opened fire with their
rifles, and then the Russians answered with their machine guns, mowing
down the Mikado's men by the score. But the Japanese were brave to the
last, and sank beneath the waves with the cry of _Banzai_! (hurrah!) on
their lips.

It was an auxiliary cruiser of the Vladivostok squadron which had taken
the _Columbia_ and the Chinese junk as prizes of war. The captain of the
cruiser was now looking for the rest of the squadron, but so far none of
the warships had been sighted.

"They must have returned to Vladivostok," he reasoned, and then turned
in that direction with the _Pocastra_, never dreaming of what the near
future held in store for himself, his ship, and his crew.

CHAPTER XV

A SHARP NAVAL BATTLE

So far the weather had been good, but following the conversation
recorded in the last chapter there came up a dense fog, and for
twenty-four hours the Russian warship did nothing but creep along in the
gloom.

During that time, for some unknown reason, Larry and the others were
allowed greater freedom than before. Each had his hands chained behind
him, but all were separate, which allowed each to roam around as he
pleased.

"This is better than being linked to somebody else," said the youth to
his old sailor friend. "Not but that we got along well enough together,"
he added, hastily.

"You're right--there wasn't no sense in joinin' us together," answered
Luke. "We can't git away if we want to."

"We might, if we didn't have our hands chained, Luke."

"How?"

"If we all got together some night--providing we could keep out of the
pen--and stole one of the small boats."

"Easier said nor done. The guard would ketch ye an' shoot ye down like a
dog."

"Oh, I know there would be a great risk. But I hate to think of going to
a Siberian prison, or aboard a Russian prison ship."

"So do I, Larry. But even if we stole the boat and got away, where would
we go to,--especially if we didn't have much provisions an' water?"

Larry could not answer that question, since he did not know the location
of the _Pocastra_. It might be that they were hundreds of miles from
land. If so, to take to a small boat with a scarcity of water and
provisions would certainly be foolhardy.

The fog continued during the night, but swept away as if by magic about
nine o'clock in the morning. At that time the prisoners had had their
breakfast and Larry and Luke were between decks, looking at some
gunners'