tion, which was the village of Fanshen, where the
Japanese had established something of a base of supplies for that
portion of the army which was moving southward to join in the siege of
Port Arthur. At Fanshen, Major Okopa's command received orders to go
into camp instead of returning to the vicinity of Liao-Yang.

"This looks to me as if we were to be transferred to the army in the
south," said the major, after communicating the news to Gilbert.

"Well, I shouldn't mind helping to take Port Arthur," returned the young
Southerner. "If you will remember, it was my treatment by the Russians
at that place which caused me to take up arms against them."

"So you said before, Captain Pennington. But do not imagine that the
taking of Port Arthur will be easy. The Russians have fortified it in
every possible manner."

"Yes,--they were doing that before I came away from there."

"For months they have been strengthening their fortifications, and
getting in ammunition and supplies in secret. Their chain of forts
extend, so I have been told, for twenty miles and more outside of the
city, and being in a mountainous country, they will be hard to reduce."

"Don't you think we can capture the place?" demanded Gilbert.

"Capture it? Most assuredly, captain. But it will mean a great
destruction of life," returned Major Okopa, gravely.

What the major said about the Russians fortifying Port Arthur was true.
Lieutenant-General Stoessel, the Russian commander at that place, had
under him sixty thousand men, the very flower of the Russian army. On
the side of the sea the town was fortified at a dozen points, only three
of which had been thus far captured under the Japanese army led by
General Nogi. To the northward and the westward were some twenty
defenses, set among the mountains where they were next to impossible to
reach.

In a work of this kind, it is impossible to relate in detail all of the
many battles fought over the possession of Port Arthur. The first
assault was made in February by Admiral Togo's fleet, and the naval
conflict was kept up for almost three months after that. In the meantime
a Japanese army under General Oku landed at Pitsewo, and after several
battles at Kinchow and Nanshan Hill, drove the Russians back to their
mountain defenses and took possession of the railroad running to
Liao-Yang and Mukden. Thus Port Arthur was cut off from almost all
communication with the outside world.

CHAPTER XXV

BO