for it but to return to the death-ship. We all went on
board this time, and applied ourselves to the work. The pile of dead
were dragged away, and with considerable labour, and aided by the
careened condition of the junk, we managed to launch the boat, which
had been secured inside the bulwark. It was in a horrid state with
blood, but we were not in a situation to be particular. We found a
quantity of provisions and fresh water--or rather water which had once
been fresh--in the cook-house of the junk.

It must have been after midnight when we shoved off and got afloat.
Neither of my companions were experts with an oar, and could render me
very little aid; moreover, Chinese oars, like Chinese belongings
altogether, are very unlike anything else in the world and need some
practice to use. We were, however, close to the entrance of the port,
which being defended by torpedoes and mines, we ran little risk of
encountering Japanese vessels, although the submarine dangers
threatened us as well, if we strayed from the deep-water channel in
the dark. We got on in safety, though very slowly, and another two
hours had been consumed before we were through.

What to do next I had no fixed idea. One thing, however, was assured,
that it was certain death to stay in Port Arthur, and that our only
chance, slender as it seemed at best, consisted in getting as far away
as possible. I resolved, after some consideration, to hold on south
round the extremity of the Peninsula.

In the seaward forts above us we could discern no signs of activity,
and only a light here and there, far out on the misty expanse of
waters, showed the position of the Japanese war-vessels, which had an
easy job of it as far as Port Arthur was concerned. The weather,
though so bitterly cold, was far from stormy, yet the difficulty of
rowing was increased naturally when we got out into the heavier waters
of the sea. So unpromising in fact did our situation look, that I
began to reflect whether it would not be better to stay about the
mouth of the harbour, and allow ourselves to be taken by some Japanese
ship, than wander off I knew not where, probably in the end to perish
of starvation. Luck decided the point. We had painfully made a couple
of miles from the estuary of the harbour, when we came upon a large
junk stranded on a sand-bank. There were no lights showing on board
her; in the obscurity we could see nobody; yet she did not look like a
wreck, and at first we