The Man from Archangel and Other Tales of Adventure   By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

and Other Tales of Adventure

A. CONAN DOYLE

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1919, BY A. CONAN DOYLE

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY ASSOCIATED SUNDAY MAGAZINES, INC.

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE MCCLURE COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1902, BY THE S. S. MCCLURE COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1894, D. APPLETON & COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

TALES OF ADVENTURE

I DÉBUT OF BIMBASHI JOYCE

II THE SURGEON OF GASTER FELL

III BORROWED SCENES

IV THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL

V THE GREAT BROWN PERICORD MOTOR

VI THE SEALED ROOM

TALES OF MEDICAL LIFE

VII A PHYSIOLOGIST'S WIFE

VIII BEHIND THE TIMES

IX HIS FIRST OPERATION

X THE THIRD GENERATION

XI THE CURSE OF EVE

XII A MEDICAL DOCUMENT

XIII THE SURGEON TALKS

XIV THE DOCTORS OF HOYLAND

XV CRABBE'S PRACTICE

TALES OF ADVENTURE

I

THE DÉBUT OF BIMBASHI JOYCE

It was in the days when the tide of Mahdism, which had swept in such a flood from the great Lakes and Darfur to the confines of Egypt, had at last come to its full, and even begun, as some hoped, to show signs of a turn. At its outset it had been terrible. It had engulfed Hicks's army, swept over Gordon and Khartoum, rolled behind the British forces as they retired down the river, and finally cast up a spray of raiding parties as far north as Assouan. Then it found other channels to east and to west, to Central Africa and to Abyssinia, and retired a little on the side of Egypt. For ten years there ensued a lull, during which the frontier garrisons looked out upon those distant blue hills of Dongola. Behind the violet mists which draped them, lay a land of blood and horror. From time to time some adventurer went south towards those haze girt mountains, tempted by stories of gum and ivory, but none ever returned. Once a mutilated Egyptian and once a Greek woman, mad with thirst and fear, made their way to the lines. They were the only exports of that country of darkness. Sometimes the sunset would turn those distant mists into a bank of crimson, and the dark mountains would rise from that sinister reek like islands in a sea of blood. It seemed a grim symbol in the southern heaven when seen from the fort capped hills by Wady Halfa.

Ten years of lust in Khartoum, ten years of silent work in Cairo, and then all was ready, and it was time for civilisation to take a trip south once more, travelling, as her wont is, in an armoured train. Everything was ready, down to the last pack saddle of the last camel, and yet no one suspected it, for an unconstitutional Government has its advantages. A great administrator had argued, and managed, and cajoled; a great soldier had organised and planned, and made piastres do the work of pounds. And then one night these two master spirits met and clasped hands, and the soldier vanished away upon some business of his own. And just at that very time Bimbashi Hilary Joyce, seconded from the Royal Mallow Fusiliers, and temporarily attached to the Ninth Soudanese, made his first appearance in Cairo.

Napoleon had said, and Hilary Joyce had noted, that great reputations are only to be made in the East. Here he was in the East with four tin cases of baggage, a Wilkinson sword, a Bond's slug throwing pistol, and a copy of Green's Introduction to the Study of Arabic . With such a start, and the blood of youth running hot in his veins, everything seemed easy. He was a little frightened of the General, he had heard stories of his sternness to young officers, but with tact and suavity he hoped for the best. So, leaving his effects at Shepheard's Hotel, he reported himself at headquarters.