eadily trained
upon the tube. At the word, he fired a single shot, and the bullet
spattered into a star as it struck the mounting. The Russians halted as
if turned to stone, and glanced anxiously at their commander. Kusumoto
raised his megaphone and hailed:

"Is that enough, or will you have more? Now, sheer off at once, if you
please. If you don't, I shall fire again; and my next shots--with my
Hotchkiss guns--will be at your waterline and your boilers."

The Russian commander was by this time literally foaming at the mouth;
he seemed speechless and beside himself with rage, and there is no
knowing what the outcome might have been, had not his second in command
here intervened, and, forcibly seizing him by the arms, shook him
violently as he said something which we were too far off to hear.
Meanwhile, ever since the firing of the shot, the helmsman of the
destroyer had been quietly edging away from us; and presently, at a
sign, apparently, from the junior officer, he put his helm hard over to
port, and the venomous-looking craft swung sharply upon her heel,
listing heavily as she did so, and a few seconds later was speeding away
in the opposite direction to ourselves. But even now we had not quite
done with her, for almost immediately she swung round to cross our
stern, and a moment later we saw the silvery flash of a torpedo as it
left her tube. Kusumoto, however, was not to be caught unawares;
apparently he more than half suspected something of the kind, and was on
the watch. For an instant he watched the bubbles which marked the
course of the missile, and then shouted an order to our helmsman; the
_Matsuma Maru_ swerved from her course, and the torpedo sped harmlessly
past us, a hundred yards to port. I, too, had quite expected that the
fiery Russian would not allow us to go scot-free if he could help it,
therefore the moment that the destroyer swerved away from us I sprang
off the forecastle and ran aft to the other Hotchkiss, which I reached
too late to prevent the discharge of the torpedo. But I saw men
clustering about her 4-pounder, as though about to bring it into action,
and as I was more afraid of this gun than of the torpedoes, I
unhesitatingly opened fire upon it, and at the fifth shot had the
pleasure of dismounting it. This was enough for the Russians; they
realised at last that they had caught a Tartar, and bore away for their
lurking-place behind the Hanish Islands, where we eventually lost