Then, watching their opportunity, the twain walked steadily past the workers and gained the comparatively open country.
Since an attack was not for the present expected, no outlying pickets had been posted. On descending a slight irregularity in the terrain Dick and the midshipman found themselves out of the direct glare of the search-light, while every step took them farther and farther away from the scene of their captivity during the last six weeks.
"Due east until it gets light. Then we'll have to lie low during the day, and shape a course for the neighbourhood of Kum Kale as soon as it becomes dark again."
"I'm beginning to feel jolly hungry, sir."
"And so am I," admitted Dick. "The problem of how we are to attend to the victualling department must not be lost sight of. But for the present we must put as great a distance as possible between us and our pursuers--and I hope they won't look for us in this direction."
On and on they plodded steadily, maintaining silence and straining their ears for sounds of human beings. Being night the peasantry took good care not to be about, for the civilian population, consisting almost entirely of old men, women, and children, had been warned of the danger of being in the vicinity of the defences after sunset.
"Something moving," reported the midshipman, "and precious close, too."
The two officers halted and listened intently.
Not so very far away on their right front came a succession of soft thuds, as if caused by someone dropping a number of sand-bags with considerable regularity.
He was right. A convoy bearing supplies was on its way from the interior towards the Dardanelles forts. They passed along a rough track within fifty feet of the spot where the officers lay hidden--a hundred or more patient beasts heavily laden, and in charge of a number of natives. About a dozen Bashi Bazouks, fierce-looking fellows whose weapons gleamed in the dull light, served as an escort.
The fugitives waited until the sounds of the passing convoy had died away.
"Bear more to the left," whispered Dick. "We're converging too much upon a hill road. We'll have to foot it pretty briskly, for it must be sunrise within an hour."
"Isn't it about time we discarded our rotten togs?" asked Farnworth, whose whole being felt repugnance at the idea of having to don the dishonourable uniform of Germany.