Under the Mikado's flag

All on board of the Columbia had had an uneventful voyage to the Sea of Japan and everybody was in the best of health. Since arriving at Nagasaki those on the vessel had heard much about the war just opened and had seen not a few Japanese soldiers depart for the front. Larry and Ben had likewise visited one of the warships, just before it departed to join Admiral Togo’s fleet, and both were enthusiastic over what they had seen.

“The order was as good as on any American warship,” declared Larry, “and the gunners looked as if they could fire just as well, too.”

“Did you see any Americans?” questioned Gilbert.

“At least half a dozen—two that were with Dewey at Manila, and one that was on board the Brooklyn with my brother Walter, at the time our navy was fighting in Cuban waters. They told me that the Japanese navy had a great many Americans on its ships.”

“I’ll wager you were strongly tempted to enlist, Larry.”

“Well, who wouldn’t be? When a fellow has once smelt powder the feeling to keep on fighting gets in one’s bones.”

“That’s just the way I felt, when I saw those Japanese solders embarking for the front,” declared Ben. “It put me in mind of the time our regiment started for Cuba, and when we started for the Philippines.”

“I believe upon my word, Ben Russell, you want to go to the front this minute!”

“What about yourself, Gilbert? Now come, tell the plain truth.”

“Do you want the plain truth, and nothing but the truth, as they say in court?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’d join the Japanese army to-morrow if it wasn’t for my duty here, and if I was sure I could get a commission. I don’t at all like the way I was treated at Port Arthur by the Russians, and I’d just like the chance to square accounts with them.”

“Hurrah! let’s all go to war!” burst out Larry. “You two can be officers, while I’ll be a high private in the rear rank.” And he began to march around in true military style, with an imaginary gun on his shoulder. “By column of fours, march! Left wheel! Halt! Captain Pennington will deploy to the left. Captain Russell will send out an advance guard under High Private Russell to see if the Russian warships are hiding anywhere behind yonder huckleberry bushes.”

“Larry, quit your fooling,” interrupted Ben, and then burst out laughing. “Gilbert, he’s as bad as ever. I can’t do a thing with him.”

“Never mind, he’s got the war fever just as bad as any of us. Isn’t that true, Larry?”

“Just you try me and see. If both of you go to the front, you’ve got to take me along,—that is, if Captain Ponsberry will let me go.”

“What! what! are ye going to desert the ship?” broke in the master of the Columbia. “I can’t allow this nohow!”

“Oh, captain, you don’t mean that?” pleaded Larry quickly.

“But what is the Columbia to do without her second mate?” asked Captain Ponsberry quizzically.

“I’ll find you another hand—just as good as myself.”

“Well, we are not going to war just yet,” put in Ben. “We want to know a little more about what is taking place first.”

“Right you are,” came from Gilbert. “And I must make some arrangements about the Columbia’s cargo.”

The ex-lieutenant learned from Captain Ponsberry that several agents of the Japanese Government had been inquiring after the Columbia’s cargo and had left their names and addresses. Gilbert decided to look these people up on the following day, and did so, in company with the master of the ship.

It happened that the vessel carried a number of things much needed by Japan just at that moment, and feeling free to sell the cargo as he pleased, Gilbert was not long in striking a bargain which was very advantageous to the Richmond Importing Company and incidentally to himself. More than this, he took orders for more goods of a similar sort, the same to be delivered at Nagasaki as soon as possible. These goods the Richmond Importing Company had stored at its new warehouse at Manila, and Captain Ponsberry was directed to make the run to Luzon and back without delay.

“The company will clear six thousand dollars on that order,” said Gilbert to the captain, “and if you hurry it through O. K. you can depend upon it that you will not be forgotten.”

“I’ll do my best,” answered Captain Ponsberry.

“Of course you understand the risk to be run. If a Russian warship catches you, she’ll sink you sure.”

“I’ll keep my weather eye open for ’em, Mr. Pennington.”

The prospect of a quick run to Manila and back, with a possible brush with a Russian cruiser, interested Larry, and at the last moment he was undecided whether to remain on the Columbia or go ashore with his brother Ben.

“Are you going to the front or not?” he asked, of Ben and Gilbert.

“It’s a toss-up, Larry,” answered his older brother. “I’ve a very strong notion to see what I can do about a commission.”

“Then why not go and see before the schooner sails? Then I’ll know what you are going to do.”

“All right, I’ll go,” said Ben.

