Page:At the Fall of Port Arthur.djvu/290

272 Luke, cheerfully. "But it gets me that she ran away, unless she had something to run for."

"She must have been carrying some contraband of war, Luke."

"It ain't unlikely, lad. Well, she's gone, an' it ain't no use to cry over spilt milk. When you write to Captain Ponsberry you can tell him ye saw them two rascals an' thet's all the good it did."

"Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Well?"

"I'm thinking that brig was bound for Port Arthur, and she'll slip into that port some dark and misty night."

"It's a risky piece o' business. Either our ships or the mines are likely to blow her up."

"That is true. But the Russians at the port must be getting desperate, and they'll most likely pay any kind of a price for supplies. A captain who ran the blockade successfully could make a fortune," returned Larry.

The young gunner's mate was right in his surmise. The big brig was a Russian vessel in disguise and loaded to her fullest capacity with supplies for the blockaded seaport. She had been fitted out at Vladivostok, but had taken a wide sea course, so as to pretend to have set sail from Nagasaki. Several Russian shipping merchants were interested in