ep of the eye; yet, after watching [Transcriber: original 'watchnig']
for three days the siege of Tsing-tau from a position on Prinz Heinrich
Berg, 1,000 feet above the sea level and but three miles from the
beleaguered city, I am sure that there is actually such a thing as a
theatre of war.

On Oct. 31, the date of the anniversary of the birth of the Emperor of
Japan, the actual bombardment of Tsing-tau began. All the residents of
the little Chinese village of Tschang-tsun, where was fixed on that day
the acting staff headquarters of the Japanese troops, had been awakened
early in the morning by the roar of a German aeroplane over the village.
Every one quickly dressed and, after a hasty breakfast, went out to the
southern edge of the village to gaze toward Tsing-tau.

A great black column of smoke was arising from the city and hung like a
pall over the besieged. At first glance it seemed that one of the
neighboring hills had turned into an active volcano and was emitting
this column of smoke, but it was soon learned that the oil tanks in
Tsing-tau were on fire.

As the bombardment was scheduled to start late in the morning, we were
invited to accompany members of the staff of the Japanese and British
expeditionary forces on a trip to Prinz Heinrich Berg, there to watch
the investment of the city. It was about a three-mile journey to this
mountain, which had been the scene of some severe fighting between the
German and Japanese troops earlier in the month.

When we arrived at the summit there was the theatre of war laid out
before us like a map. To the left were the Japanese and British cruisers
in the Yellow Sea, preparing for the bombardment. Below was the Japanese
battery, stationed near the Meeker House, which the Germans had burned
in their retreat from the mountains. Directly ahead was the City of
Tsing-tau, with the Austrian cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth steaming about
in the harbor, while to the right one could see the Kiao-Chau coast and
central forts and redoubts and the intrenched Japanese and British
camps.

We had just couched ourselves comfortably between some large, jagged
rocks, where we felt sure we were not in a direct line with the enemy's
guns, when suddenly there was a flash as if some one had turned a large
golden mirror in the field down beyond to the right. A little column of
black smoke drifted away from one of the Japanese trenches, and a minute
later those of us on the peak of Prinz Heinric