Amid such scenes in the docks next day the field-marshal presided at a grand luncheon, where hundreds of officers attended, and numerous newspaper correspondents assisted, and drank the health of the Emperor of Japan. Whom of those hundreds who stood at the long tables spread in the dockyard, and feasted upon potted and tinned food, thought of the massacred Chinese? Even then, perhaps, dark and silent murder was being done while the bands played stirring airs, and officers congratulated each other upon their own successes while the curses of the dying natives were heaped upon the savage soldiery.
"Find me a way from this fearful place," I begged at last, when I had vainly sought escape by boat. "Is there no junk, no vessel, in the bay which will shelter me and carry me to Chefoo?"
My despairing appeal was carried to the ears of the officer who had already befriended me. He came towards the ruined inn, where I was resting, and inquired what I wanted.
"Means to leave this horrible place," I said briefly. "The Naniwa is in the harbour. Cannot you manage to communicate with your brother? He may assist me to reach the opposite shore."
"Is that all? Why, there are several British vessels in the gulf." He then quickly said a few words to my companions in their own tongue, and left me. I am glad to think that he and some other officers had been staying the massacre of the night. "I will follow you," he added. "Wait beyond."
As we made our way through the narrow streets westward to the Port, the natural harbour, the sights were beyond description. Even there dead lay in the streets and shops, which, still hung with the Chinese signs and open as in a fair-ground, were wrecked and dabbled with blood. Fortunately the weather was cold, and when we reached the harbour, or West Port, the soldiers were dragging dead bodies from the water, where they lay thickly.[[1]] Men, women, and children had been hunted down and slain in the water. The few junks on shore were also filled with dead bodies of fugitives and crews.
[[1]] Should any reader need evidence of these days let him see the illustrated papers of the time.
My interpreter shook his head. He could do nothing. Remembering his former conduct, I began to fear that he had some sinister object in his mind's eye. I asked him what I should do, and then as he paused in his reply, I demanded why he had robbed me before. My fears were then allayed, because I saw the Japanese officer, Tomi's brother, approaching. But the interpreter remained perfectly calm to all appearance. He merely deprecated any reference to such an unpleasant incident, by a shrug of the shoulders, and an appealing movement of his hands.
"Then you intended to destroy me!" I exclaimed. "What do you propose now? May I ask you, sir, to question this man about his conduct while in my society, when, as I have told you, I was robbed by him and left alone to find my way across the isthmus."
The interpreter's nimble tongue was at a loss for once. He could not advance any excuse.