ON THE COAST.
There was still, however, no time to be lost in discovering and
obtaining the motor-tug or other boat, seeing that we had arrived on
the coast with barely three days' supply of food. That same night,
then, Cochrane and Nobby carried out a reconnaissance, continuing
to follow our ravine down towards the sea, in the hope that they
would come out opposite the bay into which the tug and her tow had
disappeared that afternoon. The remainder settled down to sleep as best
they could, without a dinner and on hard and stony beds, taking it
in turns at half-hour intervals to keep watch. This was necessary to
prevent the two scouts passing them unawares should they return in the
dark.
The whole party had reached the coast on their last legs. In the case
of Grunt especially, nothing short of the certainty of being able to
walk on board a boat could have moved him that night. He had still not
recovered from the effects of the blow on the head. As for Cochrane
and Nobby, it must have been pure strength of will which enabled them
to carry on, after the trying day in the damp heat. Cochrane, indeed,
had undertaken what proved beyond his powers; upon him more than any
had fallen the brunt of the work of guiding the little column night
after night and day after day. It was not to be wondered at that on
this occasion he had not proceeded a mile before his legs simply gave
way beneath him, and he had to allow Nobby to proceed alone.
Soon afterwards the ravine took an almost northerly direction. When
it eventually petered out it was at some distance to the north of the
probable position of the motor-boat. Nobby now found himself crossing
the coast road; this we had assumed would be guarded. On the way out
he saw no one; but on his return journey next morning he proved our
assumption correct by almost stepping on the face of a man who lay
sleeping on the road. He was presumably on duty. The propensity of
the Turkish sentry for going to sleep at his post once more stood us
in good stead. During the night it had been too dark to see much, and
Nobby had had to return without having discovered a boat. After hunting
round, he had settled down on the edge of a small creek running into
the sea, where he remained till the first streak of dawn enabled him to
pick his way back to the mouth of the ravine. His main difficulty that
night had been to keep himself awake. All the time he was in deadly
terror of falling asleep and awaking to find himself stranded on the
coast in broad daylight.
[Illustration:
_Sketched to Authors' description by Hal Kay._
LIFE IN THE RAVINE.]
He tried to occupy himself with fishing. He had taken with him the
line and hooks which were an item of the party's equipment on leaving
Yozgad; but no bites came to keep up his flagging interest. Before
long he had a midnight bathe, to the great envy of the rest of the
party when they heard of it next morning; but the water, he said, had
been almost too warm to be really refreshing; the rocks, too, were
unpleasantly sharp to stand on. He next picked at an exposed nerve
in one of his teeth, and the acute pain thereby inflicted served to
keep him awake for the rest of the night. At long length the sky began
to lighten, and Nobby, after his narrow escape while re-crossing the
road, once more entered the ravine and picked up Cochrane. The two then
rejoined their anxious comrades.
It was now 5 A.M. Dawn was slow to reach our hemmed-in
hiding-place; but when it was light enough to see, we discovered that
the sides of the ravine were covered with trees bearing what Ellis
fortunately recognised as "carobs" or locust beans. We were soon
doing what we could to stifle the gnawing pains of hunger by eating
quantities of this wild fruit. Some people believe that this is what is
meant by the "locusts" eaten by John the Baptist. To our taste they
seemed wonderfully sweet and had something of the flavour of chocolate,
so that throughout our stay on the coast they formed an unfailing
dessert after, and often before our meals. When we eventually reached
Cyprus we found that there the tree is cultivated, and that thousands
of tons of carobs are exported yearly for use in cattle foods. However
humble their use, in our case at any rate they were not to be despised,
and as a matter of fact the cultivated beans are used to some extent in
the manufacture of certain chocolates.
The night reconnaissance having failed to solve the question of the
motor-boat's anchorage, at 7 A.M. on this last day of August,
Johnny and Looney set out on a search for the elusive bay by daylight.
Climbing up the southern side of the ravine, they had to keep out of
sight of the men who were known to be below them, so they at first
remained at some distance from the coast, moving parallel to it for
over a mile. They then turned towards the sea until they reached a
terrace below which the ground fell away rather steeply to the shore.
From this point of observation it was possible to see the greater part
of the series of capes and bays into which the coast was divided. Still
no sign of the tug gladdened their eyes. A closer approach by day would
involve considerable risk. A couple of motor-lorries and a mounted
patrol had already been observed moving along the road. The two scouts
sat down awhile on some boulders behind a large bush, and while Johnny
peered between the branches through the field-glasses, Looney drew a
rough panorama so as to be able if necessary to indicate to the rest of
the party any particular bay.
