Samuel Long

In the short story The Gate of Baghdad, Samuel Long is a financier who had managed to defraud a sum of some three million pounds and had, it was speculated, escaped to South America. His exploits were a topic of interest among the passengers on the bus from Damascus to Baghdad which Parker Pyne was travelling in. According to one passenger, the Italian General Poli, Long's fraud had adverse effects even in Italy. Long, he said, inspired confidence all over the world. He was considered by many a man of breeding, having been educated at Eton and Oxford.

With the authorities closing in on him in Egypt, Long bribed and switched identities with an R.A.F. doctor Squadron Leader Loftus. Long then followed Loftus' itinerary (he was being posted to Baghdad), and ended up on the same bus as Parker Pyne.

Unfortunately for Long, he was recognized by another passenger, Captain Smethurst, a fellow Etonian and his former "fag". Smethurst apparently "worshipped" his senior and would not betray him, at least not until they reached Baghdad. Long subsequently murdered Smethurst at Rutbah, halfway on the journey using a sharp instrument from his medical bag. Then, using the credibility conferred by the persona of Dr Loftus, he proceeded to suggest that the death was due to natural causes.

After Parker Pyne had exposed the crime and unmasked him as the murderer, Long committed suicide by sucking on a cigarette loaded with prussic acid.

Portrayals
Samuel Long/Dr Loftus was played by Paul Freeman in the radio dramatisation of the story on BBC Radio 4.