The Lost Kings : Simon & Schuster UK Ltd. : 9781847393265 : 1847393268 : 18 Aug 2011 : A rollicking tale of adventure and derring-do set on the far frontiers of Empire in the best tradition of Rudyard Kipling and Rider Haggard London, 1893. Mild-mannered watchmaker Cyril King harbors a secret wish to be an explorer. When he acquires a mysterious timepiece from a notorious criminal, Cyril gets his heart's desire, the clues he finds propelling him halfway around the world on the trail of a fabulous treasure. On the borders of India and Afghanistan, Cyril meets a real-life adventurer who seems to be everything he aspires to. But high in the Karakoram mountains there are lessons to be learned, as nothing is quite what Cyril expects: neither the treasure, nor his companion, nor the life of discovery and excitement which he imagined?and certainly not the deadly peril into which he stumbles with all the insouciance of the innocent abroad. Meanwhile, intercut with Cyril's account of his 1893 a