this on our little navigating bridge, with a midshipman named Uchida,
who had been detailed for service with me, pacing softly to and fro from
port to starboard, keeping the lookout; and the cold night air was
beginning to produce a pleasantly drowsy effect upon me when, as the boy
halted for a moment in turning on his march, he suddenly stiffened, and
stared intently out upon our starboard beam. He stood thus, like a
figure suddenly turned to stone, for the space of a full minute or more,
then came softly to my side and saluted.

"Three craft on our starboard beam, sir, coming up from the south-west,"
he reported.

"What do they look like?" I demanded, rising to my feet and staring out
in the direction toward which the boy pointed.

"I cannot yet say, sir," he replied. "At present they are too far off
to reveal their character; indeed, I doubt if I should have seen them so
soon, but for the fact that I glimpsed the flames issuing from one of
their funnels."

"Yes," I said. "Thanks, Mr Uchida, I see them too. Have the goodness
to bring me the night-glass from the chart-house. They appear to be
steaming with lights out."

The lad hurried away, and quickly returned with the night-glass, which I
focused and applied to my eye. The night was overcast, but there were a
few stars blinking out between the clouds, which were flying fast up
from the westward, and by their feeble, uncertain light I was presently
able to distinguish a little more clearly the three small, shapeless
blurs that Uchida's keen eyes had detected. They were little more than
shapeless blurs still, even when viewed through the powerful lenses of
the night-glass; but I was able to distinguish that one of them was
considerably bigger than the other two, which were much of a size. It
was the funnel of the big fellow that was showing the flames, which
seemed to indicate that she was being driven, while the other two
appeared to be running easily. Yet all three were in company. The
appearance of the two smaller craft seemed to suggest to me that they
might possibly be destroyers; but what the other was, I could not guess.
She was not big enough for a cruiser or a transport; and the fact that
she was evidently being hard driven to enable her to keep pace with her
consorts--or, possibly, escort--led me to doubt whether she was a
warship of any kind. One thing was pretty clear, which was that, like
ourselves, they were evidently bound for Kinchau B