Four-Fifty Miles to Freedom — Chapter 14, Part 2 - Failure and Success

The going was so difficult that we had several times to help one another over the enormous boulders which filled the bottom of the ravine, and down precipitous places where there had once been small waterfalls.

At 7 P. M.

we were not far from the mouth of the ravine.

Here, then, the party halted, while Nobby, who had been there on two previous occasions, scouted ahead.

When he returned, reporting that all seemed to be clear, we crept on out of the ravine.

It was now night.

Walking very carefully, testing each footstep for fear of treading on a twig or loose stone and so making a noise, we came to a wall.

This we crossed at a low place where it had been partially broken down, and a hundred yards beyond found ourselves approaching a line of telegraph poles and then the coast road.

Up and down this we peered in the light of the young moon, and seeing no one went across.

The ground here was level, but covered with big bushes and a few stunted firs, between which we made our way to the shore.

It was grand to hear the lapping of the waves and smell the seaweed after nearly four years.

The creek, in which were the two rowing-boats, lay a mile to the west of us.

We had intended to strike the shore where we were, for by walking to the creek along the edge of the sea the risk of stumbling against any tents or huts in the dark would be reduced; but it took us longer to reach our objective than we had expected.

It was almost midnight when, a quarter of a mile from the creek, and near a place where a boat could be brought conveniently alongside, the party halted.

Leaving the others here, Cochrane and Johnny were to try to seize one of the two boats marked down four nights previously, and Nobby was to accompany them in case they needed help.

The shore line, which they now followed, rose rapidly to a steep cliff forty feet or more above the level of the sea.

When within a hundred yards of the boat which they wanted, they found a way down to a narrow ledge two feet above the water.

The moon had long set, but they could see the boat as a dark shadow against the water reflecting the starlight.

Here, then, Cochrane and Johnny proceeded to strip.

They continued, however, to wear a couple of pairs of socks in case the bottom should be covered with sharp spikes, as had been the rocky edge of the shore for the most part.

They tied two pieces of thin rope round their waists with a clasp-knife attached to each.

Thus equipped, they let themselves down off the ledge, and slipped quietly into the sea.

Fortunately the water was warm; but it was phosphorescent too, so they had to swim very slowly to avoid making any unnecessary ripple.

As they neared the boat, which now loomed big above them, some one in the shadow of the cliff a few yards away coughed.

Next moment they heard the butt of a rifle hitting a rock as the sentry (for such he must have been) shifted his position.

Hardly daring to breathe, they swam to the side of the boat farther from him and held on to it.

Here the water was about six feet deep.

After waiting a few minutes to let any suspicions on the part of the sentry subside, they moved along to the bow of the boat.

They had hoped to find it anchored by a rope, but to their great disappointment it was moored with a heavy iron chain.

Speaking in very low whispers, they decided that one should go under the water and lift the anchor, while the other, with his piece of rope, tied one of the flukes to a link high up in the chain.

When the anchor was thus raised clear of the bottom, they would swim quietly away, towing the boat.

Accordingly, Cochrane dived and lifted the anchor, while Johnny tied his rope round a fluke and made it fast to a link as far up the chain as possible.

They then let go.

With what seemed to them a terrific noise, the chain rattled over the gunwale till the anchor was once more on the bottom.

Were they discovered?

Another cough!

They did not dare to move.

Could the plash of the water lapping against the sides of the creek have muffled the sound of the rattling chain?

If only the chain had been fixed!

But perhaps a short length only had been loose.

Another attempt was made.

This time it was Johnny who lifted the anchor, while Cochrane tied his rope to it.

Unfortunately he had the rope still round his waist, and when the anchor dropped he was carried down with it.

How lucky that he had his clasp-knife!

For though he was free in a few seconds, he came to the surface spluttering out the water he had swallowed.

It was a near thing that he was not drowned.

Where, meantime, was the anchor?

Little did they realise that it was lying once more on the bottom and laughing at their efforts to carry off the quarry that night.

Some point of the chain, of course, must be attached to the boat, but it was risky to continue getting rid of the spare length by the present method.

Besides, there was no more rope with which to tie up the anchor to the chain.

As for getting into the boat and weighing anchor from there, it would be sheer madness.

The sentry would be certain to see them, naked and wet as they were.

By this time they were both shivering violently with cold, though, as has been said, the water was quite warm.

As a last attempt they tried to take the boat out to the end of the chain by swimming away with it farther from the sentry.

Again the chain rattled over the gunwale, and there was nothing for it but to admit defeat.

Slowly they swam back to the ledge where Nobby was awaiting them.

