Produced by David Widger
A DESERT DRAMA
BEING
The Tragedy of the _Korosko_
BY
A. CONAN DOYLE
WITH THIRTY-TWO FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY S. PAGET
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1898
[Illustration: Frontispiece p78]
[Illustration: Titlepage]
TO MY FRIEND JAMES PAYN IN TOKEN OF MY AFFECTION AND ESTEEM
PREFACE
This book has been materially enlarged and altered since its appearance in serial form
A. Conan Doyle
October 17, 1897
A DESERT DRAMA
CHAPTER I
The public may possibly wonder why it is that they have never heard in the papers of the fate of the passengers of the __Korosko__. In these days of universal press agencies, responsive to the slightest stimulus, it may well seem incredible that an international incident of such importance should remain so long unchronicled. Suffice it that there were very valid reasons, both of a personal and political nature, for holding it back. The facts were well known to a good number of people at the time, and some version of them did actually appear in a provincial paper, but was generally discredited They have now been thrown into narrative form, the incidents having been collated from the sworn statements of Colonel Cochrane Cochrane, of the Army and Navy Club, and from the letters of Miss Adams, of Boston, Mass. These have been supplemented by the evidence of Captain Archer, of the Egyptian Camel Corps, as given before the secret Government inquiry at Cairo. Mr. James Stephens has refused to put his version of the matter into writing, but as these proofs have been submitted to him, and no correction or deletion has been made in them, it may be supposed that he has not succeeded in detecting any grave misstatement of fact, and that any objection which he may have to their publication depends rather upon private and personal scruples.
The __Korosko__, a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler, with a 30-inch draught and the lines of a flat-iron, started upon the 13th of February, in the year 1895, from Shellal, at the head of the first cataract, bound for Wady Haifa. I have a passenger card for the trip, which I hereby produce:
S. W. "_Korosko_," February 13TH.
PASSENGERS.
Colonel Cochrane Cochrane London
Mr. Cecil Brown London
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Desert Drama by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- 2: The passengers of the Korosko formed a merry party
- 3: Miss Adams and Miss Sadie Adams were aunt and niece
- 4: Grow more modern as one ascends from Cairo
- 5: And so reach the celebrated pulpit rock of Abou sir
- 6: It was only yesterday at Abou Simbel
- 7: And I repeat that there are no Dervishes
- 8: Monsieur Fardet was an honest man
- 9: I see that Fardet has been pouring politics into your ear
- 10: The Dervishes would be upon the Mediterranean
- 11: It is mere shirking not to undertake it
- 12: Headingly puffed thoughtfully at his cigarette
- 13: Belmont stood together in the bows
- 14: C'est l'ordre officiel Egyptien
- 15: It may be that Colonel Cochrane thinks otherwise
- 16: How can the recruits come through the Dervishes
- 17: Cecil Brown and Headingly had dropped behind
- 18: Belmont gave a short gruff laugh
- 19: More than a hundred miles from Sarras
- 20: The dragoman made an effort to compose himself
- 21: And the air was full of the phit phit phit of the bullets
- 22: From that to Haifa would be another five
- 23: For they had shot away their last cartridge
- 24: And the other half were Baggara Arabs small
- 25: Imperious voice he said something which brought Mansoor
- 26: And finally said something to Mansoor
- 27: And then Mansoor spoke rapidly and earnestly
- 28: Belmont lying back in the canvas chair
- 29: But Sadie I am clean crazed when I think of her
- 30: Tippy Tilly Bimbashi Mormer Bourn
- 31: Stephens shook his head in silence
- 32: And lunacy is to them a fearsome and supernatural thing
- 33: The Emir said a few abrupt words to the dragoman and left
- 34: Slid his knife up his sleeve once more
- 35: Monsieur Fardet fell upon his face
- 36: The dragoman groaned when he saw him
- 37: Shlesinger and her child and maid were in it
- 38: Belmont gripped at his hip pocket for his little revolver
- 39: Gradually the voice died away into a hum
- 40: Until away in the east the first cold grey glimmer appeared
- 41: Pain is better than stagnation
- 42: Then he said something to Mansoor
- 43: The Emir Abderrahman said something to a negro
- 44: Then Abderrahman spoke in his crisp
- 45: They'll have no baggage camels to hold them back
- 46: And the streak of sand upon their left
- 47: But the dragoman shook his head
- 48: After that it does not much matter what befalls us
- 49: If you wish that I speak to the Moolah
- 50: But the Baggara passed them a few minutes afterwards
- 51: The cartouche was a message of hope
- 52: Has fastened twelve camels together
- 53: Belmont and Fardet were ready for any risk
- 54: He motioned Mansoor to his side
- 55: The Moolah looked from one to the other
- 56: Yet as that one shred was torn away by the Moolah
- 57: All might have been well had not Fardet
- 58: The Moolah had his reputation to preserve
- 59: The Emir stood listening to the Moolah
- 60: Then the Emir spoke to Mansoor
- 61: One eyed Moolah advanced with his fist closed
- 62: The Emir tugged to free himself
- 63: Little Sadie p229 She did so and Stephens kissed it
- 64: If Tippy Tilly and six of his men were there
- 65: Two figures were moving across its expanse
- 66: Then the raiders joined into one long
- 67: On this pinnacle stood a solitary
- 68: Appeared the tall figure of the Emir Abderrahman
- 69: The Baggara glared round like a lion at bay
- 70: Archer is with the flanking party
- 71: There's bread and meat in the basket
- 72: The sound of a volley came crackling up the narrow khor
- 73: The Sarras men had all emerged from the khor
- 74: Vivent les croix et les Chretiens
- 75: Where one takes the express for Cairo
- 76: And He delivered them from their distress
- 77: Stephens leaned forward to Sadie