It was about 10 A.M.: the two were about to seek some point
of vantage from which it would be possible to see more of some of the
bays, when suddenly they heard the hum of a motor. Next moment the
tug shot into view from the hidden portion of one of the bays to the
N.E. Once more she towed a cutter full of men and stores, and through
the glasses it was possible to recognise the Turkish flag flying at
her stern. The two remained where they were, watching her until she
disappeared round a bend far up the coast towards Mersina.
Possibly she made daily trips, carrying working parties and material to
some scene of activity, so the two decided to try to overlook the head
of the bay in which she had appeared, in order to discover something
definite about the anchorage. To reduce the risk of detection, they
first withdrew out of sight of the road and worked their way more to
the north before cutting down again towards the shore. On the way
out from the ravine they had passed near some ruins, and these they
now took in their course to see if there might be a well there with
water in it. It was unfortunate that there was not, for in this dead
city there was one enormous and very deep amphitheatre, into which it
was possible to descend by a path cut in the rocky side. Here shade
from the sun would have been obtainable at all hours of the day, and
altogether it would have been a better hiding-place than the ravine, if
only it had contained a water supply. But though they found the remains
of one well, it was absolutely dry.
The two now made their way cautiously towards the place whence the
boats had been seen to emerge. The slope of the ground, however, became
more and more pronounced as they approached the coast, so that they
were able to see little more of the bay than had been visible from
their earlier observation point; although by this time they were within
sight of the tents seen on the previous day. These stood a little way
out on a small cape. Dodging from cover to cover amongst the patches
of scrub, sometimes on hands and knees, they finally found themselves
close to the coast road itself.
Leaving Looney screened from view, Johnny now went on alone. He was not
twenty yards from the road when a Turkish soldier passed along it. A
moment later four or five others were seen skirting the seaward edge
of a rocky headland to the south, apparently engaged in looking for
mussels. It was now obvious that opposite the head of the bay which
they sought, the coast rose so sheer, that to obtain a view of the
whole would entail going forward across the road to the edge of the
cliff beyond. With so many people moving about, this, by daylight, was
out of the question, and after seven hours' reconnaissance in the hot
sun the two had to be satisfied with bringing back the information that
they knew which bay the boats had entered the day before, but that they
were there no longer.
Meanwhile another party of two--to wit, the Old Man and Perce--had gone
forth from the ravine in a last search for food. Without a further
supply of this we should be compelled to give ourselves up unless we
at once discovered a boat. Of inhabited villages there appeared to be
none, even should we have dared to attempt another entry after the
experiences of "the three Huns." The Circassian encampments, too, had
ceased.
It is a fairly well-known fact that in the East if villagers are driven
away from their homes for any cause, such as a punitive expedition,
they usually take steps to bury any valuables which they are unable
to carry away, the most common of which is grain. We had bethought
ourselves of the deserted village some miles back, near to which we
had halted just before our first glimpse of the sea. It occurred to us
that the occupants might have been compelled by the Turkish authorities
to quit on the outbreak of war, as being within too short a distance
of the coast. In this case, then, there might be food there, buried
or otherwise concealed. In this, providentially, we were to find
ourselves not mistaken, although the search party set off with little
hopes of success.
It required a five-mile climb up the series of ridges to reach the
village, and the track was very rough to the feet. On the previous day
even the descent had been trying enough in the oppressive heat which
seemed to prevail on the coast; so the ascent was doubly so. Moreover,
the village itself did not come into view until one was within a mile
of it, and as there were remains of other tracks branching off at
frequent intervals, it was not easy for the Old Man and Perce to keep
to the right one. Great was their relief when, after a good deal of
wandering, they found themselves safely within the farm enclosure; for
really the "village" comprised only one house with its outbuildings,
all within a square walled enclosure.
