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112 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
We passed over the crest with every precaution,
and lay down on the southern slope amongst
some big boulders, where it would not be easy to
detect us in our khaki suits, and where we thought
we could follow the fight in perfect safety. But
we were not long left in peace. Suddenly there
was a tremendous crash right over our heads,
followed immediately by another as the shell
struck the hill-side behind us ande xploded. We
looked at one another, but did not budge. We
could not conceive that the Russians could afford
to waste their lo-inch shells on three harmless
war correspondents. But half a minute later
another shell came roaring past us, so near that
we could feel the pressure of the air, and it burst
a little closer to us than the first one. We did
budge then. We ran nearly up to the crest of
the hill where an old infantry trench gave us good
refuge, screening us from the view of the enemy,
and crept along this some fifty or hundred yards
to get out of the firing line ;
for even then we did
not think that the shells were meant for us. We
thought that one of the eastern forts had opened
up against the battery, that their aim had been
too high, and that we had happened to be just in
the line where the shells were flying. We sat
down for a little while, then, with the greatest
caution, peeped out between some stones on the
top of the trench. No sooner had we adjusted
our glasses before, bang ! bang ! two other shells
came flying, and burst some few yards behind
us. This was getting serious. We leapt out of
the trench, ran over the crest of the hill, and
some distance down the other side, where we
were completely out of sight of any of the forts,
but even here a big brute of a shell came thunder-
ing right after us. This made us sulky ;
the
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