The Gate of Farewell — H. Bedford-Jones

I have an older brother, or I had, five years ago. He was in business in New York, importing curios and art objects for rich collectors. Five years ago he got on the track of something big, though he never told a soul what it was, out in Africa somewhere, and went out himself to see about it. He never came back, though some of his papers did, with a report that he had died near Aden of fever. Naturally, I accepted this report as correct until last week.Allan Tredgar took a ring from his finger and held it out, the hatchet-lines of his face suddenly accentu¬ated, his strong teeth flashing in what was very like a snarl.Last week, a man came into the office to see me about a shipment of dates. He was wearing this ring, one that I had given Bob years ago—a seal, with no chance for a mistake. Well, this chap had bought the ring from an Arab trading-dhow master at Port Said a year before.So Allan Tredgar hired out a yacht for a cruise past Port Said in search of his brother, stopping at Solomon's Temple for supplies and information. The proprietor, a pudgy little Cockney named John Solomon, warns Tredgar not to continue his quest, but Allan is determined to know the truth. Stalked by the mysterious Colonel Lionel Parrish, and running afoul of the Senussiyeh, a radical Moslem secret society, Tredgar leads his crew through one misadventure after another, leading up to a climactic showdown between good and evil!The Gate of Farewell is the first volume of master pulp writer, H. Bedford-Jones' John Solomon series, which would go on to span eleven novels and numerous short stories from the 1910's into the 1930's.