Page:At the Fall of Port Arthur.djvu/155

Rh and killing and wounding two officers and nine men.

Almost choked to death, Larry and Luke crawled to where the ladder ran to the deck. The Russian jackies and gunners were swarming up, along with all the prisoners.

"Larry, are you safe?" came in the voice of Captain Ponsberry, and he loomed up, with Tom Grandon, Cal Vincent, and the Chinese petty officer beside him.

"So far I am," answered Larry. "But I—I—must have air!" and he began to cough.

The jam on the ladder was terrific, and in the midst of the mêlée a Russian gunner and the Chinese petty officer got into a quarrel. The gunner threw the Celestial down, but he bounced up like a ball, and in a twinkling the Russian received a blow in the stomach which sent him staggering back into the crowd and the deadly smoke.

"No knock me up the spout!" sang out the Celestial. "Ship go down I go uppee!" And soon he was out on the upper deck.

Fighting, surging, pushing, and yelling the Russians and our friends got to the deck at last. Captain Ponsberry had his coat literally ripped from his back, and Cal Vincent had an arm almost torn from its socket. For this he gave a Russian gunner a