A party of British, American and French tourists steaming up the Nile on the little stern-wheeler Korosko leave the boat for a sightseeing ride into the desert, and are taken captive by a band of Dervish raiders. As the camels push south, the travellers argue about faith, empire and courage, and each must decide how to face the prospect of death.
Doyle’s tense desert thriller of 1898, written at the height of the Sudan campaigns; its imperial and religious attitudes are very much those of that moment. Download the free EPUB.