her so severely that they had to stop her engines
and allow the rest of the fleet to pass ahead. The Russian fleet, which
had thus far been coming on in line ahead, now hurriedly formed line
abreast, the two battleships opening fire upon our cruisers with their
12-inch guns. Luckily for us, although the water was smooth the Russian
aim was bad, and their shells flew over and on either side of us, but
none hit us. Then Dewa, who was far too good a tactician to pit his
cruisers against battleships, gave the order to increase speed, and we
ran out of range, undamaged.

But only just out of range; for we wanted to draw the Russian ships so
far away from Port Arthur that Admiral Togo might have a chance to come
up, slip in between them and the fortress, cut off their retreat, and
force them to fight. And without a doubt we should have been
successful, had not the capricious weather played us a scurvy trick at a
critical moment when the Russians were some eighteen miles off the land
in a south-easterly direction from Port Arthur. For it was at this
moment that the fog, which had hitherto hidden Togo's approaching fleet,
suddenly cleared, revealing to the Russian lookouts on the Liau-ti-shan
heights, the Japanese warships, racing up from the south-west.

The approach of the Japanese was instantly frantically signalled to the
wireless station, which in turn wirelessed the alarming intelligence to
the Russian Admiral. A few moments' study of the chart revealed to
Makarov the precariousness of his situation. If he turned and retreated
at once, he might possibly escape by the skin of his teeth and get back
into harbour before Togo's ships could get up to cut him off, and he did
not hesitate a moment. Up went the signal to retire, over went the
Russians' helms, and away they scuttled back toward their lair, even
faster than they came out, while our cruisers, keenly on the watch for
some such movement, also wheeled sharply in pursuit, keeping up a steady
fire upon the _Bayan_ and the _Novik_, the rearmost ships in the Russian
line. Naturally, the _Koryu_ turned when our cruisers did, following
them up at full speed until we were close in their rear, while Dewa was
far too busy attending to the pursuit to spare any attention to me and
my doings.

It was at this juncture that the Russian destroyers made a gallant
effort to check our pursuit by distracting our attention from their big
craft to themselves. Believing that the