He said they had been away for an hour and twenty minutes, so it was not surprising that they had felt cold.

With numbed fingers they put on their clothes and climbed gloomily up the cliff.

By this time the walking over sharp rocks had cut their socks and padding to pieces, so that they were marching almost barefoot, a very painful operation.

On their rejoining the party, the sad tale of failure was told.

As the time was 3 A. M.

, the only thing to do was to get into the best cover we could find near the coast and sleep till dawn.

About a hundred yards inland we lay down in some small bushes beneath stunted pine-trees.

There we slept.

Our thirty-fifth morning found us in a state of great depression.

There seemed no chance left of getting out of the country.

Lying in our hiding-places we reviewed the situation in an almost apathetic mood.

We were on the eastern side of a W-shaped bay, a mile wide, and opening southwards.

Its eastern arm was the creek, in which was the boat we had failed to capture.

There was a similar western arm, the two creeks being separated by a narrow spit of land.

From quite early in the morning motor-lorries could be seen and heard winding their way along the tortuous road.

In several places this closely followed the coast line, and at one or two was carried on causeways across the sea itself.

We lay on a headland on the seaward side of the Turkish encampment, and were overlooked by the look-out post on the cliff-side.

At noon a council of war was held.

As we were lying dotted about some distance from one another, for the time being we all crept into an old shelter made of branches, not many yards from us.

There matters were discussed.

Although several schemes were put forward, going back to the ravine in which we had spent so many wearisome days was not one of them.

To return there would have made us into raving lunatics.

The final decision was to make another attempt that night to seize the boat; this time there should be four of us in the water.

If that failed, about the most attractive proposal was to go boldly on to the coast road and by bluff obtain a lift on a motor-lorry, demanding as Germans to be taken in a westerly direction to the nearest big town, Selefké: we might get a boat of some sort there.

The chief lure of this scheme was that, should the lorry-driver believe our story, we should cover a few miles without walking on our flat feet.

This was a fascinating thought indeed, for despite nearly a fortnight on the coast we had no wish to set out on the tramp again.

Two or three of us, however, thought we might sum up the energy to march eastwards along the road in the hope of finding a boat in the bay of Ayasch.

But even if we did this there was still the difficulty about food and drink.

Unless we replenished our supply we should have to undertake a sea voyage of at least a hundred miles with only two days' rations and perhaps a water-bottle full of water apiece.

The consensus of opinion was thus come to that if we failed again that night we might as well give ourselves up the next day.

We then went back into our old and safer hiding-places.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon we heard the sound of a far-off motor.

This was no lorry.

It came from a different direction.

In a few seconds we were all listening intently.

"It's only another lorry after all!"

"No, it can't be.

It's on the sea side of us!"

As the minutes passed, the noise became more and more distinct.

Then our hearts leapt within us, as there came into the bay, towing a lighter and a dinghy, the motor-tug which we had last seen the day after we had reached the coast.

Skirting the shore not three hundred yards from where we lay, the boats disappeared into the eastern creek.

Apathy and depression were gone in a second.

Excitement and--this we like to remember--a deep sense of thankfulness for this answer to our prayers took their place.

The motor-boat was flying at her bows a Turkish and at her stern a German flag, but most of her crew of seven or eight looked to us like Greeks.

In the lighter were over twenty Turks.

Another council of war took place, but of a very different type from the last.

All were hopeful, and we made our plans in high spirits.

Throughout our discussion, however, ran the assumption that some of the crew would be on board the motor-boat, and we should have to bribe them to take us across to Cyprus.

It never entered our heads for a moment that any other scheme would be possible.

In fact, when about an hour before sunset the dinghy with a few of the crew and some water-beakers on board was rowed across to a point opposite us on the western side of the bay (where there must have been a spring of fresh water), we determined to hail them on their return journey.

At one point they came within three hundred yards of us.

In answer to our shouting and whistling, they stopped rowing and looked in our direction.

They must have seen us, but they refused to take any further notice.

Whom did they take us for?

And why did they not report our presence when they went ashore?

No one came to search for us; and as the mountain had not come to Mahomet, Mahomet would have to go to the mountain.

Some one would have to swim out to the boat that night, and proffer bribes to the crew.

As the dusk of our thirty-sixth night fell, a ration of chupatties and a couple of handfuls of raisins were issued.

A move was then made to the nearest point on the shore at which there was a suitable place for a boat to come alongside.

There we waited till the moon set at about 8. 30. In the meantime we drank what water remained in the big dixie.

This left us with only our water-bottles full.

At this time our best Turkish scholar was feeling very sick.

