Meanwhile, additional details of the intital attack on Port Arthur came to light. It developed that the Japanese torpedo boats effected an entrance that Monday night into the outer harbor of Port Arthur by using Russian signal flashlights. Consequently the Russians did not fire.

Out of the four Japanese torpedo boats which made the first attack, three were sunk with great loss of life. The fourth was a twenty-eight knot boat and escaped. Two Japanese officers and eighteen men swam ashore from one of the sunken torpedo boats and was placed in prison in Port Arthur.

The battleship Pallada was on the outside edge of the Russian fleet and on lookout duty that night. The chief artillery officer noticed four torpedo boats approach, with full lights, in all respects looking like Russian torpedo boats. He informed the captain that they were Japanese vessels.

The captain denied this and said they were built in Port Arthur. The artillery officer insisted, and the captain got angry, saying:

"I am in command of this ship, sir."

Despite this, the artillery officer gave orders to prepare for action. Immediately after the Japanese launched a torpedo, but the Pallada was able to retaliate instantly, and the other Russian ships at once cleared for action.

RUSSIAN TRANSPORT ACCIDENTALLY DESTROYED.

That Russia was not entirely asleep was demonstrated by the activity with which her harbors were mined with powerful explosives. The awful potency of these engines of war was soon demonstrated to Russia's grief. Through some freak of ill-fortune, that seemed to be the lot of the great white bear in the opening stages of the war, the Russian torpedo transport Yenisei was blown up as the result of accidentally striking a mine at Port Arthur, on the third day of the war. Yenisei sank and Capt. Stepanoff, three officers, and ninety-one men were lost.

The

The Yenisei was built in the Baltic works. It had a displacement of 2,500 tons and carried an armament of five twelve-pounders and six three-pounders, quick firing guns. The vessel was 300 feet long, 40 feet beam, and drew 14 feet 6 inches.

BLUNDERS! BLUNDERS! MORE BLUNDERS!

At this stage of the proceedings, a British steamer was fired upon by mistake by the Russians at Port Arthur, and an American vessel was held. Apologies followed and the American ship was released during a temporary withdrawal of the Japanese fleet.

CHAPTER IV.

PREPARATIONS FOR LAND BATTLES.

Russians 300,000 Strong-First 30,000 of 300,000 Japs-Thoughts Turn to Dynamite -War's Frightful Cost-Stories of Russian Brutality-Freeze and Drown in Arctic Waters-"The Weak Link"-Treason in the Ranks?

I

'T became apparent that the Japanese attacks were intended to cover the mobilization of a vast army in Korea for the purpose of overrunning Manchuria. Immediately the Czar ordered an army of 600,000 men to be in readiness to resist the invasion of Manchuria by the Mikado's troops. The ukase, dated Feb. 10, ordered all troops in the military district of Siberia to be placed in readiness for war, that all divisions in the far eastern viceroyalty be brought up to war strength, and that the army and navy reserves of the Siberian and Kazan districts be called to the colors. The military authorities were empowered to make requisition for the necessary horses.

RUSSIANS 300,000 STRONG.

There were six army corps in the far East, two each in the districts of Kazan, Siberia and Amur. Each army corps was made up of 1,030 officers, 47,653 men, 16,965 horses, and 124 guns. The total strength of the six corps called into active service by the Czar thus approximated 300,000 men. The army reserves in the same districts practically doubled the force. Then followed rapid concentration of the Czar's forces on the Yalu river, the boundary between Manchuria and Korea.

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Fighting along the river began on Feb. 13, when a general engagement took place on land and sea.

The significance of these moves was an effort to cut the railroad and telegraphic communication with Port Arthur.

PORT ARTHUR STILL UNDER FIRE.

Throughout an almost continuous bombardment was kept up at Port Arthur. The Russian cruiser Askold, torpedoed during the initial assault on the Russian fleet, was kept afloat until Feb. 14, when she sank in thirty fathoms of water.

FIRST 30,000 OF 300,000 JAPS.

On Feb. 15, one week after the first shot had been exchanged, nearly 30,000 Japanese troops were landed at Chemulpo-the first division of a large number designed to be thrown into Korea as rapidly as possible, in the effort thoroughly to occupy the strategic points in the hermit kingdom while the Russian fleet was bottled up in Port Arthur.

Then frank announcement was made that the repeated attacks on Port Arthur were not for the purpose of seizing that place at once, unless an unexpected weakness in the fortifications there developed. They were part of a well-defined plan for the harassing of the Russian fleet until Korea could be occupied. The bottling up of the fleet there enabled the landing of troops on Korea without the convoy of a large number of warships. The reports of disorder in various parts of Korea hastened the operations of the Japanese that they might obtain possession before anarchy became prevalent and foreign interests menaced in consequence, bringing on greater possibility of further international complications.

Reports of the sinking of a Japanese transport with 1,800 soldiers on board came with the following day, and the efforts of that portion of the Japanese fleet which was lying in wait for the Russian colliers on their way from Europe to Port Arthur with fuel for the Czar's squadron, were rewarded by the capture of six Norwegian vessels, all coal laden.

More than 100,000 tons was on the way to the far East from Europe, and the Mikado's naval officers were given orders to capture as many of the collier fleet as possible.

Fifteen warships destroyed and eight captured was the record of the Japanese navy up to this time, according to reports the government of Japan made public.

The mobilization of the Japanese army had been carried out methodically. Fully 300,000 troops were now ready to be placed in the field without impairing the national defenses. The movements of the troops were shrouded in secrecy. They were moved at night toward their bases at Sasebo, Kure, Miji and Yokusuka, and the lights of ordinary trains were extinguished when in the neighborhood of troop trains.

Members of the reserve force immediately stepped into the places of the outgoing regulars. Their organization was perfect and a full equipment ready for each one of the reserves.

Hundreds of hotels, tea houses and temples were requisitioned, in Tokyo and other divisional centers. All the steamers of Japanese merchant liners were rapidly converted into auxiliary cruisers, armed with quick-firing guns and fitted with torpedo tubes.

The government officials refused to give out any information regarding their military intentions. They expected to profit by dissensions in the Russians' council of state. They believed that the extraordinary powers conferred on Viceroy Alexieff would lead to a clash between Foreign Minister Lamsdorf and Gen. Kuropatkin, especially as the general is unfriendly to Aliexeff. The result of a disagreement between these two Russian leaders would be to their advantage.

Japanese officials felt convinced that the Russians would be unable to concentrate and maintain 50,000 troops at any important point of military operations.

THOUGHTS TURN TO DYNAMITE.

Popular gossip in Japan turned on the possible dynamiting of the Russian railroad in Manchuria. Thousands of Japanese who were practically undistinguishable from Chinese were working in Man