CONCLUSION.
There is one note, however, which we feel we must add before laying
down our pens. Many of our readers will have already realised that
there was something more than mere luck about our escape. St Paul,
alluding to his adventures in almost the very same region as that
traversed by us, describes experiences very like our own. Like him, we
were "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers,
... in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
wilderness, in perils in the sea, ... in weariness and painfulness, in
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness."
To be at large for thirty-six days before escaping from the country,
to have been so frequently seen, sometimes certainly to have aroused
suspicion, and yet to have evaded recapture, might perhaps be
attributed to Turkish lack of organisation. Our escape from armed
villagers; our discovery of wells in the desert, of grain in an
abandoned farmhouse, and of the water (which just lasted out our stay)
in the ruined wells on the coast; and finally, the timely reappearance
of the motor-tug with all essential supplies for the sea voyage--any
one even of these facts, taken alone, might possibly be called "luck,"
or a happy coincidence; taken in conjunction with one another, however,
they compel the admission that the escape of our party was due to a
higher Power.
It would seem as if it were to emphasise this that on at least three
occasions, when everything seemed to be going wrong, in reality all
was working out for our good. Our meeting with and betrayal by the
two "shepherds" ought, humanly speaking, to have proved fatal to the
success of our venture: we had thrown away valuable food, and were
committed to crossing a desert which previously, without a guide, we
had looked upon as an impassable obstacle. And yet we know now that it
would have been entirely beyond us to have reached the coast by the
route which we had mapped out to Rendezvous X, and that it was only
the deflection from our proposed route caused by this rencontre which
brought the land journey within our powers of endurance. It was the
same when we were forced, against our will, to replenish supplies at a
village; the breakdown of one of the party which compelled us to do so
undoubtedly saved us from making an impossible attempt to reach the
coast with the food which remained at the time. Still more remarkable
was our failure to take the rowing-boat on the night of 10th/11th
September, which resulted in the motor-tug falling into our hands and
being the final means of our escape on the night following.
We feel then that it was Divine intervention which brought us through.
Throughout the preparations for escape every important step had been
made a matter of prayer; and when the final scheme was settled, friends
in England were asked, by means of a code message, to intercede for its
success. That message, we now know, was received and very fully acted
upon. We had also friends in Turkey who were interceding for us; and on
the trek it was more than once felt that some one at home or in Turkey
was remembering us at the time. To us then the hand of Providence was
manifest in our escape, and we see in it an answer to prayer. Our way,
of course, might have been made smoother, but perhaps in that case we
should not have learnt the same lessons of dependence upon God. As it
was, it was made manifest to us that, even in these materialistic days,
to those who can have faith, "the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it
cannot save."
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
[Illustration: MAP OF ASIA MINOR
ILLUSTRATING
"FOUR FIFTY MILES TO FREEDOM."
_Approximate Route followed shown thus_ ----
_M^c. Lagan & Cumming, Litho Edin_]
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious punctuation errors were ccorrected.
Hyphenation was made consistent.
P. 90: was not to carried -> was not to be carried.
P. 196: an an old castle -> an old castle.
P. 254: in case of eventualites -> in case of eventualities.
P. 263: helped to keep the porridge moist -> help to keep the porridge
moist.
P. 267: unnecssary ripple -> unnecessary ripple.