Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

by Herbert Strang

  *CHAPTER VIII*

  *Cut Off*

  Secret Service--Yamaguchi Returns--A Quick Change--A Bleak Ride--On theTrail

  For some time Yamaguchi was too intently occupied in navigating thevessel between the Elliott and the Blonde islands to concern himselfwith Bob. But when he was through the strait he left the bridge andwent below to get something to eat. Then for the first time he told Bobwhat his mission was. He had been ordered to survey the coast-line ofKorea Bay as far as the Yalu, to report on the state of the ice, andespecially to examine the condition of things at the mouth of the river.If he could at the same time pick up any information as to thedisposition of the Russian forces along the shore, so much the better;but though he might run any personal hazards, he was on no account torisk his vessel; in war time destroyers cannot easily be replaced.

  "You're fixed up for ten days, you see," he said to Bob. "I'm to be backin that time, and you're bound to remain with me."

  "You'll have to go ashore, I suppose," said Bob.

  "Yes, if I can get through the ice. And I think I can. I've been thisway before; I suppose that's why the admiral selected me for the job.Unless it's because one of our engines is out of action. The iceusually clings to the shore till some time after this, but just beforewe reach Taku-shan there's a spit of land where, by some movement of thecurrents, the ice is sometimes loosened; and if I'm lucky, there'll bepassage-way for a boat, if not for the destroyer herself."

  "I say, you'll let me go with you."

  "Certainly not. I'm already one notch down through not being able toput you on the _Yoshino_, and I can't afford to report you gone forgood."

  "But why shouldn't I go where you go?"

  "Well, for one thing, it's my job and not yours. The admiral has plentyof lieutenants, but only one Bob Fawcett! Besides, why take you intodanger? If the Russians catch me, I'm shot. Well, that's part of mywork; but you--you'd be shot too, and an Englishman is worth--how manyof any other nation?"

  "Too many to count," said Bob smiling.

  "Anyhow, you're twice as heavy as me, and nearly twice as tall; andanother thing, you'd find it hard to pass for a Chinaman."

  "Oh! you're going in for disguises, then."

  "Yes, I shall stick on a pigtail; I won't be caught if I can help it."

  "D'you know, I've an idea. Your mention of a disguise makes me wonderif that Chinaman I saw in Seoul wasn't a Chinaman after all. I saw himbefore at Sasebo with another fellow; there was something about them Iseemed to know. D'you think they were really Japanese I had caughtsight of in Tokio?"

  "It's possible, of course; but I shouldn't jump to conclusions. Theirdisguise must have been pretty feeble if you saw through it after only acasual glimpse in Tokio."

  "Ah! I've a good memory for faces. But let us go on deck, it's sohorribly cold down here."

  By this time the vessel had left the Elliott Islands some ten knots onher port quarter. Looking out in that direction, Bob drew Yamaguchi'sattention to the masts of several vessels that stood up among theislands. The lieutenant smiled, but said nothing. Bob, in spite ofhimself somewhat annoyed at his friend's reticence, formed his ownconclusion: the ships were probably transports landing men or supplieson the islands, or preparing the way for a Japanese army-corps inanticipation of a siege of Port Arthur.

  Keeping well out in the bay, the _Kasumi_ thrashed her way through ahead-sea on a course north-east by east. Darkness came on, and loththough he was to go below and shiver, Bob at length was so tired that hehad to turn in. He spent a by no means comfortable night. It was likesleeping under a blanket of ice. During the hours of darkness, in orderto save coal, the _Kasumi_ went at less than half-speed, and it wasnearing dawn when she arrived off Taku-shan. All that day Yamaguchikept her far out, so that she should not be seen from the shore, whichwas fringed with ice. The wind had dropped, leaving only a long swellon the waters of the bay. At nightfall the _Kasumi_ ran in, carefulsoundings being taken at various points; and Yamaguchi found, as he hadhoped, that the current had kept open a narrow waterway between Takushanand the island of Talu. Announcing his decision to go ashore, he wentto the ward-room, and soon returned, transformed into a very presentableyoung Chinaman, drooping moustache, skull-cap, pigtail, and all. A boatwas lowered, and the lieutenant departed, saying that he would probablyreturn by daylight.

