John Schettler - Devil's Garden

Togo called his hounds to his side, his calm hand on their necks as he waited. Soon the dogs were sitting quietly and the rider dismounted, saluting, and then bowing politely. “Your pardon, Admiral, but we have received an urgent message from Tokyo.”

Togo raised an eyebrow, saying nothing as he waited. The man reached into a leather pouch at his side and produced a scroll, which he handed to the Admiral, bowing again. As Togo unrolled it slowly, he had the distinct feeling that something ominous and portentous was being unfurled with the opening of that scroll. He read the characters there with a stern eye: “A Russian warship has sunk the streamer Tatsu Maru in the Tsugaru Straits and is now moving south. Please make any arrangement necessary to settle this matter.”

The message was vague as to any details of the incident, and completely open as to the wishes of the Navy Department concerning its resolution. It was immediately clear to him that Tokyo was leaving the matter to him, and he immediately wondered what this ship could be? The war left Russia virtually helpless in the Pacific, with no fleet to speak of. There were still a few armored cruisers in Vladivostok, but the notion that they would dare sortie and engage commercial shipping in Japanese home waters was preposterous. If this turned out to be the case, he would deliver a swift reprisal.

Now we see the virtue of Maizuru, he thought. Ships at Kure and Sasebo were 400 sea miles away to the south, but he had wisely decided to position Admiral Kamimura’s flying squadron of armored cruisers here, along with two battleships that had been taken as prizes of war from the Russians. The ex-Russian Poltava , was now renamed Tango , and the ex-Russian Admiral Senyavin was now the Mishima . Supported by Kamimura’s six cruisers, the force was more than adequate to confront and defeat anything the Russians could have sent from Vladivostok.

Could they have slipped in reserve units from their Black Sea Fleet, he wondered? If that were so his intelligence experts should have heard something of it. A fleet cannot pass through the Suez Canal without some notoriety. Right now the Americans were stealing most of the headlines with their Great White Fleet circumnavigating the globe. The navy has been itching for a fight again, and it was even suggested that they should plan to ambush and destroy the American fleet as it approached Japan for a scheduled visit to Yokohama. Togo believed that would be most unwise, and squelched the plan with his considerable influence and prestige. Yet what were the Russians up to now? He would send Kamimura to have a look and report.

“Sir,” the messenger said politely. “Please take my horse to hasten your return to the harbor.”

“That will not be necessary, Lieutenant,” said Togo. “But you may ride on ahead if you please, and tell Admiral Kamimura that he is to prepare his flying squadron for immediate operations. The two battleships will be made ready for sea operations as well. I will be there directly to meet with the Admiral. Please have a car ready for me. Something tells me I will be leaving for Kure before nightfall.”

“At once, sir!” The rider was quick to mount his horse and was soon riding swiftly down the slope. Togo watched him go, bothered again by the strange thought that the man was carrying the first order of another great war, one that would decide everything. Why he felt that he could not see. The Russians could bring the whole of their remaining Black Sea Fleet and it would do them little good here. He would defeat it as handily as he had beaten their Pacific and Baltic fleets. Yet he had learned to heed and respect the inner warnings that emerged like shadows in his mind. This shadow was particularly dark and foreboding.

He whistled to his dogs, and started walking briskly down the slope as they ran to follow. Whatever it was in the darkness of his mind, it was beginning now, and each step he took carried him ever closer to it. The life he had led, celebrated by his peers and basking in the light of the great victory his navy had won three years ago, was now fading. A new test was before him now. He could feel and sense another enemy coming from the sea.

Well, he thought, when an enemy comes from the sea, we must find it at sea and defeat it there. And that is exactly what we will do. I have every trust that Kamimura will handle the matter with little difficulty. Then will come the outcries of protest, the negotiations, the lament and call for reparations. It was said by many that Japan should have taken much more than it received in the treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war with Russia. Many thought that the whole of Sakhalin Island should have been seized, not the half that they were ceded. Japan also took Port Arthur, Manchukuo, and the Russian built rail lines leading north, but others said that all of Korea should have come under Japanese control, just as they said that all of Formosa should have been taken when China was beaten years earlier.

Now they will want me to occupy Vladivostok, he thought darkly. We shall see what comes of this. It may be nothing at all. After the war there was an uprising in that port city. The unrest in Russia and particularly Siberia may have renewed. This may be no more than an upstart cruiser captain thinking to gain redress for the humiliation we inflicted upon Russia in that war. So be it. One Captain or many, we are ready.

Then what is this shadow hovering over my mind and darkening my soul? The day is fine and I have a brace of pheasants to take home for the evening meal. Why this feeling of dread?

“Saitosent this message?”

Togo was meeting with Vice Admiral Kamimura now in the headquarters office at Maizuru. “How was it the report reached him so quickly?”

“There was quite a stir in the Tsugaru Strait, Admiral. Crewmen off the Kanto Maru were telling wild stories when they returned to port with the survivors. Kawase’s 9th Torpedo Boat Division was training there, and they went to investigate. Now Kawase is telling wild stories.”

“What stories? What do you mean?”

“Only that the ship responsible for this attack was very large, certainly a battleship. It looked like a great dragon at sea, or so the fishermen now say.”

“Fishermen see many things at sea that are never there,” said Togo. “But what did Commander Kawase see? His word I can believe.”

“The same report, sir-a very large ship. Kawase was wise not to engage, and requested instructions. Apparently a telegraph was sent directly to Saito in Tokyo, and it was he who sent this message in return.”

“The scroll was unsigned. That is most unusual.”

“Yet the signal referenced his name and office, sir. It was Saito.”

“Please make any arrangement necessary to settle this matter, ” Togo read the scroll aloud again. “What he really means is settle the matter quietly. He merely hands it all to me. Very well, we will settle the matter. I can read enough between the lines on that scroll to know that Saito wants this handled with as little fuss as possible, and without provoking a major international incident. He has recently been questioned by the European reporters concerning dispositions of the fleet with the American Navy approaching.”

“Yes, they seem somewhat anxious. The London Times has been circulating all those rumors about the plan to attack the Great White Fleet. Saito has had his hands full of late. Did you read his statement to the reporters? Here it is, in today’s paper: Vice-Admiral Baron Saito, the Japanese Minister of Marine affairs, declares that he is willing to make an announcement as to the disposition of the fleet and the intentions of the Government with regard to it, if there is any real need to allay the excitement said to exist in America, but that the suggestion of aggressive designs on the part of Japan is so utterly baseless as hardly to be worth attention.”