MBARDING A PORT ARTHUR FORT

Larry felt very happy after having met Ben and Gilbert. He had been
afraid he should find that his brother or his friend was wounded, even
though no mention of such an occurrence had been made in the letter he
had received. He knew from experience that Ben was in the habit of
making light of things that went wrong.

"I suppose it did your heart good to meet 'em both," said Luke, after
the warship was on the way.

"You're right, Luke; it was a regular touch of old times."

"Wish I had seen 'em myself."

"Both wanted to be remembered to you." Larry paused for a moment. "By
the way, I wonder where we are bound now?"

"Can't say as to that, lad--secret orders, I reckon," answered the old
tar.

The order to sail was evidently an important one, for scarcely was the
_Shohirika_ out of sight of land than all steam was crowded on. The
lookouts were also doubled, and when night came the strictest watch
possible was maintained.

Yet, with it all, several days passed without anything out of the
ordinary happening. Drills and exercises went on as before, and both
Larry and Luke made themselves familiar with all parts of the warship.
Both spent much time in familiarizing themselves with such orders as
were given to them in Japanese, so that they might not be too "green,"
as Larry termed it, if put to the test.

During those days spent on shipboard matters concerning the great war
were moving forward steadily. In the vicinity of Liao-Yang both the
Japanese and the Russians made several movements to better their
positions. This brought on a few skirmishes and one heavy battle, in
which the losses were several hundreds on each side. There was also an
advance on the outer forts of Port Arthur, and a fair-sized hill was
captured by the Mikado's men, who, however held the place only at an
enormous loss of life. In moving on the port the Japanese found they
would have to do a great amount of tunneling and entrenching, all of
which consumed time.

On the ocean the two nations were equally active. Both took several
prizes of war, and in an encounter with the Vladivostok squadron a
Russian warship was hopelessly disabled and a Japanese cruiser was all
but sunk. Another ship belonging to Admiral Togo's fleet struck a mine
outside of Port Arthur and had to be sent back to Japan for repairs.

So far the weather had been warm, but autumn was now at hand and before
long the nights became cold and raw.