickly rising and spreading that,
by five o'clock, the entire firmament had become obscured, the wind
dropped to a dead calm, the light dwindled to a murky, unnatural kind of
twilight, there were a few flickerings of sheet lightning, low down on
the horizon, occasionally accompanied by a low muttering of distant
thunder, and the mercury was dropping with rather ominous rapidity.

I confess that, for my own part, I felt a bit puzzled; I did not quite
know what to make of the weather indications. It might be that nothing
worse than a violent thunderstorm was brewing; but against this theory
there was to be set the sudden and ominous decline of the barometric
pressure. We had fulfilled our task, and were preparing to get under
way, when Takebe, who was in command of the torpedo flotilla, came
aboard to consult with our skipper as to the advisability of going to
sea, in the face of such threatening conditions.

Unfortunately, our escort was composed entirely of torpedo-boats; and
although they were staunch enough little craft of their kind, they were
nothing like such good sea boats as our destroyers. The latter were,
under able management, capable of riding out practically any weather,
but with the torpedo-boats it was rather a different story. Some of
those that we had with us were small and rather ancient, their engines
were not to be too implicitly relied upon, and their boilers were nearly
worn-out; indeed, they would never have been detailed for the service,
had it been thought that there would be any likelihood of real righting.
If by any chance they should happen to be caugh