“In a land that the sand overlays—the ways to her gates are untrod.
A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God,
Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall,
And of this is a story written: but Allah alone knoweth all!”
Kipling—The City of Brass.
Printed in Great Britain at
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth. William Brendon & Son, Ltd.
PREFACE
IT is not easy to condense into a reasonable compass an account of three years’ work in an entirely unknown part of the world like the centre of the Libyan Desert.