"A battleship, and she is trying to escape up the coast!"

"To the boats!" roared the j.a.panese officer on the deck of the brig. "To the boats at once! This investigation will have to be postponed. We shall expect you to remain as you are"--the latter words to the captain of the big brig.

"As you will," was the smooth answer.

A rush was made for the two small boats, Larry and Luke being hustled along with the crowd. Soon they put off for the warship, which was already preparing to follow the Russian battleship that had been seen.

"I didn't get my money, after all," grumbled the youth. "But perhaps I'll get it later--if that ship of the enemy doesn't sink us," he added.

As soon as they were on board of the _Shohirika_ again, the cruiser started after the battleship. But the enemy had a good lead, and it was some time before the j.a.panese warship could command a full head of steam, which meant everything to her. Then, when steam was to be had in plenty, there came a breakdown in the engine room, causing a delay of twenty minutes.

"We'll never catch her,--at least, not to-day," said Luke, and he was right. Darkness found the battleship still three miles away. Half a dozen shots were fired at her, but none took effect. Then night ended the pursuit.

In the morning nothing was to be seen of the enemy and those on the j.a.panese warship were much depressed, for they had fancied that an encounter might add greatly to their laurels. But shortly before noon the lookout announced the approach of another ship.

"A Russian cruiser!" was the cry.

This was correct--the vessel was the auxiliary cruiser, _Pontomuk_, formerly a steamer in the Siberian trade. She was manned by a fierce and swarthy-looking body of sailors and marines, and carried a first and second battery of no mean proportions.

"I'll wager we have got some work cut out for us now," said Larry, and he was right. Finding she could not run away from the _Shohirika_ the Russian auxiliary cruiser came steaming up and let drive at close range,--a broadside that raked the j.a.panese warship from end to end with deadly effect. The _Shohirika_ answered immediately, and both the steering wheel and the rudder were smashed on the enemy's ship.

"Phew! but this is hot work!" panted Larry, as all those around the gun worked like Trojans.

"An' it's going to be hotter!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Luke. He sighted the piece with care. "There, Sally Jane, let her go!" And he pressed the electric b.u.t.ton. _Bang!_ went the gun with a roar that was deafening. Then the breech was thrown open and the smoke rolled out, filling the air with a smell that made them cough and sneeze. But n.o.body stopped work. In a trice the gun was cleaned and cooled and another sh.e.l.l pushed into place, and then the firing was repeated.

"She's coming alongside!" was the announcement from on deck. "All hands to repel boarders!"

"A hand-to-hand fight!" cried Larry, and scarcely had the words been uttered when there came a b.u.mp that hurled half the sailors flat. Up they sprang, and as order after order was delivered the marines and others ran for their guns and cutla.s.ses, while the officers saw to it that their pistols were ready for use.

A wild, maddening yell came from the deck of the Russian ship, as marines and sailors poured over the side. An answering _Banzai_ issued from the j.a.panese, and they met the first onslaught with vigor. Then came a fierce tramping over the deck, as the two conflicting parties moved first to one side and then the other.

"We are ordered up!" cried Larry, a few minutes later. "Here is where we have got to fight for it, Luke!"

"Right you are, lad. Do your best, and trust to Heaven for the rest!"

was the Yankee tar's reply. And then, cutla.s.ses in hand, both mounted to the deck, to engage in the fiercest hand-to-hand encounter either of them had ever experienced.

CHAPTER x.x.xI

A CALL TO REPEL BOARDERS

It was a battle royal from the start and for some time neither side had an advantage. Pistol shot was met by pistol shot, and a rifle gun placed on the upper deck of the Russian warship was balanced in execution by a similar gun mounted on the _Shohirika_. The slaughter created by both weapons was frightful, a dozen or more going down on either side each time a gun was discharged.

When Larry and Luke came out on desk the spectacle was enough to make the blood of the youth run cold, and it was only his previous experience in warfare which rendered him capable of doing what he knew was his duty.

"Charge on them!" came the cry in j.a.panese. "Kill them, or drive them back to their ship! _Banzai!_"

"_Banzai! Banzai Nippon!_" was the yell. "Hurrah for j.a.pan!"

The j.a.panese had not expected a hand-to-hand fight and the closing in of the enemy aroused them as they had never been aroused before. For the first time Larry saw the sailors and marines awakened to their full fighting fury--a fury in which every j.a.panese scorns death and thinks that to die is glory for himself, his family, and his emperor. They leaped on the Russians with a ferocity that was appalling, and that first shock sent the Czar's men back to the deck from which they had come.