There seemed to be no one about, so they set to work to force the
rough country locks with which all the doors were fastened. They
had brought the little adze with them, and for this work it was
invaluable, although its steel edge was not thereby improved. One of
the upstair living-rooms was first invaded. On entering they found
the floor bare, but cupboards and lockers in the wall stuffed full of
a wonderful variety of things--rolls of cloth (obviously made on the
spot, for there were remains of the looms), coarse cotton-wool, a few
handkerchiefs, cobbler's materials and tools, an old coffee-grinder in
pieces, some hoop-iron, an enamelled mug, a dozen wooden spoons, and a
miscellaneous collection of odds and ends such as seem to collect in
all houses, English and Turkish alike. The only items of present value
were the handkerchiefs, a little prepared leather, the mug, and some of
the spoons. These they removed, and by dint of looking into many small
cloth bags found something of greater value--namely, a couple of pounds
of dry powdery cheese, and as much salt as we were likely to want if we
stayed on the coast for a month.
These alone, however, were not going to keep eight hungry mortals
alive, so the joy of the two searchers was proportionately great when,
on breaking into an outhouse and stumbling over a litter of wooden
staves, they discovered in the next room something over 300 pounds of
wheat lying in a heap on the floor. The grain was uncrushed and dirty,
but that disadvantage could be overcome with a little trouble. Further
search revealed nothing more in the way of food, but it was noted that
in other rooms there were several cooking-pots which might be worth
taking down on a future visit. For the present the two loaded up their
packs with some grain, and hurriedly bundling back the things which
they had turned out from the cupboards, set their faces once more
towards the sea.
At 5.45 that evening two weary figures staggered into view, being met
by Cochrane, Nobby, and Johnny, who had gone up to the well near the
tower to draw water. They had reason to be happy, for this find of food
postponed indefinitely our capitulation to hunger.
All five remained at the well till after dark in order to grind enough
grain for an evening meal, using a heavy stone to beat a little of it
at a time inside a hollowed-out slab, intended for use in watering
sheep. Nobby and Johnny, who stayed a few minutes after the other
three, were accosted on their way back to the ravine by a couple of
men riding away from the coast on donkeys. They asked our two whether
they belonged to the camp below, and seemed quite satisfied when they
said they did. This confirmed suspicions which some of us had had the
previous day, that certain of the tents we had seen contained Germans;
for the two men could certainly not have taken any of us for Turks.
Crushing grain by pounding it with a primitive stone pestle and mortar
is at best a fatiguing process, nor are the results favourable to easy
digestion. Not only did some of the grains escape being crushed, but
chips of stone from the sides of the mortar became mixed with the food,
which was none too clean in itself. Cochrane said he would make the
most worn-out old coffee-grinder do better work with the expenditure
of half the energy, so we decided to have another expedition to the
village next day to fetch the one which had been noticed there.
We could hardly hope to make a series of visits without eventual
discovery; it was best therefore to fetch down at the same time as much
more of the wheat as we were likely to want.
Accordingly at 7 A.M. on the 1st September, four of the party
started off carrying empty packs. These were Nobby, Johnny, and Ellis,
and the Old Man, who went for the second time to show the others the
way. On arrival they found distinct signs that the two men who had been
met the previous evening had gone to the farmhouse and to the well just
below it. Whether they had noticed anything wrong, there was nothing to
show. In any case, the four lost no time in loading up and returning to
a safer spot, reaching the ravine at about 3.30 P.M.
The other half of the party had gone in turns to the well, to fetch
water and do some more crude grinding for the day's food. It took
an hour and a half to do a single trip for water alone. Each time
nearly an hour was spent in drawing up water mugful by mugful till all
available receptacles were full. So we were thankful when later on that
day, Cochrane, scouting around, discovered another well. This was not
only a little nearer to our lair, but also had one place deep enough
to permit the use of a canvas bucket. This meant a great saving of
time. The water, too, held in solution rather less mud, and none of the
bits of mouldy wood which formed a fair proportion of the hauls from
the well by the tower. Near the new well there were more ruins, in this
case only a few low walls, and, standing apart, a semicircular arch of
some twelve feet in diameter--just the bare ring of stones remained and
nothing else.
From now onwards, for the rest of our stay on the coast, we settled
down to a new kind of existence--in fact we may be said to have
_existed_, and nothing more. Life became a dreary grind, both literally
and metaphorically. For the next few days, at any rate, we thought of
nothing else but how to prepare and eat as much food as we could. This
was not greed: it was the only thing to do. None of us wanted to lie a
day longer than absolutely necessary in that awful ravine, but we were
at present simply too weak to help ourselves. To carry out a search for
another boat was beyond the powers of any one.
