19. SAHARA ADVENTURE SERIES — FLAMES IN THE TEMPLE
The narrative commences in the Southern Sahara, where an elderly professor and his daughter, Marie, find themselves lost. Their guide has abandoned them, and they have lost their compass. Utterly exhausted, with dwindling water supplies, they consequently face the prospect of death. While resting upon a high dune, hoping to be sighted, a mysterious rider and his entourage appear. The rider refuses to provide them with water or show them the way. Moreover, he steals their camels, thereby extinguishing their last hope of survival. The professor and his daughter are now entirely lost and helpless, surrendered to the unforgiving Sahara desert.
Teuns Stegmann, a legionnaire in the French Foreign Legion, becomes central to the story when Marie, having been rescued by the legion, mentions his name. She claims her father possesses news concerning Teuns’s missing brother. Driven by the hope of finding his brother, Teuns leads a rescue mission. They locate the professor but are then lured into an ambush by Costello, a deserter from the legion, who intends to use Teuns to guide them through the desert to the coast. Costello threatens to kill everyone except Teuns, whom he requires for his knowledge of the desert.
The situation grows increasingly tense, compounded by the looming danger of a Touareg attack. Teuns’s attempts to outwit Costello lead to a series of confrontations and desperate manoeuvres. Through ingenuity, bravery, and the unforeseen assistance of other characters, Teuns endeavours to save himself, his comrades, and the professor and his daughter from Costello and the Touaregs. The story culminates with the revelation of a lost treasure and a shocking truth about the sheikh of the Touaregs. What will be the full significance of the map that Professor Lesseps so carefully guarded, and how will it influence Teuns’s own quest?
