The Gate of Baghdad: An Agatha Christie Short Story

Boredom sets in on the rather less exciting than expected trip across the desert to Baghdad. Mr. Parker Pyne, with a nose for trouble, soon sets his sights on the case of the missing Mr. Long, the famed defaulting financier who, as the papers would have it is in South America, as entertainment. What with the chaos of everyone trying to sleep during the long journey, an important event goes unnoticed. Captain Smethurst is dead, but there is no visible wound. At a loss the company turn to Mr. Pyne to piece together scraps of overheard conversation from back at Damascus. Marooned and nervous the company decide that the truth must out.