t difficult to get to close quarters
with such craft. Warships have lately been built with a considerable
increase of length, which of course increases a torpedo's chance of
striking by giving it a larger target. Moderate size, no overloading
with armour, speed, good coal supply, and as many quick-firing guns as
can be mounted--that is my idea of the best type of warship at
present. The policy of building monstrous ships is doubtful, when they
can be sunk by a torpedo-boat. Under such conditions, it seems to me
that ease and rapidity of manoeuvring is of more advantage than
gigantic weight of ordnance and armour, because after all the
torpedo's attack is directed against a part which nothing can render
invulnerable."

Such is the substance of my conversation with the lieutenant, but
despite the charms of intellectual intercourse, I soon began to get
desperately weary of my detention. Day after day the _Itsuku_ cruised
about, sometimes in company with other craft, sometimes alone. The
enemy kept well out of sight, and few events occurred to chequer the
monotony. Once we sighted two Chinese gunboats not far from Chefoo,
and the Japanese varied the day's drill and gun exercise by shelling
them into Wei-hai-wei. They ran ignominiously and never made the least
show of fight. Had the _Itsuku_ been a faster vessel, she would
undoubtedly have captured or destroyed one of them. Her maximum speed
was under sixteen knots. On another occasion, off the western coast of
the Liaotung, we came upon a fleet of junks, craft engaged in coast
trade, I presume. Their crews ran them ashore and escaped, whilst the
Japanese fired the stranded junks with shells, the officers amusing
themselves by sighting the guns and betting on the shots. When a
satisfactory bonfire had been created we steamed away.

This sort of thing, I have said, went on for more than a month. The
gunboat's cruising-ground was chiefly about the mouth of the Pechili
Gulf, now under the frowning forts of Wei-hai-wei, and now opposite
Port Arthur on the other side. There did not seem to be any regular
blockade of the Gulf, though Japanese warships were constantly
hovering about. The Chinese fleet, I believe, confined itself to the
modest seclusion of Wei-hai-wei harbour, and was not to be tempted
outside. Once I asked Hishidi when they meant to assail Wei-hai-wei
and Port Arthur?

"Oh," said he, "we are waiting our time; it has not come yet."

British war-vessels were fre