A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER NINETEEN.

  CAUGHT AT LAST.

  The _Yen-fu_ and the _Tung-yen_ were mere motionless hulks, lying inertupon the bosom of the sunlit, shot-torn sea, the one with her rudder andpropeller blown away by a torpedo that had all but sent her to thebottom, the other with her engines badly broken down, the result ofChinese officials having stolen and disposed of many parts, which hadhad to be roughly replaced at the last moment. They were both fightingfiercely, however, like tough old wolves at bay, and, although hemmed inby several Japanese cruisers, were as yet giving back almost as good asthey got. The game was up for them, though, as they were quite unableto manoeuvre, and only the thickness of their armour and the lightcalibre of the guns of the ships opposed to them had prevented them fromgoing down long before. Frequently, too, Frobisher noticed, there werelong pauses between the discharges of the _Yen-fu's_ and the_Tung-yen's_ great guns, as well as those of others of the Chineseships; and he made a shrewd guess that these were the occasions when thefaulty, charcoal-filled cartridges failed to explode. The _Shan-si_,with Captain James in command, was practically the only entirelyundamaged ship still possessed by the Chinese--not because she had notbeen in the thickest of the fight, for she had, but just through one ofthose curious chances of warfare which are constantly occurring. Shewas doing sovereign service, rushing here, there, and everywhere,planting her shells coolly and accurately, and sweeping the Japanesedecks with rifle and machine-gun fire; and many were the attempts madeby the enemy's destroyers to torpedo her and put her safely out ofharm's way. But, thanks to her captain's skill and his personal care ofeverything pertaining to his ship, neither was she badly hit, nor didher machinery break down at a critical moment; and she went herrelentless way, dealing death and destruction about her unchecked.

  The _Yung-chau_ and _Kau-ling_ were being engaged by the _Hiroshima,Naniwa_ (a ship afterwards celebrated in the Russo-Japanese war), andthe _Okinoshima_--each of which was much larger than either of theChinese ships--and were getting a terrible punishing. Although stillmoving, and more or less under control, they were leaking steam andsmoke from every crevice and opening, and ominous spirals of smoke werefiltering up through the _Yung-chau's_ decks. She had been set on fireclose to her bunkers by a Japanese shell, and, almost in less time thanit takes to write it, was a mass of roaring, spouting flame, for she wasold, and blazed like a volcano. Her men--such of them as could reachthe decks--jumped overboard, and were hauled by ropes up the sides ofwhichever ships happened to be nearest; for the Japanese, like theiropponents, had discarded all their boats and pontoons before going intoaction.

  The _Chen Yuen_ and _Ting Yuen_ were busily engaged in hammering away atthe biggest of the enemy, the _Yoshino_, the _Shikishima, Fuji_, and_Niitaka_, and it was to relieve the two battleships, which were beingsomewhat severely handled, that Frobisher determined to charge the_Yoshino_ with his ship.

  Signalling once more for full steam, and firing as he went, according tohis former tactics, he drove the _Chih' Yuen_ at her utmost speed towardthe Japanese flagship, which by this time had lost one of her militarymasts and her forward funnel, from whose torn base smoke and flame werepouring voluminously, wrapping the conning-tower round as though with ablack mantle, and utterly preventing her skipper from seeing what wasgoing on. He, poor man, was obliged to rely entirely upon thediscretion of the gunnery-lieutenant in her forward turret; and thatthis individual was doing his duty well was proved by the frequency withwhich his guns boomed out, sending shell and solid shot spatteringagainst the heavily-armoured sides of the Chinese battleships, wherethey splintered and burst, cracking and starring the thick steel, butvery seldom penetrating to their vitals, close though the range was.

  As the _Chih' Yuen_ clove her way through the water, one of the Japanesedestroyers discharged a torpedo at her, which missed her by inches only.It was not wasted, however, for it struck the disabled _Yen-fu_, whichheeled over as though pressed by some gigantic hand, and a few minuteslater went down, taking her crew with her.

  The _Hiroshima_ also tried to ram in her turn, leaving the stricken_Kau-ling_ for that purpose; but she also was too late. The _Naniwa_and the _Shikishima_ saw the _Chih' Yuen_ approaching, like themessenger of death she was, and backed away from their opponents; the_Fuji_ turned her guns on the approaching vessel; but the _Yoshino's_captain, blinded by smoke from the wrecked funnel, did not see what wascoming until it was too late, and a moment later the Chinese shipcrashed into his stern, unfortunately striking a glancing blow insteadof a direct one, as Frobisher had intended.

