3. SAHARA ADVENTURE SERIES — THE SCARLET RIDERS
The narrative commences with Fritz Mundt, the most formidable man in the French Foreign Legion, grumbling about a mission to deliver a medal to an elderly Arab, El Abbas. Teuns Stegmann, a tall South African legionnaire, counters Fritz’s complaints by emphasizing El Abbas’s loyalty to France. The group, led by Captain D’Arlan, marches through the Sahara, where they witness a bizarre spectacle. Legionnaires on horseback attacking and defeating a camel caravan in the distance. D’Arlan is profoundly shocked and perplexed, especially upon discovering that these attackers are also soldiers of the Legion. The situation becomes even more suspicious when a modern Metro revolver, not issued to the Legion, is found at the scene.
The story intensifies when the patrol reaches El Wadak, El Abbas’s oasis, only to find the atmosphere drastically altered. The once-friendly villagers are hostile, and El Abbas has been crucified, accusing the Legion of betrayal before succumbing to his ordeal. D’Arlan learns that the same group of soldiers they observed earlier abducted the village’s young women. Teuns Stegmann, a loyal soldier, becomes entangled with the perilous Helmuth and succumbs to his hypnosis. D’Arlan and his men are taken captive by a German named Heinz Dietrich, who is in league with the Doelak queen, El Karima.
Teuns devises a daring plan to liberate his comrades and capture Dietrich. Subsequently, D’Arlan finds himself confronting not only the wrath of El Karima but also Dietrich’s treachery and the hypnotic powers of Helmuth. Yet, in the end, Teuns discovers an ingenious way to save the day. Will he, however, uncover the secrets buried within El Karima’s web of deceit, or will the desert claim all its secrets?
