chapter page
[I.] Larry and His Friends1
[II.] A Storm on the Pacific10
[III.] Larry Learns Something20
[IV.] The Russian Sailor's Plot29
[V.] Signs of a Mutiny38
[VI.] The Fight for the Ship47
[VII.] The Mutineers in Possession56
[VIII.] Turning the Tables66
[IX.] Close to a Waterspout76
[X.] Something about War and Fighting Ships 86
[XI.] An Order to Lay-to95
[XII.] Taken as a Prize of War103
[XIII.] Prisoners on the Pocastra 113
[XIV.] Progress of the War122
[XV.] A Sharp Naval Battle132
[XVI.] Aboard a Japanese Warship140
[XVII.] The Retaking of the Columbia 148
[XVIII.] A Clever Ruse156
[XIX.] The Disappearance of the Enemy164
[XX.] Larry before Admiral Togo171
[XXI.] Letters of Interest180
[XXII.] A Meeting and a Plot189
[XXIII.] The Attack in the Dark198
[XXIV.] The Defense of the Powder Train206
[XXV.] Bombarding a Port Arthur Fort215
[XXVI.] Ben Meets Captain Barusky223
[XXVII.] A Fierce Battle at Sea232
[XXVIII.] The Siege of Port Arthur240
[XXIX.] From One Difficulty to Another248
[XXX.] A Surprise for Larry258
[XXXI.] A Call to Repel Boarders266
[XXXII.] Fall of Port Arthur—Conclusion274

AT THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR

AT THE FALL OF PORT
ARTHUR

[CHAPTER I]

LARRY AND HIS FRIENDS

"Unless I miss my guess, Luke, we are going to have a storm."

"Jest what I was thinking, Larry. And when it comes I allow as how it will be putty heavy," replied Luke Striker, casting an eye to the westward, where a small dark cloud was beginning to show above the horizon.

"Well, we can't expect fine weather all the time," went on Larry Russell, inspecting the cloud with equal interest. "We want some wind anyway," he added. "We are not making this return trip to Nagasaki nearly as fast as we made the trip to Manila."

Luke Striker, a bronzed and weather-beaten Yankee sailor, rubbed his chin reflectively. "I was jest thinking o' the day I spied the old Columbia in Manila harbor," he said, meditatively. "Tell ye, Larry, the sight 'most struck me dumb. 'The Columbia,' sez I to myself. An' then I thought I must be a-dreamin'. I wanted to find this ship ag'in in the worst way."

"The ship certainly seems like a home to me, Luke—and I reckon she always will seem that way. I've traveled a good many miles in her, since I first struck her at Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands," responded Larry Russell.