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[Page 54]
it was a lion, but we knew that it was not likely for a lion to be in that part of the country so we did not know what to think about it. (Two years afterwards while I was working at Gelebek not many miles from that place one of the German engineers shot a large wolf so we came to the conclusion that it must have been a wolf which we came across on that night. About 3 a.m. we got off the mountains into some fairly clear country we could see a fairly high hill in the distance so we decided to make for this and spend the following in the top of this hill about 4 a.m. we started to climb reaching the top about 4.30. We were surprised to find remains of a building here so we approached very carefully. On examination it was found to be the ruins of an old Arab castle bushes having grown up amongst the stone ruins. We found it quite a good hiding place. When day broke we were surprised to see several small villages round this hill, so we lay down and slept on till well on in the afternoon. Then we began to think about getting water. In the distance we could make out cattle and horses going to a certain spot remaining a while, and then going away. We came to the conclusion that there must be water there so we marked the position. At dusk we made our way off the hill in the direction we expected to find the water. After half an hours walk we came to well. There was a house about three hundred yards away, a dog barking we decided to run the risk and get water from the well. It turned out to be good water and nobody had seen us. Shortly after this we were crossing a field and came on a patch of water melons. They were not quite ripe but that did not matter. We sat down and ate one a piece and carried a couple with us. We soon got into rough country again. About midnight we came to a sheer precipice. We could not see any means of climbing down as it was a sheer cliff about 300 feet. We sat down and listened, away down below we could hear the faint sound of running water. We soon came on the conclusion that this must be the Tarsus river which we had to cross so we decided to follow the course of the river down until we came to a place where we could climb down to cross. So we set off it was not long before we came to a clear piece of ground so we made our way towards this. We intended asking for water as we had run out. When we got close to the building we called out "su" in Turkish for water but got no reply, so we called out again. This time an old man stood up on the roof. He had been sleeping there as it was very warm weather, so we called out again but he would not answer us, so we thought he may take us for robbers and give us a bullet, so we decided to get away while we were safe. We got up in amongst the bushes and rocks and after travelling a little way we decided to lay down and sleep till daylight. At daylight we got under way again. We had not gone far before we sighted a small village right ahead of us so we made our way towards the river. Again our luck was in for there was a water-way leading down to the river. On examination we found that by careful manouvering we would be able to get down.