In the Yellow Sea Part 24

The two Chinese, my companions in misfortune, wore b.u.t.tons on their hats. They were perhaps mandarin officers. The b.u.t.tons seemed to me to be of gla.s.s or crystal, and the men were perhaps of moderately high rank. The coral b.u.t.ton is the highest token, and descends to blue and lapis-lazuli, to crystal and gilt b.u.t.tons.

These officers made no reply to the remarks which I supposed were addressed to them, if they understood them. But when we had reached a retired ravine amongst the twisted hills which bound that coast, our captors raised their pistols and evidently demanded money, tearing at our dress, and searching our garments and persons. All this time the Chinese gentlemen submitted to the insults with a truly Christian, or Chinese, patience. But one could discern the flash of the eye and the movement of the face which spoke of the pa.s.sion within. When we had been robbed, we were bound by our ankles and made to stand against the slope of the hill, half-naked, wholly chilled, and dest.i.tute. Verily, between Jack and j.a.p I was having a cheerful season.

My belt and all my money, my "pa.s.s" and badge, which I prized most highly, were confiscated. The Chinese officers were even worse treated--their clothing was appropriated, their rings and distinctions.

All this time no one had taken any trouble about us. Everyone apparently was occupied in fighting or pursuing the fugitives, of whom a number had been taken to the rear.

When the robbers had completed their work, and prevented our escape, they slowly retired to the end of the ravine, covering us with their purloined rifles as they went backward. At times these pleasant gentlemen halted, aimed at us, and again retired, till I began to think they would leave us, bound, to die there of cold and hunger. Then again I fancied they intended to shoot at us as targets, and practise upon us, and this idea was almost confirmed by the way in which they separated into a line; they took up positions apart, and looked to their arms. The suspense was torture!

I looked at my fellow-prisoners of olive complexion, they were perfectly pa.s.sive, and apparently unconcerned by these manoeuvres. But I was not. After the first glance at them I concentrated my gaze upon the robbers, who evidently wished to put us away to the place where no tales can be told. I watched the levelled rifles, I heard a voice say something, I saw five faces laid upon the gun-stocks, and uttering a cry fell flat on my face as a heavy body came hurtling down the ravine and kicked up a furious dust beyond us. The roar and the detonations arose simultaneously. Then more guns, but perhaps blank--at least they did no visible harm; and then, after a while, silence: deadly, thick silence in the solitary ravine near the village on the cliff!

I lay still, half-suffocated, breathing with great difficulty, but quite afraid to move. The sh.e.l.ls had ceased, the "blank shots" had stopped resounding amid the hills, the robbers had fled--for I could not hear them, and the Chinese I knew were habitually silent. But the silence was particularly impressive after the late uproar, and even though I was glad to lie unmolested I began to wish for a change from the death-like silence of the now gloomy ravine. The sun was disappearing into the clouds beyond the farthest hills, and still no one came. I determined to rise. I moved, and felt rather dizzy; perhaps I had been asleep! I sat up. What had happened?

I gazed around me in all directions, unable to comprehend the result of the adventure. The first objects which met my wondering eyes were the five camp-followers lying in all sorts of att.i.tudes, dead and mutilated; their rifles lay at their feet or rested upon the bodies.

They had been instantly killed; and, indeed, partly destroyed.

Turning my head seaward I beheld the ships at a distance, and close by me the Chinese officers resting limp and lifeless against the rocks, wearing the same stolid expression upon their now pale-yellow features, their eyes being nearly closed altogether. Again I asked myself what had happened? What--who--had killed all these men and yet spared me?

My first movement was directed to my feet. I managed to unbind my ankles, and after a while was able to walk steadily. Then, moved by curiosity first--not by compa.s.sion, I regret to say--I advanced cautiously towards the camp-followers, still clad in the leggings and loose blouses, a kind of undress uniform. I went up and stood over them. They were dead, blown to pieces by a sh.e.l.l, I decided; their rifles lying upon their chests, or beside them. But what had killed the Chinese officers, then? They, too, were dead. It was not possible that the sh.e.l.l would have slain them also and left me alone alive!