But the Russians were likewise aroused, and with cheers and yells they came on once more, leaping over the bodies of those who had fallen, and meeting shot with shot and cutla.s.s stroke with cutla.s.s stroke. Officers and men fought side by side, and many went down to a common death.

By instinct Larry and Luke kept close together, with the others from Luke's gun near at hand, and Steve Colton and Bob Stanford not far away.

Each used his cutla.s.s as best he could, warding off the blows of the enemy and dealing cuts whenever a chance appeared. Larry was glad that he had learned to use a cutla.s.s so well, and soon found himself the match of almost any Russian who challenged him.

The fighting was now spread over the decks of both vessels, which were hooked together tightly and pounding broadside at every swell of the ocean. To attempt to blow up either ship would have been fatal probably to both--one dragging down the other--so no such attempt was made.

While the fighting was at its height, Larry suddenly found himself face to face with a Russian lieutenant of marines. The fellow had a pistol in his hand, and as Larry raised his cutla.s.s to strike, he dropped the weapon on a level with the youth's head and pulled the trigger.

Had the bullet sped as intended it is likely Larry would have been killed. But just as the trigger fell, Luke, who was at Larry's side, knocked the pistol to one side with his cutla.s.s and the bullet merely grazed Larry's hair. Then Larry leaped forward and gave the Russian lieutenant a thrust in the side which put the fellow out of the fight instantly.

For fully fifteen minutes the battle had now raged and it was growing hotter each instant. All of the available men on each ship were in the fray, and the cries and yells which resounded were deafening.

"We certainly can't keep this fight up much longer!" panted Larry. He had a cut on his left hand and one in the shoulder, but kept on with dogged determination.

"Well, we ain't goin' to surrender!" grunted Luke. "It's fight or die, I guess!" And he leaped forward once more.

Two tall Russians were directly in front of the old Yankee gunner, and both fell upon him with their cutla.s.ses at the same instant. Luke was capable of warding off the weapon of one, but he was no match for the pair, and it speedily looked as if they would surely kill him.

"Back with ye!" he yelled, and swung his cutla.s.s as rapidly as he could, but they crowded him still closer and then one made a thrust at his face and another at his body.

It was at this critical moment that Larry, who had been engaged with somebody else, saw his old war chum's predicament. With a leap he gained Luke's side, and down came his cutla.s.s with a sweeping blow on the wrist of one of the enemy. The Russian dropped his cutla.s.s to the deck and staggered back, his hand almost severed from his arm. Then Luke slashed the other Russian across the cheek, and both of the enemy hurried back behind the other fighters.

"Good fer you, Larry!" panted Luke, when he could speak. "They had me about cornered!"

"These fellows certainly know how to put up a stiff fight."

"You're wounded yourself. Better go below."

"No, I'm going to see it out. Why don't you go down yourself?"

"It ain't in me, thet's why," answered the old Yankee gunner.

Again came a fierce onslaught from the Russians. But the j.a.panese now had another rifle gun in place, and sharpshooters were crowding the fighting tops. The latter picked off the Russian officers, and this created a momentary confusion. Then came a sudden order to unlock the two ships and this was done.

"The Russian ship is going down!" was the yell, and the news proved true. An explosion below decks had torn a hole in the Russian warship's bottom and she began to sink rapidly.

The scene was now indescribable. Both the Russians and the j.a.panese on the doomed vessel endeavored to reach the deck of the _Shohirika_. In this struggle the majority of the Russians received the worst of it, and fully fifty of them, including not a few wounded, remained on board when the doomed warship took her final plunge beneath the waters of the sea.

Eighteen j.a.panese were likewise drowned, including two under officers.

"Surrender, or we will drive you over the side!" was the command from the j.a.panese, and utterly disheartened by the loss of their ship, the Russians threw down their arms; and the fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y contest was at an end. The common sailors were driven forward and chained together or bound with ropes, and the officers were grouped near the stern, where a formal surrender was made by the captain of the lost ship giving up his sword. This formality over, the j.a.panese set to work at once, cleaning up the deck and caring for the wounded as well as the hospital accommodations of the _Shohirika_ would permit.

"I never wish to see another fight like that," was Larry's comment, when he had washed up and had his wounds dressed. "It was simply a slaughter!"

"Right you are, lad," answered Luke. "An' I reckon I'm a-goin' to carry the scars o' it down to my grave." The old Yankee gunner had received several severe wounds, and he was glad enough to have Larry swing his hammock for him and lie down to rest.