In the first place, there was the old standing trouble about the Shuwa Patrol; in the second, the truculent Chiboks were waxing insolent again, and their young men were regarding not the words of their elders concerning Sir Garnet Wolseley, and what happened, long, long ago, after the battle of Chibok Hill. Thirdly, the price of grain had risen to six shillings a saa, and famine threatened; fourthly, the Shehu and Shuwa sheiks were quarrelling again; and, fifthly, there was a very bad smallpox ju-ju abroad in the land (a secret society whose "secret" was to offer His Majesty's liege subjects the choice between being infected with smallpox, or paying heavy blackmail to the society). Lastly, there was acrimonious correspondence with the All-Wise Ones (of the Secretariat in "Aiki Square" at Zungeru), who, as usual, knew better than the man on the spot, and bade him do either the impossible or the disastrous. And across all the Harmattan was blowing hard, that terrible wind that carries the Saharan dust a hundred miles to sea, not so much as a sand-storm, but as a mist or fog of dust as fine as flour, filling the eyes, the lungs, the pores of the skin, the nose and throat; getting into the locks of rifles, the works of watches and cameras, defiling water, food and everything else; rendering life a burden and a curse. The fact, moreover, that thirty days' weary travel over burning desert, across oceans of loose wind-blown sand and prairies of burnt grass, through breast-high swamps, and across unbridged boatless rivers, lay between him and Kano, added nothing to his satisfaction. For, in spite of all, satisfaction there was, inasmuch as Kano was rail-head, and the beginning of the first stage of the journey Home. That but another month lay between him and "leave out of Africa," kept George Lawrence on his feet. From that wonderful and romantic Red City, Kano, sister of Timbuktu, the train would take him, after a three days' dusty journey, to the rubbish-heap called Lagos, on the Bight of Benin of the wicked West African Coast. There he would embark on the good ship Appam, greet her commander, Captain Harrison, and sink into a deck chair with that glorious sigh of relief, known in its perfection only to those weary ones who turn their backs upon the Outposts and set their faces towards Home. Meantime, for George Lawrence--disappointment, worry, frustration, anxiety, heat, sand-flies, mosquitoes, dust, fatigue, fever, dysentery, malarial ulcers, and that great depression which comes of monotony indescribable, weariness unutterable, and loneliness unspeakable.

The Geste Novels is the first of a seven volume series, The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren. Volume one of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren contains the four novels that feature the Geste brothers and their friends. These novels are the well-known Beau Geste, and the lesser known direct sequels: Beau Sabreur (1926) and Beau Ideal (1927). The fourth novel, Spanish Maine (published in the United States as The Desert Heritage) was published in 1935, eight years and twelve books after Beau Ideal. All four novels feature what Wren is famous for: stories of the French Foreign Legion.

Percival Christopher Wren is best known as a novelist, publishing twenty-eight novels from 1912 to 1941, the most famous of which being Beau Geste (1924). The Geste Novels Part A and The Geste Novels Part B are the first of a multi-volume series, The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren. The Geste Novels Part A and The Geste Novels Part B contain the four novels that feature the Geste brothers and their friends. These novels are the well-known Beau Geste, and the lesser known direct sequels: Beau Sabreur (1926) and Beau Ideal (1927). The fourth novel, Spanish Maine (published in the United States as The Desert Heritage) was published in 1935, eight years and twelve books after Beau Ideal. All four novels feature what Wren is famous for: stories of the French Foreign Legion.

Percival Christopher Wren is best known as a novelist, publishing twenty-eight novels from 1912 to 1941, the most famous of which being Beau Geste (1924). The Geste Novels Part A and The Geste Novels Part B are the first of a multi-volume series, The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren. The Geste Novels Part A and The Geste Novels Part B contain the four novels that feature the Geste brothers and their friends. These novels are the well-known Beau Geste, and the lesser known direct sequels: Beau Sabreur (1926) and Beau Ideal (1927). The fourth novel, Spanish Maine (published in the United States as The Desert Heritage) was published in 1935, eight years and twelve books after Beau Ideal. All four novels feature what Wren is famous for: stories of the French Foreign Legion.

The third in a series of novels on the French Foreign Legion service of Michael, Digby and John Geste.

"The translations preserve the dynamic, musical qualities of their oral-based originals, and are intended for both general and more specialised readers. Introductions and Select Bibliographies accompany each poem."--Jacket.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Beau Ideal" by Percival Christopher Wren. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.