nt cruisers
and other vessels, and those wasps of the sea, the destroyers.

The _Yakumo_ had scarcely begun to gather way when the flagship
signalled "Course South-West by South; speed twelve knots."

As our signalman ran up the answering pennant, I entered the chart-room
and, approaching the table, upon which a chart of the Yellow Sea lay
spread out, requested Mr Shiraishi, the navigating lieutenant, to lay
down a South-West by South course upon the chart, that we might see
where it would take us. He did so, and I saw with satisfaction that it
would take us some twenty-five miles to the eastward of Encounter Rock,
that unfortunate spot near which the Japanese fleet had too prematurely
revealed its presence upon the occasion of its previous encounter with
the Russians. Twenty-five miles! That was excellent. If we held on
upon that course we should cross the bows of the Russians at such a
distance as would enable us to pass unseen, and then come up from the
southward in the enemy's rear, so cutting him off from Port Arthur and
rendering it impossible for him to avoid a fight.

Shortly after clearing the harbour, the _Asama_ and her attendant
cruisers parted company with us, striking off to the westward, with the
object of working round in the rear of the Russians, and again I
mentally complimented Togo upon his astuteness.

Nine o'clock came, and a few minutes later there arrived a wireless
message from the Admiral for our squadron to change course thirty-four
degrees to the westward. I wondered what this might portend, for we had
been receiving almost continuous wireless messages from the squadron off
Port Arthur, the latest of which told us that the Russians, although
undoubtedly intending a sortie, had not yet started. I again visited
the chart-room, and with Shiraishi's assistance discovered that our new
course would bring us within about seven miles south-east of Encounter
Rock about noon.

"Four bells" had just gone tinkling along the line of the Japanese
ships, informing those whom it might concern that the hour was ten
o'clock in the morning, when a fresh wireless message came from our
blockading squadron, informing us that at last the Russian fleet was
actually steaming out of Port Arthur harbour, with battle-flags flying,
bands playing, and the ship's companies singing the Russian National
Anthem, with the battleship _Tsarevich_, Vitgeft's flagship, leading.
As the message was decoded and the news sp