  It was severe enough, however, to make the _Yoshino_ shiver from stem tostern, from truck to keelson; and as the _Chih' Yuen_ drove past,Frobisher saw that he had sliced a great gash in her port quarter nearlydown to the water-line, and dismounted both the guns in her afterturret. The attempt had not entirely succeeded, but it had done a greatdeal of damage, and with that he had to be content.

  Then, as Frobisher circled his ship round to come into action again, hesaw something that made him gasp with astonishment and apprehension.There was a fight of some sort going on upon the deck of the Chineseflagship herself! What on earth could it mean? She had not been closeenough to any of the enemy's ships to enable them to board her, and,moreover, they were Chinese sailors, not Japanese, who were fighting.What could possibly have happened? The seamen on board were entirelydevoted to their admiral, and if any mutiny had arisen it must bethrough the machinations of some other person, some traitor who hadseized this opportunity to--

  By Jove, he had it! All his old suspicions came thronging into his mindin an instant, and in that same instant he believed he could make a verygood guess at what had occurred. Of course it was that scoundrel,Prince Hsi, who was at the bottom of the mischief; Frobisher seemed toknow it instinctively. He also recollected the numerous occasions onwhich his Highness had acted in an extremely suspicious manner, to saythe least; and it did not take him long to guess that he was nowbeholding the consummation of a plot up to which Hsi had been leadingfor some considerable time past. But what had happened to Admiral Ting,he wondered, that Prince Hsi should have matters all in his own hands?Frobisher knew that so long as the gallant admiral was alive, orconscious, he would never permit his command to be taken from him thus;and his heart fell, for he feared that the traitor, to attain hisdetestable ends, must first have killed the brave old man.

  Well, Frobisher vowed to himself, the traitor should not succeed in hisscheme, whatever it might be, even though he had to board the _TingYuen_ himself, and slay Prince Hsi with his own hands, to avenge thedeath of the admiral.

  And then he saw what it was that the traitor prince intended. Thecommotion on the deck of the flagship had ceased, the mutineers havingeither slain or driven overboard all those who opposed them, and, whileFrobisher's ship was still some distance away, he saw the Chinese flagflutter down from the _Ting Yuen's_ peak, to be immediately replaced bythe Japanese naval ensign; and the ship herself swung round in thedirection of the enemy's squadron and began to forge ahead toward it,Prince Hsi having evidently determined to turn his guns against his owncountrymen.

  As the Japanese ensign fluttered aloft there fell a sudden silence overboth fleets. As though by mutual consent every gun was hushed for a fewmoments, and hoarse, stern, and menacing above the strange stillnessrose a roar of execration from the throats of the Chinese, as they atlast realised the meaning of the extraordinary scene that had just takenplace aboard the flagship.

  Defiantly her captain trained his guns on the nearest Chinese ships andfired; but whether his gunners could not bring themselves to the actualpoint of firing on their country's flag, or whether it was due to theexcitement of the moment, every shot missed, and a shout of derisionwent up from the Chinese squadron.

  But Captain Frobisher knew that curses and shouts of execration wouldnot bring back the _Ting Yuen_. If she was to be saved to the ChineseNavy she must not be allowed to gain the shelter of the Japanese mainbody. If she reached that,
she would be lost for ever, and the daywould be lost beyond hope of redemption for the Chinese. To lose onepowerful battleship, and to find another suddenly arrayed against them--for that is what it would of course amount to--would so weaken thealready enfeebled Chinese strength that success would be out of thequestion; and the Englishman determined that, come what might, he wouldprevent the traitor prince from carrying out his foul intentions.

  He shouted a few brief commands to Drake, who vanished like a puff ofsmoke from the conning-tower; issued an order to the quartermaster atthe wheel; and rang to the engine-room the two short calls thatsignified that he required all the power the engines could develop, fora sudden emergency. Then he looked to see that his sword was loose inits scabbard and his revolver fully charged, and waited for Drake toreappear, while the _Chih' Yuen_, bounding forward under the full powerof her engines, turned her nose toward the stern of the _Ting Yuen_ andkept it fixed there, relentless as fate.

  By this time the cannonade had again become general throughout thefleet, but ringing high above the crashing roar of the guns could beheard the wild cheering of the Chinamen as they realised the gallantexploit that the English captain was about to attempt.

