[Illustration: A HAIL OF SLUGS BOMBARDED THE VAST-SPREAD WINGS AND FUSELAGE OF _NISSR_.] THE FLYING LEGION BY GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND Published July, 1920 CONTENTS CHAPTER I A Spirit Caged. II "To Paradise--or Hell!" III The Gathering of the Legionaries. IV The Masked Recruit. V In the Night. VI The Silent Attack. VII The Nest of the Great Bird. VIII The Eagle of the Sky. IX Eastward Ho. X "I Am the Master's!" XI Captain Alden Stands Revealed. XII The Woman of Adventure. XIII The Enmeshing of the Master. XIV Storm Birds. XV The Battle of Vibrations. XVI Leclair, Ace of France. XVII Miracles, Scourge of Flame. XVIII "Captain Alden" Makes Good. XIX Hostile Coasts. XX The Waiting Menace. XXI Shipwreck and War. XXII Beleaguered. XXIII A Mission of Dread. XXIV Angels of Death. XXV The Great Pearl Star. XXVI The Sand-Devils. XXVII Toil and Pursuit. XXVIII Onward Toward the Forbidden City. XXIX "Labbayk!" XXX Over Mecca. XXXI East Against West. XXXII The Battle of the Haram. XXXIII The Ordeal of Rrisa. XXXIV The Inner Secret of Islam. XXXV Into the Valley of Mystery. XXXVI Journey's End. XXXVII The Greeting of Warriors. XXXVIII Bara Miyan, High Priest. XXXIX On, to the Golden City! XL Into the Treasure Citadel. XLI The Master's Price. XLII "Sons of the Prophet, Slay!" XLIII War in the Depths. XLIV Into the Jewel-Crypt. XLV The Jewel Hoard. XLVI Bohannan Becomes a Millionaire. XLVII A Way Out? XLVIII The River of Night. XLIX The Desert. L "Where There Is None but Allah." LI Torture. LII "Thálassa! Thálassa!" LIII The Greater Treasure. The Flying Legion CHAPTER I A SPIRIT CAGED The room was strange as the man, himself, who dwelt there. It seemed, in a way, the outward expression of his inner personality. He had ordered it built from his own plans, to please a whim of his restless mind, on top of the gigantic skyscraper that formed part of his properties. Windows boldly fronted all four cardinal compass-points--huge, plate-glass windows that gave a view unequaled in its sweep and power. The room seemed an eagle's nest perched on the summit of a man-made crag. The Arabic name that he had given it--_Niss'rosh_--meant just that. Singular place indeed, well-harmonized with its master. Through the westward windows, umbers and pearls of dying day, smudged across a smoky sky, now shadowed trophy-covered walls. This light, subdued and somber though it was, slowly fading, verging toward a night of May, disclosed unusual furnishings. It showed a heavy black table of some rare Oriental wood elaborately carved and inlaid with still rarer woods; a table covered with a prayer-rug, on which lay various books on aeronautics and kindred sciences, jostling works on Eastern travel, on theosophy, mysticism, exploration.