The last scrapings from the pack containing the porridge had fallen to him, and as all of it had turned sour during the previous night, Grunt's extra ration was proving a not unmixed blessing.

This was a serious matter, as we relied on him to negotiate with the motor-boat's crew.

However, at 9 P. M.

, he and Cochrane, the Old Man and Nobby, set forth on the last great venture.

The others moved all the kit close down to the edge of the rock where a boat could come in.

An anxious wait ensued.

The four had set out at 9 o'clock, but it was not till 11. 30 that Looney, with his last reserve--half a biscuit--gone, saw a boat coming silently towards him.

In a trice the other three were awakened.

Was it friend or foe?

She had four men on board: they were our four.

The moment the boat touched at the rock the kit was thrown in.

Cochrane had done magnificent work.

He had swum round the creek, found out that there was no one in the motor-boat, cut away the dinghy belonging to the lighter, swum back with it, and fetched the other three.

Eight hopeful fugitives were soon gently paddling the dinghy towards the creek, keeping, so far as might be, in the shadow of the cliffs;

for though the moon was down, the stars seemed to make the open bay unpleasantly light.

As noiselessly as possible the dinghy came alongside the motor-boat and made fast.

The creek here was about sixty yards wide.

The tug, moored by a heavy chain and anchor, was in the middle of it.

Some fifteen yards away was the lighter; on this were several men, one of whom was coughing the whole time we were "cutting out" the motor-boat.

This took us a full hour.

On trying the weight of the chain and anchor, Cochrane decided to loose the motor-boat from her anchorage by dropping the chain overboard.

He did not think it would be possible to weigh the anchor.

Odd lengths of cord were collected and joined up in readiness for lowering the end of the chain silently when the time came.

But success was not to be attained so easily.

Boarding the motor-boat, Nobby and Perce had, foot by foot, got rid of almost all the chain which lay in the bows, when another score of fathoms were discovered below deck.

It would be quicker, after all, to weigh anchor, and by superhuman efforts this was at length achieved without attracting the attention of the enemy, our coats and shirts being used as padding over the gunwale.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mrs Houstoun taken at Kyrenia, Cyprus.

_ THE MOTOR BOAT.

] As soon as the anchor was weighed, we connected the motor-boat with the dinghy by a tow-rope found on the former; all got back into the dinghy, and in this we paddled quietly away.

With our home-made paddles and heavy tow we were unable to make much headway.

With six paddles in the water, we could credit ourselves with a speed of not so much as a single knot.

Once clear of the bay, Cochrane again went aboard the motor-boat and this time had a look at the engine.

We had remaining at this time about an inch of candle, but this served a very useful purpose.

By its glimmer Cochrane was able to discover and light a hurricane-lamp.

He told us the joyous news that there was a fair quantity of paraffin in the tank.

Unfortunately no petrol was to be found, and it seemed unlikely that we should be able to start the engine from cold on paraffin alone.

So weak indeed were we, that it was all we could do to turn over the engine at all.

While frantic efforts were being made by Cochrane and Nobby to start her, those in the dinghy continued paddling.

After three hours all were very tired of it, and very grateful for a slight off-shore breeze which gave us the chance of setting a sail.

Cochrane rigged up our main-sail on the motor-boat; all then clambered aboard the latter.

Our speed was now quite good and many times that of our most furious paddling.

Suddenly looking back, we saw the dinghy adrift and disappearing in the darkness behind us.

Whoever had been holding the rope at the dinghy end had omitted to make fast on coming on board the motor-boat.

The dinghy still contained all our kit; so to recover this, including as it did what food and water remained to us, Cochrane and Johnny jumped overboard and swam back to it.

The sail on the motor-boat had been furled, and in a few minutes the dinghy was again in tow.

After this slight misadventure the engine-room was once more invaded, and Looney and Cochrane experimented with the magneto.

There was a loose wire and vacant terminal which they were uncertain whether to connect or not.

Eventually, with Nobby turning over the engine, a shock was obtained with the two disconnected.

Two were now put on to the starting-handle.

But the cramped space produced several bruised heads and nothing else as pair after pair struggled on.

At length at 4. 30 A.

M.

, little more than an hour before dawn, the engine started up with a roar, in went the clutch, and off went the motor-boat at a good seven knots.

At the time when the engine began firing, Nobby, who was feeling very much the worse for his exertions in weighing anchor followed by his efforts to start the motor, was lying on deck in the stern.

Startled by the sudden series of explosions, he thought for a moment that a machine-gun had opened fire at short range, till he discovered that he was lying on the exhaust-pipe, the end of which was led up on deck!

CHAPTER XV.