all their operations. From the valleys between the hills began to
emerge dark columns of infantry, which closed steadily upon the
devoted town, rolling to their positions with the mechanical
regularity of parade, the sheen of their bayonets glancing here and
there through the volumes of smoke which had settled thickly in the
hollows. Nearer, spread over the ground to which the forts their
cowardice had lost should have afforded ample protection, were the
disorganized masses of Chinese, preparing for their last scattered and
fruitless efforts. Only one of the inland forts, that nearest to the
town, and called, I think, Golden Hill, was still in their possession.
The trenches below me on White Boulders' front face, which had been
unoccupied during the early portion of the day, now began to swarm
with riflemen, whose weapons kept up a continuous roll, swelled from
many a rifle-pit and redoubt away forward from the base of the
elevation. Steadily the enemy advanced, working their way round on
both wings within the captured fortresses. They took skilful advantage
of every protection the ground afforded, and the resistance in their
front rapidly diminished as they pressed on irresistibly from position
to position.

It was now high time for me to evacuate my post, where I had had a
solitary and secure vantage-place amidst the rugged inequalities of
its summit, which probably I should not have been permitted to attain
if I had not set about it so early. Past its front runs a shallow but
broad stream, which coming through the Suishiyeh valley, rounds the
parade-ground on the south towards White Boulders, whence it flows
into a large and deep creek farther west. This stream the Japanese
had to cross before they could attack the trenches below me. Two or
three times they were beaten back by the hail of bullets poured on
them at very close range, but covered by a heavy fire on their own