  That was the first of several short expeditions Yamaguchi made at nightto the shore. Bob could never induce him to speak of what he did, butnoticed that he always appeared abundantly satisfied. On all theseoccasions the same plan was followed: Yamaguchi was rowed in thedarkness as near to the shore as the ice-fringe allowed; he finished thedistance on the ice; and the boat returned to the _Kasumi_ until justbefore dawn, when it again went shorewards and brought him off.

  Four days thus passed away, and on the evening of the fourth, when the_Kasumi_ had come opposite the mouth of the Yalu, Yamaguchi told Bobthat he was now going on the last of these night journeys, and hoped, onhis return, to rejoin the fleet and make his report to Admiral Togo.

  "I may be away longer this time," he said.

  "Can't I go? Every time you have been away I have been in a perfectstew lest you shouldn't come back, and I find it all precious slow."

  "Very sorry, but it's impossible."

  "How long do you expect to be away this time?"

  "I can't say, but I have three days' rice stowed away in my pockets. Ihope I shall not be so long as that. You had better amuse yourself byplaying 'go'."

  "But what if the Russian fleet comes up while you're away? For my part,I don't understand a commander leaving his vessel like this."

  "You are not the admiral, you see. I don't think you need trouble aboutthe Russians. The Port Arthur fleet daren't come, and the Vladivostockone probably can't. Good-bye."

  Two days passed away, and by the end of the second Bob was almost tiredof his life; he had played "go" till he went nearly mad. He wanderedall over the vessel, examining for the tenth time every nook and crannyof it, until he felt that he could have drawn plans of its constructionfrom memory. He got one of the gunners who knew something of English toteach him a little Japanese--common phrases like _Nodo gakawakimashita_, "I am thirsty", which to a Japanese is "throat hasdried"; and "I am hungry"--_O naka ga sukimashita_, "honourable insidehas become empty"; and "it is horribly cold"--_O samu gozaimasu_,"honourably cold augustly is", until he wondered whether it would becorrect Japanese to say "I'll augustly punch your honourable head". Buteven such amusement as this palled; and to his own restlessness waspresently added anxiety about Yamaguchi, for whom he felt sincereaffection. At sundown on both evenings the boat went off towards theshore in accordance with the captain's instructions, but on bothoccasions it returned without him. On the third evening, Bob decided toaccompany the boat. The sky was clearer than it had been for manynights past; the moon was rising, and whatever danger there hadpreviously been of the boat being seen from the shore was now more thandoubled. Bob felt anxious, and, as he sat in the bows, peered throughhis glass towards the snow-covered flats and low hills that stretch oneither side of the Yalu estuary.

  The sailors pulled in to the verge of the ice, then lay on their oars.Many minutes passed. The crew waited in silence, and as the moon rosehigher and its rays were reflected from the snow, it became almost aslight as day. The sea heavily lapped the sides of the boat and swishedagainst the jagged edges of the ice; otherwise there was no sound.

  Suddenly, against the white background, a small dark form was seen,apparently rising from the other side of a hillock whose contour wasindistinguishable in the universal white. The object soon defineditself as a small man running, and at headlong pace. Bob stood up insome excitement, wondering whether this was Yamaguchi at last.Immediately afterwards he saw other forms appear upon the crest, and hedrew in his breath sharply as he recognized that these were men onhorseback. They came rapidly over the hillock, and began to
descendtowards the sea after the running figure. Bob raised his glass to hiseyes; yes, the runner was Yamaguchi, and the horsemen wore the fur capsand carried the long lances of Cossacks. It was a race for life!

  The hillock was nearly half a mile away. Between it and the boat lay analmost level stretch of mud flats, covered for many inches byrecently-fallen snow, and fifty yards of ice, now of courseindistinguishable from the land. Could Yamaguchi reach the boat in time?He had the start of his pursuers, but they were mounted, and, as Bob nowsaw, there were eight of them. It was almost impossible that the runnercould escape. Yet it seemed impossible to help him. The seamen in theboat had rifles, but now that pursuers and pursued had descended thedeclivity and come to the flat, a shot, however well aimed, might hitthe man it was intended to assist.

