Publisher's Synopsis
1915: Ben Retallick, owner of Ruddlemoor, the largest clay workings in Cornwall, is asked by a War Office friend to provide two traction engines for a secret expedition. The plan is to take two gunboats overland from Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika - a journey of almost 3,000 miles - to wrest control of the lake from the Germans. Ben sends the engines with Sam Hooper, a young engineer. When Sam meets Maria, a Portuguese East African nurse, he sides with her in a confrontation against a group of racist white South Africans. Meanwhile, accused of being pro-German, Ben is arrested on circumstantial evidence provided by a business rival. However, Ben's release is secured by the influence of the beautiful Dr. Antonia St Anna...
