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84 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
fire away to the right. Now, when we heard
rifles going, we were always on the qui vive. The
guns might roar like thunder without our paying
much attention, but when the rattle of rifle-fire
began to join in the chorus, we knew that some
move was contemplated, and we became all ears
and attention. We forgot all about the excellent
argument we were going to bring against the
other man when he stopped talking ;
we even
forgot our feud wdth the mosquitoes, and we
strained our ears.
But our attention was soon drawn in another
direction. Right to the south of us, apparently
behind the Panlung forts, other infantry began to
open fire. The sound increased rapidly in force
and in vehemence, machine guns began to beat
their devil’s tattoo, and the rat-a-tat of the pom-
poms joined in the hub-bub, making it pretty clear
that this was to be a serious thing. And there
were other indications. New searchlights began
to flash from the Russians’ lines—increasing to
the number of seven in the course of the night
and star-shells were sent up in rapid succession all
over the field of operations.
We did not know as yet whether this was a
Japanese assault or a Russian sortie ;
but we were
not long kept in ignorance. We could not see
anything of the moving troops, of course, but the
searchlights and the star-shells showed us where
the fighting was taking place, and the din of the
battle, which increased not only in volume but also
in force and loudness, told us that the fighting
was drawing nearer and nearer in our direction,—it
was a Russian counter attack ;
General Stoessel
was carrying out his plans.
Moving noiselessly along the roads by which
they could approach unseen quite near to where
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