power to strengthen our position. What the next move will be
there is no telling. One report is, that our particular
command will help to chase the Russians to Mukden, while
another report has it that we are to march southward, to aid
in the attempt to take Port Arthur.

"I have already told you what trouble Gilbert had with that
rascally Russian merchant, Ivan Snokoff, and with Snokoff's
confederate, Captain Barusky, of the Russian army. Well, at
Liao-Yang we found Snokoff disguised as a Chinaman, and
Gilbert made the fellow pay over all that was coming to him
for the Richmond Importing Company. In the attempt to
capture Snokoff, Gilbert shot him in the leg. It was only a
slight wound, but the Russian was as mad as a hornet, and he
vowed he would get square some time. He is now in the
hospital here, but they expect to let him leave in a few
days. He really ought to be put under arrest, but as he has
paid up the money he owed, there doesn't seem to be any way
of holding him. It's out of the question to go to court with
the case. I helped Gilbert to put Snokoff under guard, and
he is as angry at me as he is at Gilbert. I don't know if he
will dare to do anything or not, but both of us are keeping
our eyes open."

Larry read this letter twice before he stowed it away. He was always
interested in war news and he thought the description of the great
battle of Liao-Yang very realistic. He shook his curly head when he
thought of Ivan Snokoff.

"He must be an underhanded rascal if ever there was one," he mused. "And
to think he disguised himself as a Chinaman! I'll wager Gilbert thought
it a fine thing to expose him and make him pay up. But he and Ben had
better look out, or Snokoff and that Captain Barusky may cause them a
lot of trouble."

Larry had an hour to himself, and he spent the time in answering both
letters, telling briefly what had happened to him since the trip to
Manila and how he and Luke were now in service on board of the Japanese
warship _Shohirika_. He added that he liked the position of gunner's
mate very much, and that he meant to make a record for himself if given
the opportunity to do so. He also told about the doings of Shamhaven and
Peterson, and said he hoped to bring them to justice, although he
realized that looking for them was as bad as "looking for a pearl on the
ocean bottom."

The letters finished, he