THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS
ships, and we knew that there must be mail for us in Mersina.
After we turned back towards the place where our camp was, we could see beyond it a ramshackle structure, lonely and abandoned now since the New Constitution. Here used to be stationed a guard not a Life Saving Guard, such as we should have in a similar place a guard whose whole duty it was to watch for Armenians, who chose this part of the seashore to escape in small boats. From here it was comparatively easy to get a ship and go away from Turkey forever. There was romance, as well as adventure, in these escapes. A young Armenian found means to go to America, and there made plenty of money. Back here on this Cilician Plain a girl was wait- ing. The man saved up enough to come back and get the girl. His friends smuggled her out to the ship, a missionary was pressed into service, and a wedding at sea took place. The bride and groom sailed away, returning to New [67]
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