That was what Gilbert had in mind to do, and that afternoon the pair hunted up Captain Okopa.

“I am glad to hear that you are willing to join us,” cried the Japanese officer, after Ben had been introduced. “So you have been a captain?” he went on, to Ben. “I do not know what I can do for you, but I will do my best.”

He went with them to a recruiting office and there introduced them to several army officers who chanced to be present. Both were plied with questions, and many of their answers were taken down by a stenographer.

“You can probably get commissions as lieutenants and perhaps captains,” said one of the officers. “But your records will be investigated; if not at once, then later.”

“You are at liberty to do as you please about that,” answered Gilbert, and Ben said the same.

It may astonish some of my readers to think a commission in the Japanese army was so easy to obtain. The truth was, the army of Japan was being suddenly increased from about a hundred thousand men to over three hundred thousand men. Recruits were easy to obtain, for the Japanese is patriotic to the core and ready at any time to lay his life down for his Mikado and his country, but many of the men were untrained in the art of the soldier, and officers were next to impossible to obtain. So far not only Americans, but also Englishmen and Germans had gone to the front as officers of various grades, while not a few foreigners were also in the ranks.

The next few days were anxious ones for the two young Americans. In the meantime Larry decided to remain with Captain Ponsberry, who told the young sailor he was glad of it. Ben and Gilbert saw the Columbia sail, and each waved Larry, the captain, and the others on board an affectionate adieu.

“He’s as fine a man as I ever sailed with,” declared Ben. “I trust they make the trip in safety.”

“So do I,” returned Gilbert. “For their own sakes as well as for the sake of our company.”

The young Americans had signified that they would prefer to keep together, and at the end of the week Captain Okopa came to them and told them the matter had been arranged.

“I am going to take out a special command of four companies,” said he. “This is to do special duty in the field, more of which you will learn later. I have been appointed major of the command, and if you wish to go with me I can make both of you captains.”

“What is the nature of your special work?” asked Gilbert.

“We shall be used in discovering the enemy’s position and in holding difficult points,” said the Japanese, and then he explained as best he could.

The matter was talked over by Gilbert and Ben for a good hour and then they decided to accept Major Okopa’s offer. Before night they were sworn into the service in true Japanese fashion, and measured for their uniforms.

“Well, we are real Japanese soldiers at last!” cried Ben. “I declare, I feel like a cat in a strange garret.”

“I’m going to study up the Japanese tactics,” declared Gilbert, and he went at it with a vigor. Both Gilbert and Ben knew a great deal on the subject already, otherwise they would not have gotten the commissions dealt out to them.

By the middle of the following week they were introduced to the solders who were to serve under them. Much to their surprise the command was made up largely of students from the Japanese schools and universities—bright men who were eager to do all they could for their beloved Japan. Not a few could speak English, so Gilbert and Ben felt at home with them almost from the start.

“This is much better than if we had a lot of the peasantry to deal with,” said Gilbert. “Drilling these chaps will be more fun than work;” and so it proved.

The command was quartered some distance outside of Nagasaki and was drilled twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Major Okopa had much outside work to attend to, and as a consequence much of the task of drilling the soldiers fell upon Gilbert and Ben.

“Let us show them what American officers can do,” said Gilbert, and they worked harder than ever before, until the drill of the battalion was practically perfect. During that time he and Ben picked up a great many Japanese army terms, so that they addressed their men with but little difficulty.

In the meantime the Japanese Government was losing no time in sending troops to Korea, and every ship possible to use for a transport was pressed into the service. The destination of many of the transports was unknown to all but those high in authority, even the most alert of the war correspondents being unable to obtain information.

“Beats all, how the news is kept back,” said one young man, who represented some Pacific Coast papers. “But I am no worse off than a score of other special correspondents.”

“Are you going to the front?” asked Gilbert, who had become interested in the young newspaper man.

“Will if I get the chance.”

“Perhaps you’ll be able to go with us.”

“I’d like that. I can’t get along with these Japs alone. They talk too fast for me.”

“Have you sent your papers any news at all?”

“Not much. How can I, if it’s not to be got? I’ve told them about the army here, and the rumors that are circulating, but if I don’t send more pretty soon I’m afraid I’ll get my walking papers,” concluded the correspondent gloomily.

By the first of March over forty transports had left Nagasaki, all loaded with troops for the front. Many other transports left China, where great numbers of guns were shipped and also horses. Major Okopa kept his command in readiness to leave on a day’s notice, and at last came word that they would depart on the first day of the following week.