ulary to meet the case, the little lieutenant rescued the sheet with his right hand and brought the boat up to the wind again himself, while with his left he belaboured the steersman. They had to make a considerable detour before they could get round the obstacle in front of them, but once they were clear they found that they were half a mile away from the junk, the sight of which had so agitated the Korean. As a rule, in these waters fishermen do not carry arms, and the first thing the lieutenant made out, when he got a clear sight of the strange craft, was the glint of the morning sun on rifles. Had a Japanese boat's crew ever had such luck before? and the little officer smiled all over his face as he communicated the joyful tidings to his men-here indeed was a situation; a primitive sea fight on the racing waters of the Yalu. The Korean steersman saw the glint of the rifles at the same moment; the sight did not fill him with similar enthusiasm, and he settled all doubt that had hitherto possessed him as to the safety of the mission by abandoning the tiller and jumping overboard. For a moment the thought of the death penalty flashed across the little lieutenant's mind, and his hand instinctively closed on the butt of his revolver; but he had no use for cowards, dead or alive, so with a loud laugh he himself took the tiller, and, pulling the sheet taut, bore down upon the Russian junk.

Nor were the Russians refusing. If they had had any mis

givings as to the identity of the Japanese boat, these were dispelled as one of the bluejackets rove on to the halyards the emblem of the rising sun, so that it fluttered out above the lateen sail. The rival commanders must have given the ranges to their men simultaneously, for the smack of the small-bore rifles of both parties burst out together. The Russians stood off a couple of points so as to bring more rifles to bear. The range was now 500 yards. The Russian shots whizzed overhead, sang through the rigging, ripped tiny holes in the sail, and splintered the planks of the forward whaleback. The Japanese anese answered deliberately; the little lieutenant, with his foot on the tiller, the sheet in his right hand, and his glasses in his left, directed the fire. Fifteen minutes of this, and suddenly the sail of the Russian junk went aback, round came her ponderous prow. She had had enough. The breeze again caught her great sail, and she headed up with the tide. The lieutenant reduced his firing strength by two as he ordered two bluejackets to man the junk's sweep: himself, he never moved either his foot from the tiller or his hand from the sheet, even though a bullet carried the glasses out of his left hand and scored a great sear in his forearm: he was going to have that junk, or perish in the attempt. The Russian commander evidently thought so too, for he only stood upon his new course long enough to see that the smaller vessel was

overhauling him, when he put his helm over and ran the boat for a sandbank. In three minutes she was aground, and her crew of nine soldiers wading to the shore. This gave the Japanese bluejackets their opportunity. Up they jumped and let their magazines do their best. The water round the Russians became as agitated as the surface of a pond in a hailstorm. But the men made good their passage to the shore, and, opening out, doubled to the summit of the dune. The lieutenant brought his boat up alongside the abandoned junk, and as his men made it fast they found in the corpses of two Russians the evidence of their good shooting; but they had not time to apprise the value of their capture, for it was up and into the water in pursuit. By this time the Russians had taken up a position to prevent a landing, and as the bluejackets waded to the

sandbank they in their turn suffered the ordeal of a concentrated fire. But they made the shore, and were advancing to the attack when suddenly they descried two more junks bearing down upon them from round the end of the bank. There is a limit to the odds which even a junior naval lieutenant dare encounter, so the youth doubled his men back and pushed both the junks off: at least, if he could not complete his skirmish, he would carry off the spoils of war. Loyally his men answered to his call-they fixed a tow-line and manned the sweeps, but it was no good; the two junks could not make sufficient headway against the tide, and he found the reinforcements rapidly overhauling him. There was nothing for it but to cast off, and then, with four men at the sweeps and two men firing, he beat his way under the cover of the first friendly sandbank.

fully; "I shall have to go to work like a common coolie, for we have not the money for me to continue my education." The maid made no comment to this statement, and the boy continued to pour out his troubles. "It is very, very hard," he said, "that I should have come from a family of princes, and have now to do menial work in order that I may live,- perhaps even be obliged to serve foreigners in some low capacity, and profess myself obedient to people whom

I despise. To think of it, O'Teru San! from to-morrow I shall go to the College no more, and from the next day will be apprenticed to an artisan. I, who was to go next year to the military school, in order, as befits one of my station, to become an officer; and now, just because my father has speculated badly in some Western enterprise, I must give up all thought of the future and live in the present -a coolie!"

The youth cast himself over on his side, and although his companion did not look up, yet she knew that his brown eyes had filled with tears. There was a brief silence, during which Teru San was making up her mind. Although to our Western ideas she was but a child, yet here in the East those whom we would still opine children have, in their teens, reached a mental balance which we call maturity. The cruel fate which seemed about to ruin her companion's ambitions hurt her as deeply as if a bann had been placed upon herself. She also had her own ambitions. But her hopes for the future were bound up in the success or failure of this youthful student who had been in her life ever since she could remember. Personally, also, she did not wish to be the wife of a carpenter or a 'rickshaw coolie.

