THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR

by W. E. Johns

VII. THE FALLS (Pages 77 – 89)

As the sun rises, a launch comes into view from a distant bend in the river. “Well, boys, it’s too bad, but you’re just too late,” murmurs Biggles as he takes off. For two hours they fly westwards, following the river, until Dickpa indicates a wide tributary branching away to the south. After a while the sound of the engine changes and then cuts out dead. Biggles is forced to make an emergency landing on the river. Smyth thinks it’s the magneto and but has to wait for the engine to cool before he can set about fixing it. In due course, he confirms it is the “mag” and gets a spare and replaces it. As he is about the bolt the cover on, Biggles lets out a shrill cry of alarm as he realises that they are heading towards the head of some rapids. As they swing round a bend “a cry of horror broke from Algy, and he pointed, white faced. High in the air, not a quarter of a mile away, hung a great white cloud. A low rumble, like the roll of distant thunder rapidly approaching, reached the ears of the listeners”. “The falls!” cried Biggles. “The falls! Get that mag jacket on, Smyth, for heaven’s sake; if it isn’t on in two minutes we’re lost”. The aircraft races towards the falls as our heroes try to fend off the rocks. “How long will you be, Smyth?” “One minute, sir”. “That’s thirty second too long,” replied Biggles. Biggles jumps onto a rock and attempts to hold the plane back with a rope. Algy starts the engine but they can make no progress upstream against the raging torrent. Biggles realises their only chance is to go downstream and try to take off over the falls. (Biggles bit his lip. Would she never lift? - is the illustration opposite page 86). They take off into the clouds of spray as the engine splutters and chokes as the air intake sucks in spray. (There is an interesting footnote by Johns here which says “When Biggles was telling me about this particular incident I reminded him that Sir Alan Cobham once had a similar narrow escape from the same cause whilst flying over the Victoria Falls on one of his African flights of survey”). They burst out into sunshine, flying. Biggles “caught Algy’s eye and shook his head weakly, as if the matter was beyond words”. Dickpa comes out. “I thought you said this was the safest form of transport in the world!” he bellowed sarcastically. “Quite right,” yelled Biggles. “Where would you have been in a canoe?” Dickpa indicates a landing place where the river widens into a lagoon and Biggles lands. “Well, here we are” says Dickpa. The plan is to go on foot to the treasure cave tomorrow as it is too late to start off today. Algy and Dickpa set about making camp whilst Smyth looks over the machine and Biggles takes a walk to survey for shoals and rocks in case they need to take off in a hurry. He takes a rifle with him.