Page:At the Fall of Port Arthur.djvu/133

Rh to tell made the Russians look darkly at our friends.

"He is pumping all sorts of falsehoods into them, I suppose," said Larry to Luke, and he was right. Semmel made it appear that Captain Ponsberry was really an agent of the Japanese Government and that he (Semmel) had done his best to gain possession of the ship wholly for the benefit of his own country.

"If you really did this, it is very worthy of you," said one of the officers. "But we shall have to investigate before we accept your story in full." This was not so encouraging, but with it Ostag Semmel had to be content.

Fearing that a Japanese warship might put in an appearance at any moment, the Russians lost no time in transferring the officers and men of the Columbia to the Pocastra and at the same time a prize crew of two officers and ten men were taken from the warship to the schooner. Then the sails of the Columbia were hoisted and off she set to the eastward, and the warship moved in the same direction.

When placed aboard the Pocastra Captain Ponsberry was treated politely and given a small room of his own. But the mates and the ordinary seamen were not so fortunate. Grandon, Larry, and Luke Striker were hustled off to a prison pen on one deck