me with eyebrows
raised questioningly.

"All right," I growled. "Hard a-port, sir, and sheer out of the line."

We swept right round in a wide semi-circle, finally stopping our engines
when we arrived at a spot about midway between the rears of the two
fleets. Our engines had just stopped, and I was on the point of opening
a semaphore conversation with the _Asama_, hove-to about half a mile
distant, with the purpose of making some sort of arrangement for coping
with certain possible eventualities, when a vivid flash and a great
cloud of smoke burst from the _Mikasa_, and was immediately followed by
similar outbursts from the rest of our battleships, which were opening
fire upon the Russian rear as the ships came within range. To give them
their due, the Russians were by no means slow to reply, and it was
presently evident from the number of shells falling round her, that they
were concentrating their fire upon the _Mikasa_. The first hit was
scored by one of our ships--the _Shikishima_, we afterwards learned--
which landed a 12-inch shell under the _Askold's_ forward bridge. We
saw the flash and smoke of the exploding shell, but could not, of
course, tell what damage was done. The next second another shell hit
the same craft about her waterline, and within a minute huge volumes of
smoke were seen pouring from her, seeming to indicate that she was on
fire. But with ourselves at a standstill and both fleets steaming away
from us at high speed, they soon passed beyond our range of vision, and
all that we knew about the fight was that there was a terrific
cannonading going on, while the eastern horizon bore a dense veil of
smoke which came driving rapidly down upon us before the rising gale.
The cannonading continued with tremendous energy for about
three-quarters of an hour, and then began to slacken, until by seven
bells--half-past three in the afternoon--it had ceased altogether.

What had happened? Was the fight over? It might be so, although I
could scarcely believe that the Russians had been utterly beaten in the
short space of an hour; for although their ships were in anything but
first-class condition, the men were brave, and were scarcely likely to
yield so long as the merest ghost of a chance of success remained to
them. We were not doomed to remain very long in suspense, however, for
just as eight bells was striking a wireless message arrived from the
Admiral, ordering the _Asama_ and ourselves to rej