In contrast with the loud and burly Russians, the Japanese officers seemed peculiarly slight, slim and effeminate, and their subdued and gentle manner greatly heightened this impression of fragility. After having been for a long time accustomed to the large Russian grasp I thought their hands remarkably small and thin, and everything else about them seemed to me to be in proportion. They did not take much interest in the spoils that were captured, the maps, bottles, horses, etc., but I saw one of them holding for a long time in his slender hand a large crucifix and gazing at it long and curiously. One of our officers turned out to be a lady. She was a rather hard-featured woman of about twenty-five or twenty-six, dressed in the complete uniform of a sublieutenant of infantry and with her hair cut short. There was not the slightest fear or embarrassment about her; she seemed to be perfectly unconcerned, and whenever she wanted anything she asked for it in a voice which, although a woman's voice, had that clear decisive timbre in it which bespeaks the habitude of command.
The Japanese showed great tact in dealing with this unusual capture. There was no crowding around her, and neither by look nor by sign did any one betray the fact that he knew her secret. Some privates gazed at her curiously from afar off; but though really very much interested in her, the Japanese officers seemed to regard her just as an ordinary sub-lieutenant. At Kuroki's headquarters, however, she was allowed as much privacy as possible.
Not being a very strait-laced people themselves, the Japanese were rather tickled than otherwise at this discovery, but it is remarkable how well they managed on their side to eliminate the lady peril from the field of military operations — far better than the English succeeded in doing in South Africa or the Americans in Cuba. Even lady nurses were not allowed to mix among the wounded as freely as on the Russian side, and I hope I am not reflecting in any way on the Russian Red Cross Sisterhood as a whole when I say that there were to be found among them women who were unworthy of the robe which they wore. These women were seldom professional nurses — they generally obtained the sacred robe of a Sister of Charity in order to be able to follow some influential lover in the field.
I suppose there were, on the Russian side, cases of pure women dressing as men, in order to follow their husbands and lovers, for such a course would strongly recommend itself to the romantic-minded Russian damsel. I dare say that the Japanese will, with their usual care, collect all the facts bearing on this subject, and the collection ought to be very interesting. In some cases the girls passed for some time as youthful soldiers, until the fear of the public and compulsory bath at the Japanese quarantine station forced them to disclose their secret. In other cases ladies whose lovers had been captured rode into the Japanese lines and surrendered, so as to be able to rejoin their beloved ones in Matsuyama.
Each of the Russian privates had now fixed to his shoulder-strap a tag, such as the express companies in America fix to your luggage, and the whole batch was sent off to Kuroki's headquarters some eight or nine miles distant. I was told that I would be sent with the next batch. " We expect to capture another small force," said Captain Takashima, " and you'll be sent on to headquarters with them."
I took advantage of this opportunity to speak with the captain on a confidential matter. With bated breath, I confessed that I had on my person a loaded revolver and ammunition. I was willing to surrender it, but the captain laughingly declined to insist on my disarmament,
II Keep everything you have got," said he cheerfully, " You are a correspondent, and we don't want to take anything from you."
And as a matter of fact that loaded revolver was never taken from me. I also kept a Russian map, and, more important still, a list which I had compiled in my notebook of the Russian forces in the field, for I was never searched even in the most cursory manner, and never questioned as to what documents I had in my possession.
The other "small force" of which Captain Takashima spoke was duly captured, but, nevertheless, I was eventually sent on alone in charge of a little Imperial guardsman with red riding breeches and a horse which he and I rode by turns. He was so polite that, every time I dismounted, he protested that I had not remained in the saddle long enough, and he was hardly a moment astride the horse's back before he wanted to get off in order to make place for me.