I took up one of the rifles and examined it. It had been discharged.

Another, and another! Yes, all five were empty! Then the fellows had fired at us as I had antic.i.p.ated. Antic.i.p.ated is the correct expression. I had antic.i.p.ated the discharge by one second, when I beheld the flying body--the sh.e.l.l--in the air dark against the sky and flaming. I had fallen flat: the bullets had struck above me; the fiery message had completed the tragedy of the day.

That was all! By some impulse I had flung myself on my face, no doubt in fear you will say--perhaps. I was very young, and did not wish to pose as a hero when there was no gain in bravado and no dishonour in stooping. I have read of soldiers "ducking" at a cannon-ball, and why is it blameworthy in me--a lad almost--if I winced at the bullet of the a.s.sa.s.sin? At anyrate I didn't see the good of being killed, and I "ducked" to the sh.e.l.l, and to the expected bullets.

What could I do now? Evening was closing in, and to wander amid those hills alone would be to woo death once more. Yet to remain there with the dead was worse. So I took a look at the robbers, and ventured to search the pockets of the leader of the party, from which I took my precious "pa.s.ses" and the money, which were still in my belt. Then, having secured them as before, I quitted the scene of slaughter, and made my way across the darkening hills, thankful to the Providence which had preserved me from a horrible death.

All the night I wandered aimlessly--fancying that I was near the camp and the fires, but finding deep and black ravines between myself and them. At length I gave way, and seating myself in a deserted spot, not without qualms concerning wild animals, and commending myself to Heaven, I slept and dreamed.

My dream figured a kind of Robinson Crusoe incident. The savages were preparing their feast on the desert island, I thought, and were pa.s.sing back and forward in front of the flames. Even in my dream the air "bit shrewdly"--and I shivered and looked on. A vivid dream indeed! I could almost fancy I was awake. I could see the men and the fire, and distinguished dark forms carrying others and throwing them into the flames. My senses were leaving me. Was this a dream or a vision of the fiend's concoction? Was I _mad_? Had my trouble unhinged my mind?

I shut my eyes and tried to think. I pinched myself, and thumped my chest. I was awake! Opening my eyes I sat up. Still the same weird scene: the black mountain glade, the bright, cold sky studded with stars, the great leaping flame surmounted by thick vapour which rose slowly and crawled along the hill inland. What could it be? I lay for a while, and then crept nearer and nearer to attempt to distinguish the actors in this Walpurgis night-drama enacted on the Manchurian Brocken.

Nearer and nearer I came, lying still a while and then proceeding. The actors were _men_: I decided that; but their occupation? I lay and looked.

It seemed to me very astonishing that these funereal figures should be thus occupied in such a stealthy manner in an outlying spot amid the hills. What they were destroying I could not discern, because all the surroundings beyond the glare of the fire were more intensely dark than the atmosphere, but I could see, time after time, that the men carried burdens, and cast them into the flames. Then the fearful reflection came into my mind--

These men, j.a.panese, were thus disposing of their prisoners by torture!

Yet I heard no cries, nor saw any resistance.

Again I crawled nearer, nearer. I was then within the circle of leaping light, and lay as still as possible.

Two men appeared near me. They looked around them, and, horror of horrors! saw me extended upon the coa.r.s.e herbage, my staring eyes reflecting the glare of the flames, no doubt. They at once came towards me, their blackened faces and untidy dress causing them to appear absolutely repulsive. They might have posed, in such surroundings, for fiends incarnate.

Without a word they raised me by shoulders and below the knees; in a careless, rough manner they advanced towards the fire, which was blazing fiercely at a little distance. I could feel the heat of it, but so upset was I, and so perplexed, that I could not utter a sound.

