Page:At the Fall of Port Arthur.djvu/283

Rh work. In a trice the gun was cleaned and cooled and another shell pushed into place, and then the firing was repeated.

"She's coming alongside!" was the announcement from on deck. "All hands to repel boarders!"

"A hand-to-hand fight!" cried Larry, and scarcely had the words been uttered when there came a bump that hurled half the sailors flat. Up they sprang, and as order after order was delivered the marines and others ran for their guns and cutlasses, while the officers saw to it that their pistols were ready for use.

A wild, maddening yell came from the deck of the Russian ship, as marines and sailors poured over the side. An answering Banzai issued from the Japanese, and they met the first onslaught with vigor. Then came a fierce tramping over the deck, as the two conflicting parties moved first to one side and then the other.

"We are ordered up!" cried Larry, a few minutes later. "Here is where we have got to fight for it, Luke!"

"Right you are, lad. Do your best, and trust to Heaven for the rest!" was the Yankee tar's reply, and then, cutlasses in hand, both mounted to the deck, to engage in the fiercest hand-to-hand encounter either of them had ever experienced.