16. SAHARA ADVENTURE SERIES — THE SILENT RUINS
In a stifling Arabian cafe in Dini Salam, an outpost of the French Foreign Legion, Teuns Stegmann and his comrades, Fritz Mundt, Jack Ritchie, Podolski, and Petacci, sit playing cards. Teuns observes that they are being watched by a slender, bespectacled man with long hair, whom he regards as a scholarly type. The man studies a document, possibly a map, with a magnifying glass. The tension mounts when the stranger approaches them and introduces himself as Professor Lepuy from the Sorbonne University, seeking an escort to explore the Sahara. He specifically requests these five men, as well as a newcomer at the French fort Dini Salam, named Santos.
Teuns’s role centres on leadership and observation. He leads the small expedition, questions Professor Lepuy’s motives, and tries to make sense of the increasing oddities. Other characters, such as the powerful Fritz, the suspicious Jack, and the diminutive Italian Petacci, contribute to the atmosphere of uncertainty and growing danger. They distrust Lepuy and Santos, suspecting betrayal. The appearance of Arabs on the horizon, Santos’s disappearance, and the discovery of corpses heighten the mystery, but Teuns still attempts to find rational explanations for everything, even though he intuitively senses that something is amiss. The tension escalates further as they venture deeper into the desert.
Teuns attempts to solve the riddle by challenging the professor to explain the purpose of their journey. He confronts him regarding the disappearance of Santos and the discovery of the corpses, insisting they travel to the supposed “lost city.” He plans strategically, keeps watch, and even attempts to exhaust the professor to extract the truth from him. To outwit the enemy, Teuns must know what truly lies behind the professor’s obsession with the ruins of Koewat, and what surprises still await in the shadows of the ancient ruins? A secret lies hidden somewhere in the dunes, and it is not within the ruins of the lost city.
