The Man from Archangel, and Other Tales of Adventure. Arthur Conan Doyle

      Published by Good Press, 2021

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      EAN 4057664637604

Table of Contents

       TALES OF ADVENTURE

       I

       THE DÉBUT OF BIMBASHI JOYCE

       II

       THE SURGEON OF GASTER FELL

       I: HOW THE WOMAN CAME TO KIRKBY-MALHOUSE

       II: HOW I WENT FORTH TO GASTER FELL

       III: OF THE GREY COTTAGE IN THE GLEN

       IV: OF THE MAN WHO CAME IN THE NIGHT

       III

       BORROWED SCENES

       IV

       THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL

       V

       THE GREAT BROWN-PERICORD MOTOR

       VI

       THE SEALED ROOM

       TALES OF MEDICAL LIFE

       VII

       A PHYSIOLOGIST'S WIFE

       VIII

       BEHIND THE TIMES

       IX

       HIS FIRST OPERATION

       X

       THE THIRD GENERATION

       XI

       THE CURSE OF EVE

       XII

       A MEDICAL DOCUMENT

       XIII

       THE SURGEON TALKS

       XIV

       THE DOCTORS OF HOYLAND

       XV

       CRABBE'S PRACTICE

       THE END

TALES OF ADVENTURE

       Table of Contents

I

       Table of Contents

THE DÉBUT OF BIMBASHI JOYCE

       Table of Contents

      It was in the days when the tide of Mahdism, which had swept in such a flood from the great Lakes and Darfur to the confines of Egypt, had at last come to its full, and even begun, as some hoped, to show signs of a turn. At its outset it had been terrible. It had engulfed Hicks's army, swept over Gordon and Khartoum, rolled behind the British forces as they retired down the river, and finally cast up a spray of raiding parties as far north as Assouan. Then it found other channels to east and to west, to Central Africa and to Abyssinia, and retired a little on the side of Egypt. For ten years there ensued a lull, during which the frontier garrisons looked out upon those distant blue hills of Dongola. Behind the violet mists which draped them, lay a land of blood and horror. From time to time some adventurer went south towards those haze-girt mountains, tempted by stories of gum and ivory, but none ever returned. Once a mutilated Egyptian and once a Greek woman, mad with thirst and fear, made their way to the lines. They were the only exports of that country of darkness. Sometimes the sunset would turn those distant mists into a bank of crimson, and the dark mountains would rise from that sinister reek like islands in a sea of blood. It seemed a grim symbol in the southern heaven when seen from the fort-capped hills by Wady Halfa.

      Ten years of lust in Khartoum, ten years of silent work in Cairo, and then all was ready, and it was time for civilisation to take a trip south once more, travelling, as her wont is, in an armoured train. Everything was ready, down to the last pack-saddle of the last camel, and yet no one suspected it, for an unconstitutional Government has its advantages. A great administrator had argued, and managed, and cajoled; a great soldier had organised and planned, and made piastres do the work of pounds. And then one night these two master spirits met and clasped hands, and the soldier vanished away upon some business of his own. And just at that very time Bimbashi Hilary Joyce, seconded from the Royal Mallow Fusiliers, and temporarily attached to the Ninth Soudanese, made his first appearance in Cairo.