tice of the Russians above; and Honda, with fourteen men, was
about a quarter of a mile ahead. I had eleven men with me.

"We had arrived at a point which I believed to be, rightly as the event
proved, immediately beneath the fort, and I was staring contemplatively
up at the face of the cliff which towered above us, when we came abreast
of a sort of cleft in the rock, at the foot of which lay several big
boulders in a great pile, some of which were in the water. Suddenly,
the idea occurred to me that it might be possible for active men to
climb that cleft; and acting upon the impulse of the moment, I put the
boat's helm hard a-starboard and, giving the word `Easy all!' headed in
toward the boulders.

"A minute later, we found ourselves in a miniature harbour, just large
enough to receive the boat, the big boulders forming a sort of
breakwater.

"`Men,' I said, `have all of you your revolvers and cutlasses with you?'

"They answered that they had. `Then,' said I, `let us give those
Russians, up above, a little surprise. I believe we can climb that
cleft, and I, for one, am determined to try. Who goes with me?'

"As I had quite anticipated, they all agreed to join me in the attempt;
so, making fast the boat's painter to a rock, and leaving her to take
care of herself, we scrambled out, and I honourably taking the lead, as
was my right, up we went. It was a very difficult climb, in the
semi-darkness, for the moon was hidden by clouds, and the way was so
steep that we were obliged to push and pull each other up; but at length
we reached the top, and then lay down in a little hollow to recover our
breath.

"The fort crowned the summit of a steep hill immediately in front of us.
For fully five minutes I patiently examined it, and at the end of that
time came to the conclusion that only by the rear could we hope to
approach it undiscovered. Accordingly, I led my men round to the land
side of the fort and, taking our time, that we might save our breath, we
crept slowly up the slope until we reached not only the summit of the
hill but actually the parapet of the fort itself. Peering over this, I
was able to see that it was armed with eight 11-inch Canet guns; and
there were, including the gun crews, at least a hundred men in the
place, all of them intently staring out to seaward, evidently in
momentary expectation of seeing more explosion ships arrive.

"Had it been possible for us to have entered that fort at tha