Two boys decide to play hooky and go kite-flying, and since this is Peking in the early 1920's, it rapidly becomes an adventure. Big Tiger and his European friend Christian wind up trapped on a speeding troop-train, rescued by a famous warlord, and then sent by him on a secret mission into remote, mysterious Mongolia. Their companions are a friendly but larcenous noncommissioned officer and a merchant who isn't at all what he claims to be. Along the way, the boys meet bandits, herdsmen, lamas -- and a clever Mongol girl and her extraordinary poodle. This is a WONDERFUL book. Although it is classified as a YA novel, any adult will read it with pleasure. The author spent years in China and Mongolia, and writes sympathetically but accurately of the people and conditions the two boys experience.