lf that everything is ready,
and that the men are standing by the tubes and guns."

Then Ito turned upon me and poured out an impassioned entreaty that he
might be "honourably" permitted to take charge of and fire the torpedoes
himself. I considered for a moment. The man who might chance to score
a hit in the coming attempt would gain immense kudos, I knew, and, in
all probability, promotion also. By rights, of course, Ito's station
should be by me, to take my place should I chance to be hit; but he was
just as liable to be hit on the bridge as anywhere else; also it would
be doing him a kindness to grant his request. So:

"Now, look here, Ito," I said, "it is of paramount importance that the
men in charge of the tubes to-night should be first-rate shots, and as
cool as cucumbers; for, hit or miss, I do not suppose we shall be
afforded a chance to discharge more than the two torpedoes already in
our tubes; therefore they must both hit. Now, are you a good shot with
the torpedo?"

Ito solemnly assured me that there was not a better torpedo shot than
himself in the whole Japanese fleet.

"And is your nerve all right? I mean, are you perfectly cool?" I
demanded.

"As cool as the honourable cucumber," he asserted. "Feel my unworthy
hand."

I could not help laughing. Here was the inevitable "honourable" being
dragged in again. I seized his hand and held it loosely in mine for a
few seconds. It was firm and steady as a rock.

"Good!" I said. "You will do, Ito. Go down and work the tubes, my
boy, and see that you excel yourself to-night. And, Ito, if you love
me, do not, for heaven's sake, forget to withdraw the honourable safety
pin from the honourable fan before you honourably fire the honourable
torpedo, or you will make no honourable hits this honourable night. Do
you honourably take me?"

There! I had fired off my little joke on Ito; illustrated to him, I
fondly thought, the absurdity of indiscriminately dragging in the word
"honourable" in and out of season. How would he take it, I wondered.

"The august captain may honourably rely upon his unworthy lieutenant to
do his honourable best," he gravely answered; and the next moment was
"honourably" descending the bridge ladder to the deck. My miserable
attempt at jocularity had absolutely missed fire; the dear, innocent
fellow had accepted my speech as uttered in all seriousness.

It was at this moment that I first caught the loom of the Russia