Cochrane rigged up the coffee-grinder on the same afternoon as it had
arrived--lashing the little brass cylinder to the branch of a tree at
a convenient height for a man to turn the handle. A rusty saw, cutting
like all Oriental saws on the pull-stroke, had been discovered in the
village and brought down by the last party, and this proved useful now
and on subsequent occasions.
Whilst one of the party worked at the mill, and another supervised
the cooking of the next dixieful of porridge, the rest were busy
picking over the grain in the hopes of removing at any rate some small
proportion of the empty husks and the bits of earth with which it was
mixed. Even so it was impossible to clean the dirt off the grains
themselves.
Nothing, we thought, could be more wearisome than this never-ending
task. Our misery was aggravated by the swarms of flies which
incessantly harassed us as we worked. What right they had to be alive
at all on such a deserted coast was never discovered. He whose turn
it was to cook found in the smoke from the fire a temporary respite
from their attentions; but they took care to make up for lost time
afterwards. When the water was nearly boiled away, bits of porridge
were wont to leap out of the pot and light on the cook's hands. The
ensuing blister did not last long, for within twenty-four hours the
flies had eaten it all away. We had no bandages left, and pieces of
paper which we used to wet and stick on the blisters fell off as soon
as they were dry. It was not many days before Old Man's and Johnny's
hands became covered with septic sores. Unfortunately, too, most of us
were out of 'baccy, as a means of keeping these pests away. Some took
to smoking cigarettes made from the dried leaves which littered the
stony bed of our unhappy home. Even the non-smoker of the party had to
give way to the pernicious habit once, out of pure self-defence.
Nor at night was it easy to obtain peace. The flies had no sooner gone
to their well-earned rest than the mosquitoes took up the call with
their high-pitched trumpet notes. But of course it was not the noise
which mattered, but their bites; and in the end most of us used to
sleep with a handkerchief or piece of cloth over our faces, and a pair
of socks over our hands.
Ravine life was most relaxing--partly owing to the stuffiness of the
air in so deep and narrow a cleft, overgrown as it was with trees and
scrub; but perhaps still more to reaction, after more than three weeks
of strenuous marching. So long as we had had the encouragement of being
able to push on each day, and feel that we were getting nearer home, we
had no time to think of bodily exhaustion: the excitement, mild though
it was, kept us going. Now, unable to do anything towards making good
our escape, it required a big effort to drag oneself to one's feet
for the purpose of fetching a mugful of porridge. It required a still
bigger one to go up in pairs to fetch water from the well, although it
was essential for every one to do this at least once a day, merely to
keep the pot a-boiling. This, too, was the only way of obtaining a deep
drink; except for half a mug of tea made from several-times stewed
leaves, all the water brought down to the nullah each day was utilised
for cooking the wheat. Fortunately, to take us to the well there was
the further inducement of a wash for both bodies and clothes. The
latter by this time were in a very dirty and also worn-out condition;
but thanks doubtless to our having spent no appreciable time inside
villages actually occupied by Turks, they were not verminous.
On account of the washing, visits to the well were apt at times to
develop into lengthy affairs--anything up to five or six hours, which
did not help towards getting through the daily tasks necessary to keep
ourselves fed. Not only did this involve having reliefs at the mill
for eight out of every twenty-four hours, but much work was necessary
to keep up the supply of cleaned wheat to feed the machine. Necessity,
however, is the mother of invention, and from the 5th September, acting
on a suggestion made by Looney, we used to take the next day's wheat up
to the well and wash it there in a couple of changes of water. There
was a convenient stone trough on the spot. The chaff floated to the
surface, while the earth, whether in loose particles or clinging to the
grains themselves, was dissolved. After washing, the wheat was spread
out in the sun on squares of cloth brought down from the village, and
when dry was fetched back to the ravine by the next water-party.
Like most schemes, this one had its weak points. It was very
extravagant in water, and in a few days our well began to show distinct
signs of being drained to emptiness; in fact, only a puddle could have
existed to begin with, though a larger one than that in the well near
the tower.
The second disadvantage was that the grain, while left out to dry,
might be discovered and give away our presence; but, in any case, one
pair or another of the party was so often up at the well that the risk
was not greatly increased; besides, there was not much to induce a Turk
from the camp below to visit the ruins.
In the end we were seen, the first occasion being on the 6th September.
