the
strenuous work of climbing the hill, while it would tend to chill and
benumb the Russians, who would be compelled to remain comparatively
inactive in the sodden trenches. Whether it was this consideration, or
the fact that the barometer was rapidly rising, or a combination of
both, I cannot say, but about ten o'clock that night the word went round
that a general attack upon the Russian works was to be made as soon as
possible after midnight.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE STORMING OF NANSHAN HEIGHTS.

By midnight a change of weather had occurred; the wind, which at ten
o'clock in the evening had been blowing harder than ever, suddenly
subsided, the air grew close, almost to suffocation, and an immense
black cloud settled down upon the summit of Mount Sampson, where it
rested broodingly, the sure precursor of a thunderstorm, if I was any
judge of weather lore.

The first troops to move consisted of a detachment of the 4th Engineers'
Battalion, who were assigned the perilous duty of blowing down the gates
of Kinchau, of which there were four, corresponding to the four cardinal
points of the compass. I volunteered to accompany this party, for the
task which devolved upon them was one that rather appealed to me; but
Oku was most emphatic in his refusal, explaining that he would more than
probably require my services at daylight, or shortly afterward, to
communicate with the squadron in the offing. Accordingly, I had to
stand aside, somewhat unwillingly, and see them march off without me;
which was perhaps just as well, for the attempt resulted in failure, and
every man who participated in it was killed.

Just as the Engineers marched out of camp on their way to Kinchau, the
brooding cloud on the summit of Mount Sampson began to send forth flash
after flash of vivid lightning, green, blue, and sun-bright, which
lighted up not only the rugged slopes of the mountain itself, but also
those other and more deadly slopes of the Nanshan Heights, while peal
after peal of thunder crashed and rolled and reverberated among the
ravines which scored the sides of the mountain. It was a weird enough
scene of itself, but its weirdness was intensified by the Russian
searchlights, which were turned on with the first crash of thunder,
which the Russians appeared to mistake for the roar of Japanese guns.
As a matter of fact they appeared to be a bit panicky that night, for
not only did they turn on the searchlights at the first soun