THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR

by W. E. Johns

VIII. INDIANS (Pages 90 – 106)

Biggles walks along the beach and finds a number of rocks under the surface of the water that he will need to avoid in any future take-off. Biggles comes across a shack with a canoe and paddle nearby. “Anyone at home?” he calls loudly. Inside, a cloud of flies arose with a loud buzz. “Upon the primitive bed lay what had once been the body of a man – a negro, judging by the short, curly black hair. Nearby are balls of rubber and quinine tablets. It appears that the man was a rubber collector who has died of fever. Returning to the moored amphibian aircraft, Biggles finds it strangely silent. His companions have disappeared! An arrow is embedded in the plane. “The Indians have got ‘em, no doubt of that” thought Biggles grimly. Biggles notices a path and on it he finds grains of rice. The Indians have taken the stores and one of the bags has a hole in it. Biggles gets an automatic to go with his rifle and also takes a Very pistol and flares. Biggles follows the trail to a primitive Indian village where he sees Dickpa, Algy and Smyth being dragged towards a row of stakes near the fire. Biggles fires all the flares and scares the Indians off. He frees his companions and they escape, narrowly avoiding a Jaguar. Back at the aircraft, our heroes need to get away before the Indians return. It’s too dark to take off, so Dickpa cuts some bamboo poles and they move the aircraft to the other bank and hide it in a backwater further down the river. Unfortunately, the water is full of crocodiles, so they take the amphibian up onto the muddy beach. Here, Biggles hears the story of how his companions were over-whelmed by the Indians and captured. Algy says they were just jumped on and overwhelmed. They decide to get some sleep to be ready for a hard day tomorrow.