That evening, Cochrane, Old Man, and Looney were up at the well,
when an old fellow with a dyed beard--a Turk, as far as they could
say--suddenly appeared, and eyed their water-bottles very thirstily. He
accepted with readiness the drink they offered to him, but appeared to
be nothing of a conversationalist. He was indeed almost suspiciously
indifferent who the three might be. There was a mystery about that man
which we never entirely solved. From then onwards, almost to the end of
our stay on the coast, not a day passed without his seeing one or other
of the party. To explain _our_ presence at the well, the water-parties
pretended they were German observation posts sent up to watch the sea,
over which, as a matter of fact, one could obtain a very fine view
from that place. We usually carried up the field-glasses to have a
look round, and these perhaps helped out our story. To live up further
to our Hun disguise, we once told the man that really the place was
"yessak." This is the Turkish equivalent to "verboten," and, to judge
from our experiences in the camps, is about as frequently used.
On another occasion it was sunset when some of us saw him. After
his usual drink he washed his hands and face and said his prayers
Mohammedan-wise. After his prayers he said he had seen two boats go
past coming from the east and disappearing to the west. Little remarks
like this made us think at one time that he might possibly be a
British agent, landed to get information, or possibly for the express
purpose of helping escaped officers like ourselves: for there had been
plenty of time for the news of our escape from Yozgad to reach the
Intelligence Department in Cyprus.
One day Grunt and Nobby deliberately went up to try to get into
conversation with the mysterious individual. In the end they came to
the conclusion that he must be some kind of outlaw. He told them that
a friend and he had come from a place far inland to sell something or
other to a coastal village, and he himself was now awaiting the other's
return. They were going to take back with them a load of carobs, of
which he already had been making collections under various trees. The
beans seemed to be his only food, and he was obviously half-starving.
This, combined with the fact that he relied on us to draw up water
for him when there must be good water near the Turkish tents below,
showed that he was in hiding for some cause or other. This was as
well for us, as, if he had thought at all, he could not for a moment
have been deceived by our story. Even if we were on watch, we should
hardly trouble to bring up not only our own, but a lot of other men's
water-bottles to fill with muddy water at a disused well. Whatever the
explanation, the great thing was that he did not interfere with us. Two
evenings before our final departure from the ravine, he told us that
his donkeys would be coming back next morning, and that was the last
time that he was seen.
A few extracts from diaries may serve to convey some idea of our
feelings during these earlier days in the ravine:--
"_2nd Sept._--Struggled up to well at 8 A.M. Had wash in
mugful of water: temporarily refreshing, but exhausted for rest of day,
and feeling weaker than ever before in spite of five brews of boulgar"
(each brew was at this time about the half of a pint mug all round)
"and one small chupattie each, made by Nobby. Flour for last made with
much hard grinding after mill had been readjusted. Readjustment alone
took two hours to do.... Flies awful all day...."
"_3rd Sept._--Locust beans quite good toasted over ashes, and make
sweet syrup if first cut up and then boiled, but this entails a
lot of work. Every one cleaning and grinding wheat all day. As now
set, grinder produces mixture of coarse flour and boulgar. Tried
unsuccessfully to simmer this into a paste and then bake into thick
chupatties." (All our efforts at this stage were directed towards
producing something digestible with the minimum of work.) "Day passed
very slowly, with occasional trips for water."
"_4th Sept._--Most of us rather doubtful whether we shall be able to
get back our strength on a boulgar diet, and flour takes more grinding
than we have strength for at present--rather a vicious circle." Another
diary for the same date says--"Feeling weaker now than I did when we
first arrived; no energy for anything."
Next day the tide seems to have been on the turn.
"_5th Sept._--Most of us slightly stronger, but held back by chronic
lethargy. Continuous brewing all day. To save interruptions at the
grinder we now feed in two parties of four, taking alternate brews:
this means we get nearly a big mugful at a whack, at intervals of about
three hours.... Most of us fill in gaps eating burnt beans. Charcoal
said to be good for digestion!... One thing is, our feet are rested
here, and blisters healed. We are also undoubtedly putting on flesh
again, and if we can get rid of this hopeless slackness shall be all
right.... Grunt, working from 1 P.M. onwards, made 1 large and
4 small chupatties each, so we are coming on." It was something to feel
full again sometimes.
"_6th Sept._--My energy as well as my strength returning a bit now....
Mill hard at it all day.... 4½ mugfuls boulgar (1 pint each) and 6
chupatties (4½ inches diameter and fairly thick) the day's ration."