‘It’s better than that abominable cliff, anyhow,’ returned Ken.  ’But I’d give something to know where we’re going.’

’I can tell you.  The sea.  If we follow the stream we’re bound to reach salt water.’

‘But where?’ said Ken—­’where?  I don’t know that I’ve got the points of the compass very clear in my head, and there’s no sun visible yet, but if I’m not mistaken, this brook runs east, not west.’

Roy pulled up with a puzzled expression on his face.

’Pon my Sam, I believe you’re right.  In that case, this is the head waters of some stream that runs out into the Straits.’

’That’s my notion, and consequently we’re still going plumb in the wrong direction.’

‘We can’t help it,’ said Roy.  ’It’s no use trying to climb up the far side over the top of the hill.’

’Not a bit.  The first thing to do is to get out of this gorge.  After that we must see if we can’t skirt round the base of the hill, and get back somehow.’

Roy nodded, and for some distance they continued on their uncomfortable way in silence.

‘Not much more of it,’ said Roy at last.  ’We’re getting near the mouth now.’

‘And that’s where our troubles are going to begin,’ said Ken with a smile.  ‘It looks to me as if we were the best part of three miles inland.’

‘Which means that we’ve got to get through the whole bunch of the Turks,’ answered Roy.  ’I say, don’t you wish we’d got our whole crowd up here?  We’d take the enemy in the rear and play old Harry with them.’

’No use wishing that.  But I’ll tell you what, Roy.  If we ever do get back we’ll have some useful information for the colonel.’

Roy nodded, as he scrambled on to the top of a big rock.

‘I can see out of the mouth of the gorge from here,’ he said, as he stood on the summit, ’and by the look of the country you’re about right as to the course of this brook.  We’re the other side of the water-shed altogether.’

Ken clambered up beside him.  A couple of hundred yards farther down the gorge ended, or rather turned into a shallow ravine, down which the stream found its way into a broad valley below.  A rough track crossed this valley, and Ken pointed to figures looking no bigger than dolls in the distance, which moved along it.

‘Reinforcements coming up,’ he said.  ’They’ll be from Kojadere.  We must keep clear of that road.  Seems to me the best thing we can do is to swing to the right and work round the shoulder of the hill.’

’Yes, if we can find cover.  Well, there’s nothing to stop us from climbing up here.  The bank don’t amount to anything.’

He was right, and turning at once they scrambled up the steep rocky slope.  It was broken with projecting crags, and almost covered with brush, which gave them ample cover.  Reaching the top, they got a sight of the sun, and found that they were facing almost due east.  The guns were still thundering behind them, but their sound was deadened by the great mass of hill which lay between them and the sea.