P.C. Wren's 1924 novel. French troops in the
Sahara arrive at a
fort mysteriously occupied only by
dead men.
Flashback to
England, where orphaned brothers Michael, Digby and John Geste are raised by their aunt, Lady Brandon. When Lady Brandon's
heirloom, the Blue Water
sapphire, vanishes, Michael nobly takes the blame and runs away to join the
Foreign Legion. Digby and John follow. Amidst dramatic events and years wandering the North African
desert, two of the brothers die. The third returns to England, and the theft of the Blue Water is finally solved. The
preposterous but lively
plot is rendered in a surprisingly sophisticated style, though marred by the seemingly-reflexive
anti-semitism that was common among
English writers pre-
WW2.