My tongue was a piece of dry stick in my mouth, my lips were parched and cracked, and I was almost in a fever. The whole seemed a horrible nightmare--the fire and smoke, the blackness of the more distant surroundings, the black inquisitors, like the a.s.sistants pictured in ill.u.s.trations of the burnings under Queen Mary, which I had seen in the _Tower of London_--a favourite book of mine. All the accessories were frightful, stupefying, maddening! yet I could utter no complaint, nor was I able to resist my captors.

But fortunately this hypnotic trance did not continue. The smell of oil (petroleum) penetrated my half-conscious brain, and aroused me from my stupor. The oil was blazing in the fire, the receptacles--and bodies, I had fancied them also--were steeped in oil, the pungent smell of which had aroused my faculties. I wriggled in my bearers' hands, and they let me fall suddenly and heavily with some loud exclamations.

Other a.s.sistants in this holocaust came up at this, and all of them chattered and stared, but I understood none of their remarks or exclamations. Left to myself, I rose to my feet, and stood there in the circle as if the victim of some usury game. To my requests for information they only replied in the j.a.panese language,--so far I could understand,--and then again the pa.s.s and badge proclaimed my ident.i.ty.

These relics were pa.s.sed from hand to hand, and I felt what perhaps a custodian of the Bank of England feels when he first sees a lump of uncoined gold pa.s.sing from hand to hand amongst privileged spectators to the door of the vault, and wonders whether the precious sample will return to him. Thus was my attention directed to my credentials. They did come back; and when the men had burned all the bodies and coffins they took me to the camp again.

Then I understood the scene I had witnessed. The j.a.panese habit is to burn the bodies of the dead after an engagement, for sanitary reasons.

The coffins are steeped in oil, and then burned in some remote place, after certain rites performed. I had wandered into this Gehenna, and had been rescued from the fire into which I had been so nearly cast.

When we returned to the camp my ident.i.ty was firmly established. My acquaintance, Hoko, the interpreter, was summoned, and he again const.i.tuted himself my guardian. Well it was that he did, for in twelve hours I was in a high fever. My brain had been overtaxed, and my body so reduced, that recovery seemed almost hopeless, as I afterwards was informed. But the attack was sharp and short. In less than two weeks I was on my legs again, tottering indeed, but useful, and my first question asked of the officer who spoke English was--

"Can I get away from Port Arthur?"

"Perhaps. We have not taken it yet."

"Ah!" I said, "then it is different from what you imagined?"

"No; we have been compelled to await the heavy guns."

"When will they arrive?"

"They are expected immediately. When they are planted we shall a.s.sault the forts and seize the port."

"Has there been fighting?"

"Yes; outposts and pickets have been engaged frequently."

"Is that artillery now? I hear firing."

"Yes; there is another attack developing. We do not fear."

There was a pause, then I asked--

"What day is it, pray?"

"In your calendar it is the twentieth of November."

"The twentieth! Then I have been here ill for thirteen days? How can I ever repay this kindness and care? Most heartily I thank you, sir, and"--

"But say no more, please. I am glad. Farewell."

He hastened away, leaving me overwhelmed with grat.i.tude, and highly appreciative of the courtesy and kindness of the j.a.panese officers both of army and navy.

CHAPTER XVI

PORT ARTHUR--THE Ma.s.sACRE IN THE TOWN--RELEASE

When the j.a.panese officer had retired so modestly from my outburst of grat.i.tude, I made up my mind to see all I could of the affairs of the war, and to reach a place of safety. I soon found that I was premature in this, because, though an engagement was actually taking place then, I had no chance of seeing it. The afternoon was advancing, and, as a matter of fact, the fight lasted in all only a couple of hours altogether--chiefly a matter of artillery.

During the same evening, and part of the night, the rumbling of the heavy guns was audible. These had been actually dragged by bands of coolies across the hill-paths and tracks for two successive days and nights incessantly; and when these fellows, whose pay is infinitesimal, were regaled with little bags of rice and some fish rations, wrapped carefully in paper, they waited in the most disciplined manner patiently, until their turns came. Their dress was not uniform, but here again, I must say, the j.a.panese are wonderfully amenable to discipline in all services.