Banzai! by Parabellum

  _Chapter XVII_

  WHAT HAPPENED AT CORPUS CHRISTI

  The attitude of the European press left no room for doubt as to thehonest indignation of the Old World at the treacherous attack on ourcountry. But what good could this scathing denunciation of the Japanesepolicy do us? A newspaper article wouldn't hurt a single Japanesesoldier, and what good could all the resolutions passed at enthusiasticpublic meetings in Germany and France do us, or the daily cablegramsgiving us the assurance of their sympathy and good-will?

  These expressions of public opinion did, however, prove that the OldWorld realized at last that the yellow danger was of universal interest,that it was not merely forcing a single country to the wall, casually asit were, but that it was of deep and immediate concern to every Europeannation without exception. They began to look beyond the wisdom of thepulpit orators who preached about the wonderful growth of culture inJapan, and to recognize that if the United States did not succeed inconquering Japan and driving the enemy out of the country, thevictorious Japanese would not hesitate a moment to take the next stepand knock loudly and peremptorily at Europe's door, and this would putan end once and for all to every single European colonial empire.

  But while European authorities on international law were busily paradingtheir paper wisdom, and wondering how a war without a declaration of warand without a diplomatic prelude could fit into the political scheme ofthe world's history, at least one real item of assistance was at hand.

  The American press, it is true, still suffered from the delusion thatour militia--consisting of hundreds of thousands of men--and ourvolunteers would be prepared to take the field in three or four weeks,but the indescribable confusion existing in all the military camps tolda different story. What was needed most were capable officers. The sadexperiences of the Spanish-American campaign were repeated, only on agreatly magnified scale. We possessed splendid material in the matter ofmen and plenty of good-will, but we lacked completely the practicalexperience necessary for adapting the military apparatus of our smallforce of regular soldiers to the requirements of a great national army.We felt that we could with the aid of money and common-sense transform alarge group of able-bodied men accustomed to healthy exercise into aserviceable and even a victorious army, but we made a great mistake. Thecommissariat and sanitary service and especially the militarytrain-corps would have to be created out of nothing. When in June thegovernor of one State reported that his infantry regiment was formed andonly waiting for rifles, uniforms and the necessary military wagons, andwhen another declared that his two regiments of cavalry and sixbatteries were ready to leave for the front as soon as horses, guns,ammunition-carts and harness could be procured, it showed with horribledistinctness how utterly ridiculous our methods of mobilization were.

  The London diplomats went around like whipped curs, for all the earlyenthusiasm for the Japanese alliance disappeared as soon as the Englishmerchants began to have such unpleasant experiences with theunscrupulousness of the Japanese in business matters. As a matter offact the alliance had fulfilled its object as soon as Japan had foughtEngland's war with Russia for her. But the cabinet of St. James adheredto the treaty, because they feared that if they let go of the hawser, aword from Tokio would incite India to revolt. The soil there had foryears been prepared for this very contingency, and London, therefore,turned a deaf ear to the indignation expressed by the rest of the worldat Japan's treacherous violation of peace.

  At last at the end of July the transportation of troops to the Westbegan. But when the police kept a sharp lookout for Japanese or Chinesespies at the stations where the troops were boarding the trains, theywere looking in the wrong place, for the enemy was smart enough not toexpose himself unnecessarily or to send spies who, as Mongolians, wouldat once have fallen victims to the rage of the people if seen anywherenear the camps.

  Besides, such a system of espionage was rendered unnecessary by theAmerican press, which, instead of benefiting by past experience, tookgood care to keep the Japanese well informed concerning the militarymeasures of the government, and even discussed the organization of thearmy and the possibilities of the strategical advance in a way thatseemed particularly reprehensible in the light of the fearful reversesof the last few months. The government warnings were disregardedespecially by the large dailies, who seemed to find it absolutelyimpossible to regard the events of the day in any other light than thatof sensational news to be eagerly competed for.

  This competition for news from the seat of war and from the camps hadfirst to lead to a real catastrophe, before strict discipline could beenforced in this respect. A few patriotic editors, to be sure, refusedto make use of the material offered them; but the cable dispatches sentto Europe, the news forwarded triumphantly as a proof that the Americanswere now in a position "to toss the yellow monkeys into the Pacific,"quite sufficed to enable the Japanese to adopt preventive measures intime.