  Prince Hsi realised it also, and put on full steam to escape, but he wasa few minutes too late. Before the unwieldy battleship could get intoher stride the more nimble cruiser would be upon her, and, knowing thathe could not hope to reach safety before he was overtaken, the Princedetermined to wait and fight the matter out with the Englishman whom hehad already learnt to hate so intensely. He therefore reversed hisengines, trained every available gun upon the advancing _Chih' Yuen_,and opened fire.

  The cruiser reeled and quivered as the hurricane of shot and shellstruck her, but she received no injury to her vital parts, and waschecked not a moment in her headlong course. Frobisher had given ordersthat his fire was to be reserved until he himself gave the word, and henow watched for that moment as a tiger watches its prey.

  A few seconds later the time arrived. Frobisher pressed the button thatlet loose the storm of death upon the flagship, rang off his engines,handed over the command to Drake, who had just reappeared, and then leftthe conning-tower.

  On the port side of the deck, behind the steel citadel, he found thatDrake had already drawn up the fifty volunteers he had called for, fullyarmed, and ready to follow their captain wherever he might choose tolead.

  A second later there arose from the _Ting Yuen_ a chorus of yells ofastonishment and fury as the _Chih' Yuen_, instead of lying off andfighting with her guns, as Prince Hsi had expected, ground her sidesagainst those of the flagship, and came to a standstill right alongside.

  Frobisher shouted a word of command to the expectant sailors, and ledthem round the citadel, across the cruiser's decks, and up on to thoseof the battleship, before the _Ting Yuen's_ men realised what washappening. Most of the latter had thrown off their cutlasses, thebetter to handle their guns, and it was on their unpreparedness thatFrobisher relied when he led his fifty boarders to the attack.

  Like a whirlwind he swept down upon the rebel seamen, who stoodpetrified with alarm and astonishment beside the now useless guns, andthe broad-bladed cutlasses rose and fell for a few seconds to theaccompaniment of shrieks and yells for mercy. But Frobisher, with hissmall force, could not afford to give quarter until it was certain thatthere would be no more resistance; and, much as he detested thebutchery, he simply dared not stay his hand. Forward and upward he andhis men cut their way; they encountered more and more opposition everyminute, as the mutineers found time to recover their wits and securetheir weapons, but his men would take no denial. Their blades, now dyeda deep red, swept through the smoky air, and their revolvers crackledand blazed merrily, as the Englishman led them forward; and presently,after a stern and stubborn five minutes' fighting, the rebels broke andfled below--overboard--anywhere to escape the avenging swords of theiroutraged countrymen.

  So far, Frobisher had seen nothing of Prince Hsi; but the moment themutineers were broken and he had released the remnant of the loyalChinese sailors, he went in search of the arch-traitor himself, havingfirst headed both ships back toward the Chinese squadron.

  The Prince was not in the conning-tower, as Frobisher discovered when hewent there with one of his own helmsmen to send the necessary orders tothe engine-room, nor was he in his own cabin, which was the next mostlikely place to look for him; and diligently as Frobisher searched, theman was not to be found. He appeared to have vanished completely.Perhaps, Frobisher decided, the traitor had seen that his shameful plothad failed, and had thrown himself overboard to avoid the consequencesof his act. That, however, did not seem quite like Hsi; he was morelikely to be up to some deeper villainy still; and as this thoughtoccurred to the _Chih' Yuen's_ captain his blood ran cold, for somesixth sense or instinct seemed to warn him what Hsi was about.

  With every nerve tingling, Frobisher darted below and began to searchfor the magazine, for it was thither he guessed the traitor had betakenhimself; and it was indeed fortunate that he found it just where he hadexpected it to be.

  The door of the magazine was open, and a man was to be seen inside, withhis back to the entrance, engaged upon his diabolical work by the aid ofa carefully-shaded lantern. Another few seconds and Frobisher wouldhave been too late, and the ship would have been blown into the air withall her crew; for the Prince was even then applying a light to the endof the fuse which he had already cut, the other extremity of which wasconcealed from view.

