22. SAHARA ADVENTURE SERIES — TERROR UNDER THE STARS
The narrative commences in the sweltering Sahara desert at Fort Laval, a stronghold of the French Foreign Legion. Teuns Stegmann, a tall, blond South African, and his German friend, Fritz Mundt, the most formidable giant in the legion, find themselves enveloped in a suffocating silence. They discuss their boredom and the fact that their circle of friends has been fragmented. Suddenly, an excited murmur erupts outside. Teuns investigates and discovers that the guards have spotted something in the desert, a camel. This unusual sight immediately piques the men’s curiosity. The camel is dragging something unknown behind it. Sergeant Catroux and a few guards, including Teuns and Fritz, go out to meet and investigate the camel.
Teuns plays a central role in the unfolding drama following the discovery of the camel. His keen observational skills and uneasy intuition regarding the three strangers brought to the fort by the camel lead to drama. He challenges the judgment of Lieutenant Gaston Verrier, the inebriated commander. Teuns’s suspicions, based on subtle signs such as the absence of chafe marks on the camel, are summarily dismissed by Verrier. The growing sense of foreboding is intensified by an unread radio message warning of dangerous Algerian rebels in the vicinity. Teuns’s attempts to highlight the danger heighten the tension and drive the narrative towards an inevitable crisis.
The climax is marked by a night of betrayal and violence. The three “Frenchmen” reveal their true identities as Algerian rebels, throwing open the fort’s gates for an Arab assault. Teuns, caught in the chaos, fights with heroic determination. He and his comrades find themselves trapped in the armoury, besieged by a hostile force and betrayed by those they welcomed as guests. The true extent of the danger, the secrets, and the mysteries yet to be unravelled hang like a threatening cloud over the story. And what lies behind the rebels’ obsession with Lieutenant Verrier?