"Is there no way?" she said; "will not your relations do something for you?" She turned and put her hand upon the shoulder of the prostrate student. He shook his head mourn

The evening was half-way through, and the young men, grouped in easy attitudes around the room, were satiated with the ordinary efforts at female dancing. "Where is O'Teru San? somebody shouted; others took up the cry and clapped their hands. A screen at the far end of the room was pushed aside; the little frail figure appeared in the opening. It was Teru San. She fell to her knees and bowed to the ground, as is the etiquette on such occasions. Then she stood up in all her glory of gold and grey. A perfect round of applause greeted her, for at the moment she was the idol of young Tokyo. Even to the European estimate she was beautiful,-to young Tokyo, peerless. She glided in to the centre of the room, radiant in the knowledge of her success, magnificent in the blending colours of her finery, and she danced as young Tokyo had

never seen a Geisha dance before. Her dancing finished, she stepped down among the audience and gracefully acknowledged the congratulations which were heaped upon her. Surely this girl was happy, if the happiness of a Geisha is to be judged by popularity. Daintily she took the little china cups which were offered her, modestly she pressed them to her lips, just tasting the contents. Then they pleaded with her to dance again. All smiles she retired to the stage, and gave a representation in graceful movements of some old ballad of love and war, such as young Tokyo adored. Then, bowing low, she passed again behind the screen. And as the sound of the applause died in her ears, so did the smile of happiness from her face. Hastily she changed her kimono, and called for the jinrickshaw which was waiting for her in the courtyard.

It was a bitter night for poor Teru San; she was going now to meet her lover for the last time-for Tanaka, a lieutenant in the Imperial Guards, was also leaving in the morning to meet the Russians.

Such was the history of Teru San. When she had come to her resolution to find the money with which her lover was to be educated, she had gone straightway and sold herself-as many hundreds of other Japanese girls have done in similar circumstances-to the master of some tea - house. The house which she had selected had been owned by a man who, long trained in the art, had seen the commercial value of

the dainty little lass who falteringly had offered herself to sign the indentures: He had paid a sufficient sum in cash to ensure the first year's fees of Tanaka's education; the successful Teru San's outside earnings had supplied the rest. Thus supported, her lover had passed from one grade to another, until now he was a dashing subaltern in the Guards. All that the young couple were waiting for was the day when the tea-house ransom should be paid in full, and Teru San free of her strange obligations. We of the West cannot understand this: in the East it is different.

The leading company had been lying under the cover of a sand-dune since daybreak. The men were becoming restless: behind them they could hear the even rhythm of the three batteries of artillery which were endeavouring to silence the Russian guns on the far side of the river, and ever and anon some projectile would whistle angrily above their heads, or, burying itself in front of them, would throw great showers of sand into their ranks. The men were getting restless because they were waiting to fulfil their orders. These orders were engraven in each man's heart,

for such is the system of the Japanese: when possible each man in the army, from the general of division to the humblest stretcher bearer, knows exactly what is to be expected of him during the ensuing day, as far as the general staff can calculate the

function of any particular unit. This regiment of the Guards had orders to lie under cover as near as possible to the foot of the bridge which the sappers were constructing, and as soon as the structure was worthy, to push across it and turn the Russians from their positions on the far side of the river. From two o'clock in the morning they had been lying there, and it was now past mid-day and yet the bridge was not complete. Tanaka had crept up to his captain's side, and together they had crawled to the top of the sand-dune and watched the progress which the sappers were making. It seemed now that almost the last pontoon had been floated down. The little engineers were working like demons on the bridge-head, and as they worked the water all round the pontoons seemed alive with bursting shells. Time after time the men working on the hawsers were swept away, and as the cord passed from their lifeless grasp there were other willing hands ready to take it. There was no time to care for dead or wounded, there was no room for either on the pontoons, a man down was a man lost, and it served the interests of the State better to push his body into the boiling stream rather than hamper the bridge way with doctors and hospital attendants. For the fifth time that morning a salvo of bursting shells destroyed the nearest pontoons, carrying the working party away with it. Yet, nothing daunted, fresh pontoons were pushed off and floated down,

and a fresh company of sappers were there to lash the stanchions tight.

They will never do it," said the captain, as it seemed that the latest effort had failed. "See, they are bringing down reinforcements from the bluff above us." It was true,—a column of Russian infantry were debouching from behind the hills on the opposite bank of the river, and were moving down to the threatening bridge. The Japanese gunners had seen them, and almost immediately the column was torn and shattered with bursting shell, but this counter was not sufficient to stay their advance. Down they pressed towards the water's edge; so near were they now that the Guardsmen could make out the glint of the individual bayonets as they glistened in the mid-day sun.

"Now is our time," shouted Tanaka; "see, here come our orders." A staff officer galloped up; as he came, the two officers could see that the last pontoon had floated into its place, and that by wading it would now be possible for the infantry to dash across. The staff officer shouted his orders" Bridgehead! Guards, column of fours from the right." The suspense was over. In a moment the battalion was on its feet, and Tanaka was racing with the men of the leading four for the bridge. They felt the pontoon sway under their feet-they jumped from side to side to avoid the mangled frames of dead and wounded sappers. A shell tore up the planks in front of them, and spattered