
CHAPTER I - A TELL NEAR BABYLON
CHAPTER II - THE GAPING JAWS
CHAPTER III - THE BARBER'S APPRENTICE
CHAPTER IV - THE SHAVING OF BURCKHARDT
CHAPTER V - SECRET SERVICE
CHAPTER VI - THE DERVISH HEZAR
CHAPTER VII - A MAD RACE
CHAPTER VIII - ACROSS THE EUPHRATES
CHAPTER IX - FRIENDS OR FOES?
CHAPTER X - THE TRYST
In the dust‑laden plains of Mesopotamia, where once the great rivers cradled empires of Sumer and Babylon, the story opens with a lone aeroplane spiraling down onto a weathered tell. The ancient mound, a silent witness to centuries of conquest, becomes an unlikely landing‑site for two young British officers, thrust from the sky into a landscape where ruins and modern warfare collide. Their arrival stirs the ghosts of priests and kings, while the harsh reality of the First World War presses in from the horizon.
Captain Ellingford and his companion Roger Burnet banter with a mix of bravado and uneasy caution as they step onto the uneven ground, aware that hostile Arab forces could be lurking nearby. Their mission—to secure a foothold in the fight for Baghdad—draws them into a tense dance between the past’s faded grandeur and the immediate danger of gunfire. As they explore the shattered columns and broken walls, the narrative balances vivid historical detail with the gritty urgency of a frontline reconnaissance.
Language
en
Duration
~5 hours (292K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Al Haines
Release date
2012-01-30
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

A shared pen name for two Oxford University Press editors who turned their love of storytelling into brisk, adventurous books for young readers. Their tales mixed history, travel, and invention in a way that helped define boys' fiction in the early 20th century.
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