  In one tense moment Bob seemed to live a lifetime. Then, with a cry tothe men to remain where they were--which, not knowing English, theyunderstood rather by the tone than by the words--he sprang over the sideof the boat on to the ridge of ice. It creaked and sank under him, buthe leapt on towards the shore, intent on assisting the flaggingfootsteps of the Japanese, who was evidently near the end of hisendurance. The ice crackled and groaned as Bob raced on. He reachedthe softer snow, and his pace was checked; he heard a shot from one ofthe pursuing Cossacks ring past his ear; he shouted a word ofencouragement to the panting lieutenant, and then, leaping, floundering,staggering over the intervening yards, he caught Yamaguchi by the armand turned to run with him towards the boat, feeling all the time thattheirs was a hopeless case, for the foremost horseman, distancing hiscomrades, was now but a dozen yards away.

  All at once a shot flashed from the boat. Bob heard a strange sobbingsigh behind him. A moment after he felt the impact of a heavy body, hewas thrown violently on his face, and a riderless horse galloped madlyon towards the sea.

  Bob lay for a few moments dazed on the snow. The cold brought him tohis senses. He heard several shots ring out, and lifting his headcautiously he saw four Cossacks galloping on to the ice, and threestanding by the side of their horses, taking aim at the boat acrosstheir saddles. Then came the crack of ice beneath the horses' hoofs;loud cries of distress rose on the air as men and horses floundered inthe water; and a fusillade continued between the dismounted Cossacks onthe shore and the crew of the boat, which was now being rapidly pulledout to sea. Bob saw his opportunity; it might last but a moment, he hadno time to lose. Rising to his feet, still dizzy from the blow, he sawa few feet behind him the outstretched body of the dead Cossack; hishorse had returned and was now standing patiently by his side. Hestooped down, quickly relieved the Cossack of his cap, cloak, and arms;then, going quietly to the animal, he sprang upon its back, saw at aside-glance that the surviving Cossacks were still occupied, andtouching the horse with his heel, trotted away southward on a lineparallel with the coast, towards a clump of trees looming black againstthe moonlit sky more than half a mile away.

  Having arrived there, and being out of sight from the scene of his lateadventure, he pulled up to consider his position. Yamaguchi, he hoped,was by this time well on his way to the _Kasumi_; if only he himselfcould remain in hiding until the morning, and the vessel were stilllying off the mouth of the river, it might be possible then to get onboard. All depended on whether the Cossacks who had survived the fraywould notice his disappearance, and the fact that their dead comrade hadbeen despoiled. That they would not do so was in both cases veryunlikely. His only chance, therefore, would be to make his waysouthward, in the hope of coming upon the outposts of one of theJapanese forces which he knew had been landed in the country. Thatcourse would be attended with considerable danger. News of the recentincident was bound to bring a larger force of Cossacks upon the scene;parties of Russians would soon be scouring the country, not only todiscover traces of the fugitive, but to keep an eye open for the torpedoboat destroyer. It was well-known on the Japanese fleet that Cossackswere employed to ride up and down the coast and signal the approach ofhostile vessels, and these would scarcely fail to note and follow up thetracks of his horse in the snow.

  "This is a precious fix to be in," he thought; and the more he reflectedthe more awkward his position appeared. The chance of getting in touchwith the _Kasumi_ was very remote, for if he emerged from hiding andwent down to the shore he could scarcely hope to escape discovery byRussian patrols. On the other hand, if he hid during the day he wouldnot be seen from the destroyer. Besides, the _Kasumi_ was due to rejointhe fleet; and though he knew that Yamaguchi, if a free agent, would doanything to serve him, he knew also that, with a Japanese, duty cameinexorably first, and it was vain to expect Yamaguchi to cruise aboutindefinitely on the chance of picking him up. Supposing he left hidingand rode towards the south, there seemed little likelihood of hisreaching the Japanese lines. Their outposts were probably not less thana hundred miles away. Between them and him many detached parties ofRussians were no doubt patrolling the country. Even if he escaped theRussians he might fall into the hands of the Koreans, and that wouldperhaps prove a case of out of the frying-pan into the fire. Much asthe Koreans hated the Japanese, by all accounts they hated the Russiansstill more; and being mounted on a Cossack's horse, and wearing Cossackuniform, knowing, moreover, nothing of the Korean language, he wouldhave short shrift if he stumbled among the natives. Yet anotherconsideration. Both he and his horse must have food. A bundle of haywas tied to the latter, sufficient perhaps for one feed; and onrummaging in the saddle-bags he found a little black rye bread and aflask of vodka. But this was very precarious sustenance, and he wouldbe forced under stress of hunger to enter a village within twenty-fourhours at the latest.