  While the American Army of the North was advancing on Nogi's forces inthe Blue Mountains, the Army of the South was to attack the Japaneseposition in Arizona by way of Texas. For this purpose the three brigadesstationed in the mountains of New Mexico were to be reenforced by thetroops from Cuba and Porto Rico and the two Florida regiments. All ofthese forces were to be transported to Corpus Christi by water, as itwas hoped in this way to keep the movement concealed from the enemy, inorder that the attack in the South might come as far as possible in thenature of a surprise, and thus prevent the sending of reenforcements tothe North where, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, the main battle wasto be fought. But unfortunately our plan of attack did not remainsecret. Before a single soldier had set foot on the transport shipswhich had been lying for weeks in the harbors of Havana and Tampa, theJapanese news bureaus in Kingston (Jamaica) and Havana had been fullyinformed as to where the blow was to fall, partly by West Indianhalf-breed spies and partly by the obliging American press. One regimentof cavalry had already arrived at Corpus Christi from Tampa on July30th, and the Cuban troops were expected on the following day.

  * * * * *

  Two American naval officers were standing on the small gallery of thewhite light-house situated at the extreme end of the narrow tongue ofland lying before the lagoon of Corpus Christi, gazing through theirglasses at the boundless expanse of blue water glittering with myriadsof spots in the rays of the midday sun. Out in the roads lay seven largefreight steamers whose cargoes of horses and baggage, belonging to the2d Florida Cavalry Regiment, were being transferred to lighters. A smalltug, throwing up two glittering streaks of spray with its broad bow, wastowing three barges through the narrow opening of the lagoon to CorpusChristi, whose docks showed signs of unusual bustle. Short-windedengines were pulling long freight-trains over the tracks that ran alongthe docks, ringing their bells uninterruptedly. From the camps outsidethe town the low murmur of drums and long bugle-calls could be heardthrough the drowsy noon heat. A long gray snake, spotted with the dullglitter of bright metal, wound its way between the white tents: adetachment of troops marching to the station. Beyond the town one couldfollow the silver rails through the green plantations for miles, asplainly as on a map, until they finally disappeared on the horizon.

  Now the whistle of the tug sounded shrilly, blowing scattered flakes ofwhite steam into the air. The quick, clear tolling of church-bells rangover the roofs of the bright houses of the city. It was twelve o'clockand the sun's rays were scorching hot.

  One of the naval officers pulled out his watch to see if it werecorrect, and then said: "Shall we go down and get something to eatfirst, Ben?"

  "The steamers from Havana ought really to be in sight by this time,"answered Ben Wood; "they left on the twenty-sixth."

  "Well, yes, on the twenty-sixth. But some of those transport-shipspalmed off on us are the limit and can't even make ten knots an hour.Their rickety engines set the pace for the fleet, and unless the_Olympia_ wishes to abandon the shaky old hulks to their fate, she mustkeep step with them."

 
Lieutenant Gibson Spencer swept the horizon once more with hismarine-glass and stopped searchingly at one spot. "If that's not the_Flying Dutchman_, they're ships," he remarked, "probably our ships."

  The light-house keeper, a slender Mexican, came on the gallery, saying:"Ships are coming over there, sir," as he pointed in the direction whichSpencer had indicated. Lieutenant Ben Wood stepped to the stationarytelescope in the light-room below the place for the lamps, and startedto adjust the screws, but the heat of the metal, which had becomered-hot beneath the burning rays of the sun, made him start: "Hot hole,"he swore under his breath.

  Lieutenant Spencer conversed a moment with the keeper and then lookedagain through his glass at Corpus Christi, where the tug was just makingfast to the pier. The third barge knocked violently against the piles,so that a whole shower of splinters fell into the water.

  "Gibson," cried Lieutenant Wood suddenly from his place in thelight-room, his voice sounding muffled on account of the small space,"those are not our ships."

  Spencer looked through the telescope and arrived at the same conclusion."No," he said; "we have no ships like that, but they're coming nearerand we'll soon be able to make out what they are!"

