The state of the road showed how fierce was the fight. A Japanese sergeant struck off the head of a Russian officer and slew two men before he fell pierced by five bayonets. The sword of Yoshihara Chuji was notched like the edge of a saw. A second lieutenant fought like a tiger and died with five bullets in his breast. For fifteen minutes or more the road about the trench was a tangle of dark figures, hacking and thrusting and shooting. At last the company gave way and fell back into the scrub behind the ridge, whence it poured a deadly fire into the Russian ranks. In the meantime, reinforcements were hurrying from the valley beyond the temple. One company came racing up, dashed into the wood and out upon the road right into the thick of the foe. Once more the fight swept on hand to hand, with sword and bayonet and revolver. Against the ferocity of this attack the enemy recoiled and, turning, fled down the slope into the ravine followed by the rifle shots of three companies who lined the hills. The fourth company had taken a position on the ridge commanding the new road along which an attack from the second Russian battalion was expected, but this force of the enemy never got beyond the conical hill at the corner of the ravine. Finding his flank secure, Major Takakusaki led his men to the front in time to take up the pursuit. The Russians left fifty-three dead on the field and forty-seven wounded of whom three died. Three unwounded men and ninety-eight rifles fell into the hands of the victorious outpost. The two battalions were accompanied by fifty Cossack cavalry and brought with them large quantities of supplies as well as cooking utensils. It looked as if their intention was to stay, though it was difficult to imagine that this was a serious attempt to re-occupy the Pass which they had abandoned without a struggle. If this really was their object it can be explained only on the ground that General Kuropatkin sought at the last moment to delay our advance until he could make good his position on the North road. The attack was badly planned and badly executed. The second battalion took no part in the action and there was obvious miscarriage of the plan for an assault on the right flank of the Japanese. The enemy made a gallant fight, but courage could not avail where leadership was manifestly wanting in skill and foresight. The Japanese loss was only thirteen killed and thirty wounded. Mou-tien-ling, after all, had done something to deserve its repute in the war of 1894 when the Chinese on two occasions succeeded in wresting the Pass from the Japanese. As we turned to descend the mountain we saw on the isolated hill above the ravine--clear against the blue sky--the solitary figure of a sentinel straining his eyes toward the East where the enemy lay in silence. Chapter XXII ATTACK ON MOU-TIEN-LING.