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[Page 59]
with half a dozen jappaties (chupatties) and ten eggs and said he was sorry but that was all he could get. My mate thanked him and then they got into conversation. My mate asked him if English ships ever came around her. The old man replied that they had been there just eight days ago and how bad the English were. My mate agreed with him, said goodbye to him and came back to me, When he told me his experiences we had a good laugh and then settled down to eat some raw eggs and bread, thinking that we had at least deceived one Turk.
After this we ate 2 raw eggs each and a little of the bread and three of four figs each, after which we slept as much as possible till the evening when we were going to make a move. At sunset we shifted out on to the terrace of the beach and found a splendid hiding place in a clump of bushes where we could obtain a good view of the sea. After a short consultation we decided that we would stop here till our food ran out in the hope that a ship would come in sight and we would have a chance of signalling her as we had been told that patrolling ships came in very close on this part of the coast. We hung on for two days and not a sign of smoke or even said. Just after dark on the second day here, we decided to go in for a swim as it might freshen us up a bit, after which we would continue our walk round the coast in the hope of finding a small fishing boat and being able to buy a little food from the villages without being detected. But after our swim we felt so dead tired and downhearted that we decided to go out on to the main road and walk back and give ourselves up if we were not caught before we got back. We knew that if we could get back to the Camp we would be punished lighter than if we were caught away. In the morning we got out on to the road and walked along as if we were natives. We walked for about two miles passing several people who took practically no notice of us, except passing the time of day. We sat down in the shade of a tree close to the road. It was a very hot day and we were not over strong so had to keep resting. We had not been sat down very long when we noticed an old gendarme (police) officer coming down towards us. We immediately thought that all was up but deceided to carry on the game of bluff till the last. He came over to us and after bidding us the time of day sat down. The first thing he did was to offer us his cigarette box to make a cigarette which is always the custom in Turkey like in Australia. The usual thing is to have a drink. Of course this was a great luxury to us not having had a smoke for about ten days. After this he wanted to know who we were. We replied that we were German Telegraph mechanics repairing this line. Then he wanted to know where our passports were. We replied that we had none with us but we had left them at the German Headquarters at Bozanti. After this he was silent for some time. Then he wanted to know if we knew how many Russians and English prisoners there were at work on the Railway. We told him we knew there were prisoners of war there but we did