Sahara Adventure Series

Meiring Fouche Other

7. SAHARA ADVENTURE SERIES - THUNDERING HOOVES



Teuns Stegmann and some of his friends have escaped from the Dulac’s stronghold in the Atlas Mountains by utilizing a bomber plane. They landed with it in Dini Salam and informed Colonel Le Clerq, the commanding officer of Dini Salam, that they had several gas weapons on board. The gas weapons were meant for Brigitte Bonnet and her Dulac army for their attacks on the French forts, and they expected her to start her attacks soon. They received more shocking news when they found out that the holy Sword of Dutra had been stolen from the custody of the French headquarters. This alone was enough to cause a rebellion in the ranks of nearly all the Arabs in the desert, in their final battle in the desert, to end the French hold over them.


Captain D’Arlan, known as the “Houdini of the desert,” presents a covert plan to Colonel Le Clerq. Accompanied by two hundred soldiers, D’Arlan departs for the desert to carry out his plan. Brigitte Bonnet, the princess and leader of the Dulacs, sends five hundred riders to the first French fort at Fort Laval, but to their surprise, the fort is empty, except for one drunken soldier who had stayed behind. He tells them a story that is hard to believe. They immediately seized the fort and planned to attack the next fort, Fort Petain.


They get the surprise of their lives when they discover that Fort Laval is not quite as empty as they had initially thought. One of the Dulacs manages to escape death and destruction. Teuns, Fritz, and Jack Ritchie, are sent to hunt him down and keep him from raising the alarm with Brigitte’s main army, who are already on their way to attack Dini Salam.


Before long, the men are overpowered by six armed renegades of the French Foreign Legion. However, they have something so important and unbelievable in their possession that Teuns knows they should escape as soon as possible to go and convey this momentous news to Colonel Le Clerq. Through a clever move, Teuns manages to free the three of them, but their flight and joy do not last long. A patrol of twenty Arabs tracks them and follows them mercilessly through the desert to retrieve the prize they had found.


In the meantime, nobody knows what happened to D’Arlan, because he and his two hundred men have vanished without a trace. Then, thousands of Arab riders appear out of nowhere and surround Dini Salam. It is Brigitte Bonnet with her army, and they prepare for the final attack on Dini Salam in the morning. From the battlement in Dini Salam, Colonel Le Clerq spots a lone rider racing towards the main tent of Brigitte Bonnet. Not long after, she and three thousand riders depart for their fortress at Dutra in a cloud of dust. The nameless rider is escorted by sixty of Brigitte’s guards on pure white horses, and Colonel Le Clerq is none the wiser.


He realizes that their position in Dini Salam is quite hopeless, but then he decides to take a considerable risk before the coming of the new dawn. A red ray of light shot up into the air behind the attackers is the sign they have been waiting for.

Unfold