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Page 23
Again stealing outside, we resumed our perilous way through this city
of dreadful night. We lost no time in turning out of the street where
had occurred the incidents just described, and which seemed in the
track of stragglers moving towards the adjacent Golden Hill fort. We
left it by a very narrow lane abutting at right angles. The other end
of this was blocked by a heap of corpses which we had to climb over.
As I was doing so a hideous groan struck my ear, and the body under my
foot seemed to heave. I started back, and simultaneously the apparent
corpse rose up, a tall, blood-besmeared figure, which stared horribly
upon me for a moment and then, with another loud and horrid groan,
fell prone on his back, his arms widely extended. I lost no time in
scrambling past him after my companions, who had run away, and small
blame to them, for it was like the rising of a corpse suddenly endowed
with volition. Both were by this time in what has been forcibly and
picturesquely described as a "blue funk"; they trembled ceaselessly;
their teeth chattered, and their eyes roved here and there with a
wild, hunted look; every now and then they stopped convulsively,
imagining that they saw or heard something to indicate the proximity
of the ferocious murderers. As for myself, if my outward man were less
open to reproach, my inward condition was nothing much to boast of,
and truly the horrors which continually presented themselves, joined
to the oppressive midnight shadow and stillness which hung over the
place of doom, would have damaged the nerve of a football referee.
We reached the basin through a series of open brick-works, used as
timber stores, on its north side. Everything was darkness and
desertion. The moon was rising far beyond the West Port away in our
front, but it was in the last quarter and afforded little light. There
were very few stars visible. The night had turned piercingly cold, but
so great was my mental anxiety and excitement that I seemed unaffected
in body by the severity of the weather. With the lantern we began to
search about for a boat, at first without success. In a square-shaped
inlet or creek a little above the dockyard we presently came upon
another horrifying spectacle. A junk lay stranded in the shallows. It
was literally full of dead bodies, and many lay on the adjacent shore.
The unfortunates had evidently been pursued down to where the junk
lay, and slaughtered before they could get it off. It struck me that
what we were looking for, a boat, might in all probability be found on
board the fatal vessel. It lay heeled over broadside to the beach, and
I waded out to it through the shallow water. I gained the upper deck
with some difficulty and stood amidst the mass of carnage. Rifle-balls
had done the work of death. Many of the bodies were in army uniforms.
I could find only two boats. One, a mere cockle-shell, had been
perforated by bullets and rendered useless. Another lay inboard on the
quarter-deck, but it was so filled and covered with corpses that at
first I did not notice it. It seemed in fair condition, but the task
of ridding it of its horrible freight was so repugnant that I
returned on shore to resume the search for one elsewhere. It was in
vain, however; all we could find in the vicinity was an old sampan,
which besides being very leaky, was more than three men could manage,
only one of them, moreover, having any knowledge of sailoring. There
was nothing for it but to return to the death-ship. We all went on
board this time, and applied ourselves to the work. The pile of dead
were dragged away, and with considerable labour, and aided by the
careened condition of the junk, we managed to launch the boat, which
had been secured inside the bulwark. It was in a horrid state with
blood, but we were not in a situation to be particular. We found a
quantity of provisions and fresh water--or rather water which had once
been fresh--in the cook-house of the junk.
It must have been after midnight when we shoved off and got afloat.
Neither of my companions were experts with an oar, and could render me
very little aid; moreover, Chinese oars, like Chinese belongings
altogether, are very unlike anything else in the world and need some
practice to use. We were, however, close to the entrance of the port,
which being defended by torpedoes and mines, we ran little risk of
encountering Japanese vessels, although the submarine dangers
threatened us as well, if we strayed from the deep-water channel in
the dark. We got on in safety, though very slowly, and another two
hours had been consumed before we were through.
What to do next I had no fixed idea. One thing, however, was assured,
that it was certain death to stay in Port Arthur, and that our only
chance, slender as it seemed at best, consisted in getting as far away
as possible. I resolved, after some consideration, to hold on south
round the extremity of the Peninsula.
In the seaward forts above us we could discern no signs of activity,
and only a light here and there, far out on the misty expanse of
waters, showed the position of the Japanese war-vessels, which had an
easy job of it as far as Port Arthur was concerned. The weather,
though so bitterly cold, was far from stormy, yet the difficulty of
rowing was increased naturally when we got out into the heavier waters
of the sea. So unpromising in fact did our situation look, that I
began to reflect whether it would not be better to stay about the
mouth of the harbour, and allow ourselves to be taken by some Japanese
ship, than wander off I knew not where, probably in the end to perish
of starvation. Luck decided the point. We had painfully made a couple
of miles from the estuary of the harbour, when we came upon a large
junk stranded on a sand-bank. There were no lights showing on board
her; in the obscurity we could see nobody; yet she did not look like a
wreck, and at first we did not know what to make of it. After a
consultation, it was decided to fire a shot from the rifle and see
what it would lead to. No sooner had the report rung out, than there
was a bustle and stir on the vessel's decks, which appeared suddenly
to swarm with men, and became illuminated by lanterns. I told Chung to
hail. He did so, and a voice replied in Chinese. We drew close
abreast, and my companions held a parley with those on board. Our
situation explained we were permitted to ascend. The junk was full of
men. She had got into her present predicament in escaping, and they
were waiting for the morning flood tide to float her off. Two or three
junks, we were told, had struck torpedoes in leaving the harbour and
been blown in pieces, and many others had fallen into the clutches of
the enemy. Those on board, besides her usual crew, were chiefly
soldiers. With the profound deference paid to rank by the Orientals,
the chief cabin was at once given up to the mandarin, who insisted on
my sharing it with him. He and Chung gave a most glowing account of me
to those on board, to whom, in my remarkable accoutrement, I was an
object of legitimate curiosity.
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