In the action and inter-action, then, of this great double machine, the army had done all that it was possible for it to do for the moment; and once again it came round to the turn of the navy to make the next decisive move. Upon the success of this move may be said to have depended the whole success of the after operations, but, calculating with absolute confidence upon the skill of Admiral Togo, the Mikado's strategists had already put the Second Army into a state of complete preparation, and had even ordered it to be conveyed to a place from which it could be transferred to the front at any quarter at a moment's notice. Arrangements for its embarkation were begun as soon as General Kuroki reached Wiju with the First Army in the early days of April. When that commander was able to report that his dispositions for the attack upon the Russian entrenchments on the right bank of the Yalu were well advanced, the process of embarking General Oku's troops was started at once. Not a hint was allowed to escape as to their destination; even if the press correspondents, chafing under their enforced inaction at Tokio, had learnt the name, the censor would not have let it pass to the outer world; but, as a matter of fact, it is safe to say that the secret was safely locked in the breasts of half a dozen men. By April 22nd the whole army with its transports, commissariat, ammunition train, and hospital corps, had been put on board ship, and said farewell to the shores of Japan, vanishing, for all the world could tell, into the inane. For more than a fortnight nothing further was heard of it No one could report its landing anywhere, no one could say what it was doing, and day by day the mystery grew more mysterious. Only on May 7th was the veil lifted, when this great army fell upon the coast of Liao-tung as if from the heavens, and proceeded to the investment of Port Arthur. The truth was that during this fortnight it had been lying _perdu_ on some small islands close to the west coast of Korea, called the Sir James Hall group, and distant 160 miles in a southeastern direction from the shores of Liao-tung. [Sidenote: Cutting off Port Arthur]