THE CARLYLE EXPEDITION:

Roger Vane Worthington Carlyle – Wealthy dilettante who becomes infatuated with an African woman named M’Weru. Carlyle also began having bizarre dreams.  As a result he organizes an expedition toAfrica.

The first Carlyle, Abner Vane Carel, was transported toVirginiain 1714, having been convicted of  “unwholesome and desperative activitie.”  Abner was the illegitimate and discredited son of an undistinguished Midlands nobleman.  His son, Ephraim, moved to New England, adopted  “Carlyle” as a more gallant surname, and made sound investments in lumber and textiles which were the basis of the family fortune to come.

Dr. Robert Huston – Psychiatrist, it appears Carlyle had some leverage over Huston because of some past indiscretion of Huston’s.  Huston studied under Freud and then Jung in Vienna, then returned to New York and established a practice in psychoanalysis catering to the very wealthy.  Just before taking on Carlyle as a client Huston had become involved in an affair with a Miss Imelda Bosch, who then committed suicide.  It appears Carlyle helped hush up the scandal.

Jack Brady – Long time friend and sometime bodyguard of Roger Carlyle.

Hypatia Masters -New York socialite.  Expedition photographer and archivist   May have been romantically involved with Carlyle in the past.  Heiress to the Masters armaments fortune.  Has a facility for languages and is adept at photography.  It is rumored she had an affair with a Catholic Marxist, Raoul Luis Maria Pinera, became pregnant, and ultimately had an abortion.  She may have left on the Carlyle Expedition to flee her disgrace rather than face her lover.

M’weru – Mysterious African woman with whom Carlyle became obsessed.

Sir Aubrey Penhew -  British subject and head of the Penhew Foundation in London.  A renown Egyptologist.  The Penhew’s trace their nobility from the time of William the Conqueror when Sir Boris Penhew acquired great holdings in the west of England.  Sir Aubrey graduated from Oxford with honors in classics and spent several years in Egypt doing excavations.  His is credited with several important archeological discoveries, particularly at Dhashur.  The Penhew Foundation, set up by Sir Aubrey, has underwritten many important researches at home and abroad.

Carlyle Expedition Timeline:

April 5, 1919-  Carlyle Expedition leaves New York for London, England.  In England they are joined by Sir Aubrey Penhew.

April 28, 1919- Carlyle Expedition leaves London for Cairo.

May – June 1919 – Carlyle expedition engages in archeological digs inEgypt.

July 3 1919- Carlyle Expedition decides to take a vacation in Kenya.  Leaves on July 18, 1919.

July 24, 1919- Carlyle Expedition arrives in Mombasa, Kenya.

August 3, 1919 – Carlyle Expedition departs from Nairobi to the Great Rift Valley to the Northwest and is reportedly massacred by Nandi tribesmen.

November 3, 1920- Erica Carlyle travels to Kenya to determine what happened to the Expedition.

May 24, 1920 Mutilated remains of the Carlyle Expedition are found (though no Caucasian remains are among the dead)

November 25, 1924- Jackson Elias is in London pursuing his investigation of the Carlyle Expedition

December 17, 1924- Jackson Elias books passage on a freighter for New York.

January 13, 1925- Prof. Mirande receives a telegram from Elias (sent via wireless from the freighter) with an urgent request to meet inNew Yorkon January 15.

January 15, 1925- Jackson Elias murdered by three cultists (two African and one Caucasian) of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue.

January 30, 1925- the investigators depart New York for London to retrace Jackson Elias’ steps and find out more about Sir Aubrey Penhew and the Penhew Foundation.

January 1926 – Total Solar Eclipse in Asia.  Something very bad is going to happen . . . . .