A Secret Agent in Port Arthur by Wirt Gerrare

Many suppose that because the special war correspondents achieved so little they had a comparatively easy life, pleasantly passed under the Sun-flag in the beauteous isles of the Orient. This was not so for those whose luck it was to be accredited to the Russian army in Manchuria, and still less for those newsgatherers who hovered on the frontier of the neutral territory.

There the day's work was long, often arduous, and seldom satisfactory. It had its dangers. Mr. Etzel, of the _Daily Telegraph_, the only correspondent shot during this war, was of us, and I intend now to describe the life we two led together at Yingkow, in the months of March and April. We were not alone, from first to last more than two score correspondents used Yingkow as temporary or permanent headquarters.