In a few minutes he was safe on the other side. Following the stream towards the sea, he came presently to a clearing, and what he saw within the clearing assured him in a flash that his journey had not been in vain.
CHAPTER XXII
THE HOLY MEN
As he scanned the scene, Frank smiled at his thought of the wonderment of the khanji and his humble guests could they but see the habitat of the mysterious "holy men." They, no doubt, had imagined a cave in the cliff, or at best a stone grot, with nothing to suggest modern civilization. What he actually saw had no semblance of luxury, indeed; but it was far from the austerities of the anchorites of old.
On the left of the clearing, as he looked towards the sea, was a small wooden bungalow, with a verandah about three sides of it, pleasantly shaded by trees. Beyond it, at the edge of the wood, was a smaller hut, also of wood. To the right were three more huts, one considerably larger than the others; and by the side of this last was a crane, worked by a donkey engine. Two men were moving about the place, hauling packages from the large hut to the crane. Apparently they were to be let down--to what destination below, Frank could not see.
"I am getting warm," he thought.
It was necessary to discover what lay beneath the crane, and Frank glanced round to find some safe and convenient path by which he might secretly approach it. As he did so, he caught sight of a short pole on the roof of the bungalow, from which a single telegraph wire passed over the clearing to the left and disappeared into the wood. Just below him, skirting the clearing on the right, ran the stream with which he was already acquainted. It was possible, he thought, under cover of the shrubs on the further bank, to gain a point where he might satisfy his curiosity. Cautiously making his way along, completely screened, he came to a spot where the stream fell sheer to the level of the beach between high cliffs, through which it cut a channel to the sea. Immediately beneath the cliff on which the bungalow and the huts stood there was a broad pool, bounded by a similar cliff on the opposite side. And on this pool, just beneath the crane, lay a lighter.
Frank at once realised that the pool, like the buildings, was out of sight from the sea. If a ship were to pass the entrance of the channel, those on board, seeing the waterfall, would at once know that the stream was not navigable, and would probably not think it worth while to enter the channel. No one would suspect that within, indented in the cliffs to the right, there was a small natural harbour, in which a vessel might lie perfectly concealed. Its depth Frank had no means of determining. Immediately beneath him the water was churned into foam by the falling stream. But it was clearly deep enough to float a lighter, and it was equally clear that the depth of the channel must be sufficient for its passage in and out.
From his place of concealment Frank watched. At the foot of the crane there was now a pile of small packages. From one of the huts came a stout bearded man in grimy blue overalls. He sidled into his seat at the donkey engine, jerked the throttle, and addressed one of the labourers. He spoke in Turkish, but in a harsh guttural voice that could proceed from none but a German throat. A moment later Frank heard another voice from the direction of the bungalow, which was hidden from him by the intervening huts. He could not distinguish the words, but immediately afterwards a German sailor came out of the hut on the seaward side of the bungalow, saluted, and rolled off into the woods crowning the cliff. Before he had quite disappeared, Frank noticed a second sailor climbing down the trunk of a tall tree, and lifting his glass (the excellent article for which he was indebted to the major of artillery with whom he had made certain exchanges in Gallipoli) he made out a rope ladder swinging from a lofty branch. The two sailors met at the foot of the tree. They exchanged a few words; then the newcomer ascended the ladder, and the look-out he had relieved sauntered towards the hut.
Realising that his hiding-place was commanded from the look-out post in the tree, Frank slightly changed his position.