  Frobisher repressed a shiver of horror, and with one bound flung himselfupon the traitor, dropping sword and revolver as he did so. This was acase for the use of bare hands alone, man to man; the discharge of apistol might only complete Hsi's work for him, and Frobisher did notfeel that he could cut the man down from behind, in cold blood, richlyas he deserved it, and as the man himself would undoubtedly have done,had the positions been reversed. He gripped the sacred person of thePrince round the body, and endeavoured to hurl him to the floor and sostun him; but Hsi was a powerful man, and although taken at adisadvantage, managed to twist himself so that Frobisher's superiorstrength expended itself in vain.

  Then, with a mighty effort, he wrenched one arm free and seized theEnglishman by the throat, sinking in his fingers with a fury thattestified all too plainly to the intensity of his hatred.

  Do what he might, Frobisher could not wrench the traitor's fingers away;and although with his left hand he managed to prevent Hsi from drawingthe knife suspended from his belt, he knew that unless he could releasehimself from that bulldog grip, he must very soon lose consciousness,for already his eyes were beginning to protrude, the dim light of themagazine seemed full of flashing stars and blazing fireworks, and theblood drummed horribly in his ears. Besides, good heavens! there wasthat deadly spark hissing and sputtering its way along the fuse, andunless it was quenched within a minute, the _Ting Yuen_ and her crewwould be flying skyward, a cloud of splintered steel and dismemberedhuman bodies.

  This last thought gave Frobisher back his strength for a moment, andwith a herculean effort he wrenched his throat from Hsi's grip; then,recovering himself quickly, before the Chinaman had his knife more thanhalf-way out of its sheath, he drew back his arm and struck Hsi a mightyblow full on the point of the chin.

  The Prince's neck clicked like a breaking stick, and he was dashedsenseless against the steel walls of the magazine, falling in a tumbledheap upon the floor. Without looking to see whether the man wasunconscious or not, Frobisher dashed at the fuse and trampled itfiercely underfoot until the smouldering spark was entirelyextinguished; then, with a sob of relief, he withdrew its other end froma pile of explosives and tossed it out of the door.

  Then he lifted Hsi on his shoulders, carried him out of the magazine,closing the door after him, and took him to his own cabin, where hedeposited the senseless body in its bunk, afterwards securing thePrince's wrists and ankles firmly with some lengths of rope which heprocured from one of the men. This done, he locked
the door, put thekey in his pocket, and went in search of the admiral, whom he fullyexpected to find dead. At the same moment he heard the _Ting Yuen's_guns again opening overhead, as her temporary commander brought her intoaction once more, and he smiled grimly as he thought that, if Hsi hadhad his way, the shells from those very weapons would at this minutehave been crashing their way through Chinese hulls, instead of beingdirected, as they were, against the Japanese ships.

  Frobisher found Admiral Ting lying on the floor of his cabin, his handslashed behind him, and senseless from a severe cutlass or sword cutacross the forehead. He had evidently been cut down while in theconning-tower, and had been brought to the cabin and there secured andflung down; for the Englishman had noticed a trail of bloodstains on thedeck on his way to Ting's quarters.

  In a very short time he had cut the old gentleman adrift, and after afew drops of brandy had been forced down his throat, Ting quicklyrevived, and gave Frobisher an account of what had occurred.

  It was short, but to the point. Hsi had entered the conning-tower witha drawn sword in his hand, and before the admiral could open his mouththe Prince had ruthlessly cut him down. After that the admiral knew nomore until he awoke to find Frobisher pouring spirit and water down histhroat.

  He was profuse in his thanks to the young Englishman, and, when he hadlearned from the latter all that had happened, promised that he wouldnever forget the brave deed by which he had been rescued from eternalshame and dishonour. Then, despite his wound, which Frobisher roughlybandaged, the plucky old fellow insisted upon going on deck again andtaking charge.

  But when the two men regained the open, what a sight met their horrifiedeyes! The _Kau-ling_, which, although dismantled, had been fightingbravely when Frobisher led his boarders away, had disappeared, and the_Tung-yen_, the engines of which had broken down, had been surrounded byfive Japanese ships, and was even then sinking. The _Yung-chau_, whichhad taken fire early in the fight, was now but an abandoned, charredwreck; and even the gallant _Shan-si_ and _Chen Yuen_, which had donegreat deeds ever since the beginning, were now terribly damaged.Frobisher's own ship, a short distance away, under Drake's ableseamanship was still giving a splendid account of herself, but even she,Frobisher's experienced eye could tell, was very badly mauled.