  "Those ships certainly don't belong to our fleet," he repeated afteranother long look at the vessels slowly growing larger on the horizon.They had two enormous funnels and only one mast and even the archedroofs of their turrets could now be clearly distinguished.

  "If I didn't know that our English friends owned the only ships of thatcaliber, and that our own are unhappily still in process of equipmentat Newport News, I should say that those were two _Dreadnoughts_."

  "I guess you've had a sunstroke," rang out the answer.

  "Sunstroke or no sunstroke, those are two _Dreadnoughts_."

  "But where can they come from?"

  The three men examined the horizon in silence, till Lieutenant Woodsuddenly broke it by exclaiming: "There, do you see, to the left, justappearing on the horizon, that's our transport fleet--eight--ten ships;the one in front is probably the _Olympia_."

  "Twelve ships," counted the keeper, "and if I may be allowed to say so,the two in front are battleships."

  "There they are then," said Ben Wood, "and now we'll get something toeat in a jiffy, for we'll have our work cut out for us in an hour!"

  "Where shall we eat?" asked Spencer, "I'll gladly dispense with the grubat Signor Morrosini's to-day."

  "I'll tell you what," said the other, "we'll go across to one of thetransport-steamers; or, better still, we'll go to the captain of the_Marietta_--we'll be sure to get something decent to eat there."

  "Right you are!" said Spencer, peering down over the edge of therailing. "Our cutter is down there," he added.

  At the foot of the light-house lay a small, white cutter with its brassappointments glittering in the sunlight. Her crew, consisting of threemen, had crept into the little cabin, while the black stoker was restingon a bench near the boiler.

  "Ho, Dodge!" shouted Spencer, "get up steam. We're going over to thetransport-ships in ten minutes."

  The firemen threw several shovels of coal into the furnace, whereupon acloud of smoke poured out of the funnel straight up along thelight-house. Lieutenant Wood telephoned over to Corpus Christi that thetransports with the troops on board had been sighted and that they wouldprobably arrive in the roads in about two hours.

  "We're going over to one of the transport-ships meanwhile," he added,"and will await the arrival of the squadron out there."

  While Lieutenant Spencer was climbing down the narrow staircase,Lieutenant Wood once more examined the horizon and suddenly started. Thethunder of a shot boomed across the water. Boom--came the sound ofanother one!

  The lieutenant clapped his marine-glasses to his eyes. Yes, there weretwo _Dreadnoughts_ out there, evidently saluting. But why at such adistance?

  "Gibson," he called down the staircase.

  "Come on, Ben!" came the impatient answer from below.

  "I can't, I wish you'd come up again for a minute, I'm sure something'swrong!"

  The gun-shots were booming loudly across the water as Lieutenant Spencerreached the gallery, covered with perspiration.

  "I suppose they're saluting," exclaimed Spencer somewhat uncertainly.

  Ben Wood said nothing, but with a quick jerk turned the telescope to theright and began examining the transport-ships.

  "Heavens," he shouted, "they mean business. I can see shells splashinginto the water in front of the _Olympia_--no, there in the middle--awayback there, too-- One of the transports listed. What can it mean? Canthey be Japanese?"

  Again the roar of guns rolled across the quiet waters.

  "Now the _Olympia_ is beginning to shoot," cried Ben Wood. "Oh, thatshot struck the turret. Great, that must have done some good work! Butwhat in Heaven's name are we going to do?"

  Lieutenant Spencer answered by pushing the light-house keeper, who wasin abject fear, aside, and rushing to the telephone. Trembling withexcitement, he stamped his foot and swore loudly when no notice wastaken of his ring.

  "All asleep over there as usual! Ah, at last!"

  "Halloo! what's up?"

  "This is the light-house. Notify the commander at Corpus Christi at oncethat the Japanese are in the roads and are attacking the transports."

  Over in Corpus Christi people began to collect on the piers, the bellsstopped ringing, but the sound of bugles could still be heard comingfrom the encampments.

  Now the light-house telephone rang madly and Spencer seized thereceiver. "They are, I tell you. Can't you hear the shots?" he shoutedinto the instrument. "There are two large Japanese ships out in theroads shooting at the _Olympia_ and the transports. Impossible or not,it's a fact!"

