THE CAMELS ARE COMING

by W. E. Johns

XV. FOG (Pages 211 – 224)

“Fog, mist, and still more mist” is all Biggles can see from the cockpit on his return to France from Lympne. Biggles is forced to fly blind and low to see where he is before his fuel runs out. All he can see is the sea. “This damn compass is all wrong, I expect”. Getting over land, Biggles lands by a thick hedge. Crossing a sunken road, Biggles finds camouflage across row after row of posts. Suddenly, a squad of grey-clad German soldiers march past out of the mist. They salute Biggles taking him for a German airman. Biggles finds a sign saying “ACHTUNG! LEBENSGEFAHR CHLORGASANSTALT, EINTRITT STRENG VERBOTEN” (Attention! Danger Chlorine Gas Centre, Admission Strictly Prohibited). “Quite apart from saving his own skin he was now in possession of information which the Headquarters Staff would willingly give fifty officers to possess – the whereabouts of the German gas supply dump”. A person comes towards him and Biggles sees what appears to be a Belgian peasant. The peasant asks in English “Where are you?” and Biggles replies “here”. The “peasant” is in fact a British spy and he has seen Biggles land and has been looking for him ever since. Biggles asks about the gasworks and the spy is astonished. He has been looking for it for three weeks! He tells Biggles he is 30 kilos north-west of Courtrai – one mile due east of Berslaade. “What’s your name?” asked Biggles quickly. “2742” replied the other with a queer smile. “Mine’s Bigglesworth – 266 Squadron. Look me up sometime – good-bye”. A swift handshake and Biggles was sprinting down the side of the hedge in the direction indicated by his preserver. “God! What jobs some people have to do. I wouldn’t have that fellow’s job for a million a year and a thousand V.C.’s” thought Biggles”. Biggles finds his plane being guarded by two German soldiers and immediately attacks them and knocks them out. Biggles starts the plane and takes off. On the way back over the lines, he is attacked by a Fokker triplane which he shoots down. Back at Maranique, Biggles reports in to Major Mullen, with an urgent message for H.Q. He reports the position of the gas plant “but the credit for that discovery he left to “2792” (which of course, is the wrong number! But this error appears in the first three editions of “The Camels are Coming” and is not corrected until the fourth John Hamilton edition). “That’s the least I can do for him,” decided Biggles.