  Of all the dangers besetting him the prospect of being followed up bythe Cossacks of Yongampo was the most immediate, and Bob shut his eyesto the other contingencies in order to provide against this. Obviouslythe farther he got from the scene of the fight the better. He rodecarefully through the clump of bare trees southward, and, emerging intothe open, set his horse at a sharp trot. The ground was covered withsnow to a depth of several feet, and as the horse's feet sank into itslightly, he concluded that the frost was yielding. Guiding himself bythe sound of the waves lapping against the ice on the shore, whichcreaked and groaned, and now and again broke with a sharp report, hestruck along the coast in the direction, as he believed, of Seng-cheng.The Cossack's deep saddle was very comfortable, but he wished that thestirrups were lower: his knees were a good deal nearer his nose than hewas accustomed to.

  The moon was going down, but there was still sufficient light to showthat, except for a few scattered clumps of wood, the country was veryopen, and he knew that in the daytime he could be seen for miles. As herode, he therefore looked eagerly about in search of some hiding-placewhere he might spend the rest of the night in tolerable security. Aftersome three or four miles he found that the country was becomingincreasingly difficult. On his left the irregular hills rose more andmore steeply, and he was forced more and more towards the ice. Warned byhis recent experience of the Cossacks, he edged away until he reached atlength the summit of a slope some distance above the sea. Great banksof cloud were looming up across the sea; the wind was rising, and theair had that incisive rawness that portends snow. To be caught in asnowstorm in this bleak latitude would be a calamity, and Bob lookedmore anxiously around for shelter.

  Some distance above him he saw, outlined against a clear patch of skynot yet reached by the clouds, a large dark building, which from itssize he thought must be a place of some importance. It was in shapeunlike anything he had previously seen. As he looked towards it, hecaught sight of the last horn of the moon apparently in the very centreof the building. Evidently the place was a ruin. Whatever hesitationBob might have had in approaching an inhabited dwelling-housedisappeared; he made his way towards it with some difficulty, the horsefloundering through drifts which more than once threatened to engulfhim. Arriving at the building, Bob found that it was the ruin of alarge stone pagoda, probably at one
time part of a monastery. The windhowled eerily through its dilapidated walls, but it provided shelter ofa sort; and, what was more important, being situated on a slighteminence it would give him a good outlook in the morning, not only faracross the sea, but also landward towards the mouth of the Yalu. Inthis lonely place, then, Bob determined to pass the remainder of thenight.

  His first care was to rub down his horse; then he gave it half thebundle of hay. Then he unstrapped one of the blankets from the saddleand proceeded to make himself as comfortable as possible. He swalloweda few mouthfuls of the bitter bread, took one sip (more than sufficient)of the burning vodka, and being tired out soon dropped into an uneasysleep, from which, with the instinct of one accustomed to early rising,he awoke at the first pale glint of dawn. Rising stiffly to his feet,he again fed the horse, ate a little bread, and went outside to lookround.

  Northwards, in the direction from which he had come the previous night,he could see with the naked eye for several miles across the snow; andthrough his glass, which he had luckily brought with him, he descriedwhat was evidently a small town--no doubt Yongampo. Over the wholewhite stretch intervening there was no sign of life. Looking thenseaward, he saw a leaden sky, white-crested waves lashed by the highwind and breaking in angry foam on the ice--nothing more. There was nota speck on the sea. The _Kasumi_ had left him to his fate.

  "And I dare say Yamaguchi is even more sorry than I am," he thought.

  Then he turned again to the land and swept the horizon with his glass.What is that? In the far distance, towards Yongampo, he discerns twodark specks. He gazes intently, his hands so numbed with cold that hecan scarcely hold the glass steadily. The specks are growing larger.Both are approaching him, one coming southward in a straight line, theother making a trend somewhat to his right. For some minutes he gazesat them; the specks become masses, and gradually define themselves asbodies of horsemen. Doubtless they are Cossacks; it is time to be upand away.