  Suddenly a thick column of smoke began to ascend from the funnel of thelittle American gunboat _Marietta_, which was lying among the transportsout in the roads. The whistles and bugle-calls could be hearddistinctly, and the crew could be seen on deck busy at the guns. Thesteam-winch rattled and began to haul up the anchor, while the waterwhirled at the stern as the vessel made a turn. Even before the anchorappeared at the surface the gunboat had put to sea with her course settowards the ships on the horizon, which were enveloped in clouds ofblack smoke.

  "There's nothing for us to do," said Spencer despairingly, "but standhere helplessly and look on. There isn't a single torpedo-boat, not asingle submarine here! For Heaven's sake, Ben, tell us what's happeningout there!"

  "It's awful!" answered Wood; "two of the transport-ships are in flames,two seem to have been sunk, and some of those further back have listedbadly. The _Olympia_ is heading straight for the enemy, but she seems tobe damaged and is burning aft. There are two more cruisers in thebackground, but they are hidden by the smoke from the burning steamers;I can't see them any more."

  "Where on earth have the Japanese ships come from? I thought their wholefleet was stationed in the Pacific. Not one of their ships has ever comearound Cape Horn or through the Straits of Magellan; if they had, ourcruisers off the Argentine coast would have seen them. And besides itwould be utter madness to send just two battleships to the Atlantic. Butwhere else can they have come from?"

  "There's no use asking where they come from," cried Wood excitedly, "thechief point is, they're there!"

  He gave up his place at the telescope to his comrade, thought for amoment, and then went to the telephone.

  His orders into town were short and decisive: "Send all the tugs out tosea immediately. Have them hoist the ambulance-flag and try to rescuethe men of the transports."

  "And you, Spencer," he continued, "take the cutter and hurry over to thetransport-steamers in the roads and have them hoist the Red Cross flagand get to sea as quickly as possible to help in the work of rescue.That's the only thing left for us to do. I'll take command of the_President Cleveland_ and you take charge of the Swedish steamer_Olsen_. And now let's get to work! Signor Alvares can play the role ofidle onlooker better than we can. Our place is out there!
"

  Both officers rushed down the stairs and jumped into the cutter, whichsteamed off at full speed and took them to their ships.

  Three-quarters of an hour later the tug mentioned in the beginning ofthe chapter appeared again at the entrance to the lagoon. Several mencould be seen in the stern holding a large white sheet upon which a manwas painting a large red cross, and when the symbol of human love andassistance was finished, the sheet was hoisted at the flagstaff. Twoother tugs followed the example of the first one.

  But could the enemy have taken the three little tugs for torpedo-boats?It seemed so, for suddenly a shell, which touched the surface of thewater twice, whizzed past and hit the first steamer amidships just belowthe funnel. And while the little vessel was still enveloped by the blacksmoke caused by the bursting of the shell, her bow and stern rose highout of the water and she sank immediately, torn in two. The thunder ofthe shot sounded far over the water and found an echo among the housesat Corpus Christi.

  "Now they're even shooting at the ambulance flag," roared Ben Wood, whowas rushing about on the deck of the _President Cleveland_ and exhortingthe crew to hoist the anchor as fast as possible so as to get out to thefield of battle. But as the boiler-fires were low, this seemed to takean eternity.

  At last, about three o'clock in the afternoon, they succeeded inreaching a spot where a few hundred men were clinging to the floatingwreckage. The rest had been attended to by the enemy's shots, the seaand the sharks.

  The enemy had wasted only a few shots on the transport-steamers, as asingle well-aimed explosive shell was quite sufficient to entirelydestroy one of the merchant-vessels, and the battle with the _Olympia_had lasted only a very short time, as the distance had evidently beentoo great to enable the American shots to reach the enemy. That was theend of the _Olympia_, Admiral Dewey's flag-ship at Cavite! The twosmaller cruisers had been shot to pieces just as rapidly.

  The results of this unexpected setback were terribly disheartening,since all idea of a flank attack on the Japanese positions in the Southhad to be abandoned.

