On one of the Japanese torpedo-boats silently approaching Port Arthur, just forty-eight hours after M. Kurino had made his farewell bow at the court of the Czar, was Oto Owari. No one who had seen him on the _Osprey_, meekly serving his commander with sliced cucumbers and broiled chicken, would have recognised the trim, alert little figure in the blue uniform, his visor drawn low over his sparkling eyes, his whole bearing erect, manly and marked with intense resolve as he conned his vessel through the channel toward the doomed fleet of the enemy. When the American ship arrived at Shanghai, Oto had at once procured his own discharge and that of Oshima, which was an informal matter, they not being enlisted men but merely cabin servants. Rexdale was glad to let them go. The little Japs were too mysterious and secretive personages to render their presence welcome on a war-ship where the commander should know all that is going on, above-board and below. Dave more than half suspected that his stewards were of more importance in their own country than their menial office would indicate; and while he could not exactly regard them in the light of spies--Japan being friendly to the United States--he felt more comfortable when they had taken their little grips and marched ashore to mingle with the heterogeneous population of the Chinese port. [Illustration: PICKED UP BY THE SEARCHLIGHT.] The torpedo-boats increased their speed as they neared the outer basin of the harbour of Port Arthur. Oto steered his small black craft directly toward a huge battle-ship with three smoke-stacks. "It is the _Retvizan_," he whispered to the officer next in command. "I know where to strike her. Wait for the order." The Russian ships had their nets out. They believed the Japanese fleet two hundred miles away. "Now!" hissed Oto sharply; and in a moment a long, black, cigar-shaped missile leaped from the bows of his ship toward the Russian leviathan. It dashed, foaming, through the water, sheared its way through the steel meshes of the torpedo net, and struck the hull of the doomed _Retvizan_ exactly where Oto had planned his attack. There was a dull roar, echoed by another and another a short distance away. Wild cries and shrieks of anguish rose from the Russian fleet. Two mighty battle-ships, the _Retvizan_ and the _Czarevitch_, slowly heeled over, mortally wounded. The cruiser _Pallada_ began to settle. She, too, was pierced below the water-line. Thus the Japanese declared war.