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6 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
had they believed that the Japanese would be
able to storm the strong position. Life had gone
on quite unconcernedly, when suddenly, on the
evening of May 26th, the Mayor of Dalny re-
ceived a telegram ordering him to have the town
evacuated and the inhabitants conveyed to Port
Arthur by four o’clock next morning. Imagine
their feelings, as they had to leave their homes
and all their belongings and hurry to the railway
station in the middle of the night, packed in
crowded cars and taken to the neighbouring
town. In the hurry and confusion little time was
left for making arrangements to prevent their
possessions from falling into the hands of the
detested Japanese. Some probably thought that
the fortunes of war would soon change so that
they could return to their own houses. Nearly
all the public buildings, the large workshops, and
the electric power-house were fired and more or less
ruined by flames ;
the dock and the water-works
were also partially destroyed. What remained
from the fire was looted by the Chinese rabble
left in the place, and by the Hunghutzes. From
their mountain fastnesses the Hunghutzes came
riding into the town on their small wiry ponies,
with old flintlocks or, in some cases, new army
rifles slung over their shoulders, and perhaps
a couple of live chickens dangling from the
pommels of their saddles. With a swagger-
ing gait they walked through the streets ;
they
entered the houses and drank the wine and the
liquors ;
they slept, for the first time in their lives,
on spring mattresses in feather beds ;
they broke
the furniture, and took away with them all they
could carry, and enjoyed, all round, a great old
time. Poor fellows ! I do not blame them.
Life as highway-robbers, even in Manchuria, is
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