  * * * * *

  But where had the two _Dreadnoughts_ come from? They had not been seenby a living soul until they had appeared in the roads of Corpus Christi.They had risen from the sea for a few hours, like an incarnation of theghostly rumors of flying squadrons of Japanese cruisers, and they haddisappeared from the field of action just as suddenly as they had come.If it had not been for the cruel reality of the destruction of thetransport fleet, no one would soon have believed in the existence ofthese phantom ships. But the frenzied fear of the inhabitants of thecoast-towns cannot well take the form of iron and steel, and nightmares,no matter how vivid, cannot produce ships whose shells sweep an Americansquadron off the face of the sea.

  It had been known for years that two monster ships of the _Dreadnought_type were being built for Brazil in the English shipyards. No one knewwhere Brazil was going to get the money to pay for the battleships orwhat the Brazilian fleet wanted with such huge ships, but they continuedto be built. It was generally supposed that England was building them asa sort of reserve for her own fleet; but once again was public opinionmistaken. Only those who years before had raised a warning protest andbeen ridiculed for seeing ghosts, proved to be right. They hadprophesied long ago that these ships were not intended for England, butfor her ally, Japan.

  The vessels were finished by the end of June and during the last days ofthe month the Brazilian flag was openly hoisted on board the _San Paulo_and _Minas Geraes_, as they were called, the English shipbuilders havingindignantly refused to sell them to the United States on the plea offeeling bound to observe strict neutrality. The two armored battleshipsstarted on their voyage across the Atlantic with Brazilian crews onboard; but when they arrived at a spot in the wide ocean where nospectators were to be feared, they were met by six transport-steamersconveying the Japanese crews for the two warships, no others than thethousand Japs who had been landed at Rio de Janeiro as coolies for theBrazilian coffee plantations in the summer of 1908. They had beenfollowed in November by four hundred more.

  We were greatly puzzled at the time over this striking exception to theJapanese political programme of concentrating streams of immigrants onour Pacific coasts. Without a word of warning a thousand Japanesecoolies were shipped to Brazil, where they accepted starvation wagesgreatly to the disgust and indignation of the German and Italianworkmen--not to speak of the lazy Brazilians themselves. This isolatedadvance of the Japs into Brazil struck observers as a dissipation ofenergy, but the Government in Tokio continued to carry out its plans,undisturbed by our expressions of astonishment. Silently, but no lesssurely, the diligent hands of the coolies and the industrious spirit ofJapanese merchants in Brazil created funds with which the two warshipswere paid at least in part. The public interpreted it as an act ofcommendable patriotism when, in June, the one thousand four hundred Japsturned their backs on their new home, in order to defend their country'sflag. They left Rio in six transport-steamers.

  Brazil thereupon sold her two battleships to a Greek inn-keeper atSantos, named Petrokakos, and he turned them over to the merchant PietroAlvares Cortes di Mendoza at Bahia. This noble Don was on board one ofthe transport-steamers with the Japanese "volunteers," and on board thisGlasgow steamer, the _Kirkwall_, the bill of sale was signed on July14th, by the terms of which the "armed steamers" _Kure_ and _Sasebo_passed into the possession of Japan. The Brazilian crews and someEnglish engineers went on board the transports and were landed quietlytwo weeks later at various Brazilian ports.

  These one thousand four hundred Japanese plantation-laborers, traders,artisans, and engineers--in reality they were trained men belonging tothe naval reserve--at once took over the management of the two mightyships, and set out immediately in the direction of the West Indies. AtKingston (Jamaica) a friendly steamer supplied them with the latest newsof the departure of the American transports from Cuba, and the lattermet their fate, as we saw, in the roads of Corpus Christi.

  A terrible panic seized all our cities on the Gulf of Mexico and theAtlantic coast, as the Japanese monsters were heard from, now here, nowthere. For example, several shells exploded suddenly in the middle ofthe night in the harbor of Galveston when not a warship had beenobserved in the neighborhood, and again several Americanmerchant-vessels were sent to the bottom by the mysterious ships, whichbegan constantly to assume more gigantic proportions in the reports ofthe sailors. At last a squadron was dispatched from Newport News toseek and destroy the enemy, whereupon the phantom-ships disappeared assuddenly as they had come. Not until Admiral Dayton ferreted out theJapanese cruisers at the Falkland Islands did our sailors again set eyeson the two battleships.