  In short, of the ten ships which China had possessed that morning fourwere destroyed, one had crept away too seriously damaged to remain inaction, one had gone as convoy to the transports, and the remaining fourwere all badly damaged. As for the torpedo-boats, the Japanesedestroyers and smaller cruisers had made short work of them. Of theseven, three were sunk, one had been captured, two had fled towardWei-hai-wei hotly pursued by a big Japanese destroyer, and only oneremained with the remnant of the Chinese fleet.

  The Japanese had lost only three small cruisers and a destroyer, so thattheir fleet was even now almost as numerous as China's had been at thebeginning of the battle. True, the _Yoshino_ and the _Fuji_ were littlebetter than wrecks, and the other ships had one and all received a verysevere drubbing; but they were still afloat and more or less undercontrol, while their undamaged guns now outnumbered those of the Chineseby about six to one.

  The odds were too heavy. To keep on fighting with the four remainingships against the still powerful Japanese fleet would be simply throwingthose four ships away to no purpose, and shedding China's best bloodwithout avail. If those two battleships and two cruisers could still beretained for China, they would live to fight another day, for with theaddition of the southern squadron, still intact and undamaged, theywould once more make up a powerful fleet; but if they were lost orcaptured now, that would be the end of them, and possibly the end ofChina also.

  Ting realised all this at a glance, and with a bitter groan ordered thesignal to retire to be hoisted--the enemy to be held at bay, ifpossible, while the evolution was being carried out.

  As it was manifestly impossible for Frobisher to rejoin his own ship,owing to lack of boats, he took charge as captain of the _Ting Yuen_ inplace of the traitor prince, confined below, and, in company with theother battleship, the _Chen Yuen_, endeavoured to beat off the Japanesecraft that were manoeuvring to surround the two remaining Chinesecruisers. And so bold a front--or rather, rear--did the four shipspresent that the Japanese before long relinquished the pursuit, notcaring, in view of the success already obtained, to risk losing any moreof their already sadly-battered ships by exposing them to thenow-concentrated fire of the big Chinese ships' eighty-ton guns, theprojectiles from which had already done so much damage.

  They accordingly drew off and gave up the half-hearted chase, employingthe short time still remaining before darkness fell in effecting somevery necessary repairs to their ships; while the broken remnant ofChina's northern squadron pursued its halting way toward Wei-hai-wei,the small torpedo-boat still remaining to them acting as scout inadvance, on the look-out for the Japanese destroyer which, earlier inthe day, had left the action in pursuit of a couple of damaged Chinesetorpedo-boats.

  In the late twilight they fell in with the destroyer on her return fromher unsuccessful pursuit, the two small craft having succeeded ineffecting their escape. She had evidently anticipated a completevictory for her own side, and seeing lights in the distance, had madefor them, thinking that, by this time, every ship would be in Japanesehands; and she did not discover her mistake until she was under theChinese guns. Then she attempted to cut and run; but she was too late.There was a rattle of machine-gun fire which drove her men from the decktorpedo-tubes, and a few seconds later one of the _Chen Yuen's_ big gunsplumped a shell right into her, crumpling her up like cardboard andsending her to the bottom within a few seconds. Some--a very few--ofher men were rescued and made prisoners by the Chinese torpedo-boat, butthe majority, dead or disabled from the effects of the bursting shell,went to feed the sharks.

  Early the following morning, just after daybreak, the four shipsovertook the _San-chau_ and the transport fleet, which circumstancerejoiced Admiral Ting exceedingly, as he had been extremely anxious lestthey might perhaps have fallen in with some prowling Japanese cruisersand been snapped up. Then the war-ships and the transports kept companyuntil they reached Wei-hai-wei, where they found the little _Hat-yen_,but recently arrived in a sinking condition, so that it had beennecessary to beach her immediately to save her from sinking at heranchors.

  Admiral Ting lost no time in docking such of his ships as there was roomfor; the others were run alongside the wharves, to have their gunsreplaced and their upper-works repaired, after which they would, one byone, go into dock as their repaired sisters came out. The admiral thendispatched to Tien-tsin the _San-chau_, the only undamaged war-ship,with an account of the battle; while the torpedo-boat, after a few minorrepairs, was dispatched south with a similar message to AdmiralWong-lih, suggesting that he should bring up the southern fleet, sothat, together, the united squadrons might seek the Japanese fleet andonce more give battle, in an attempt to recover the mastery of the sea,which was of paramount importance to China.