THE
CRUISE OF THE CONDOR
by W. E. Johns
XV. A
PERILOUS PASSAGE (Pages 210 – 226)
Biggles finds steps cut like a narrow shelf
into the sheer face of the cliff and begins the difficult descent. The path widens at one point and there is a
stone seat and it is here that Biggles spends a difficult night. The path is too dangerous to descend in the
dark. There is a brief violent
thunderstorm in the night but he awakens to sunshine in the morning and sets
off on his descent. It is during this
that Biggles is attacked by a King Condor.
This is a huge bird with a wing span of some twenty feet. Biggles is forced to shoot it – three
times. The bird lands on a neighbouring
crag and dies. “Sorry, old bird, but you
asked for it,” muttered Biggles in a tone of sincere regret as he dropped the
automatic back into his pocket, for he was genuinely sorry that he had been
forced to destroy such a noble-looking creature”. Biggles is soon threatened by a flock of huge
brown birds “subjects of the dead king” and he is forced to flee down the path
for his life. Jumping a large gap in the
path, Biggles is unable to reach the other side and plunges into a whirling
torrent of water below. “He kept his
head and concentrated his efforts on remaining afloat, keeping a watchful eye
open for rocks”. He is quickly washed
along in the water and before he can do anything about it, he is washed over a
falls where he is convinced he fell at least one hundred feet. “At first he was unable to believe that he
was still alive, so certain had he been that the cold hand of death had already
settled upon him” but Biggles managed to make it to a bank and get out of the
water. Biggles walks up the nearest hill
to get his bearings and is astonished to see the Condor not more than quarter of a mile away. Arriving back at the plane, Biggles finds a
man in the aircraft eating a tin of pork and beans. “He was a negro, with curly white hair and a
straggling wisp of beard. The tatters of
a vest hung over his shoulders, revealing a tattooed battleship on his skinny
chest, while in lieu of trousers he wore a strip of old blanket wound about his
middle, and this, secured with a liana, served as a sort of kilt”. The man is called Aaron Speakdetruf and he is
a rubber collector from Trinidad who has escaped from virtual slavery from a
man called Da Silva. Aaron has also been
badly beaten and has the weals to prove it.
“A bad, good-fer-nuthin’ lot dey are, and a low down n****r (see comments in red) wid um, too, de
black trash! I heard dem larfin’ ‘bout
you, sah. Dey say, police all down de
ribber by Manaos and Para all wanna hang you fer killin’ a low-down good-fur-nuthin’
n****r (see comments in red) in de jail at
Manaos”. “Killing, did you say?” cried
Biggles, remembering the black gendarme in the jail at Manaos. “Why, yaas, sah. He ain’t dead, sah, but dey say he is so as
dey can hang you”. Biggles tells Aaron that
he can’t take him with them, but asks for his help in hauling the machine to a
take-off position and in return offers food to help him on his way. This they do and Biggles takes off with his
eyes on the towering cliff around him.
“And thus it was that he did not see the tragedy being enacted below, or
know how near he had been to disaster as he unhurriedly bid the old n****r
good-bye. (This is the first Biggles book to feature the
use of the very offensive “N” word by W. E. Johns. The word appears four times in the book, once
in Chapter V, “Trouble” and three times in this chapter, “A Perilous
Passage”. Of course, in its day, the
word was in regular use and not considered offensive at all, otherwise it would
not have appeared in a children’s book, where even mild expletives are watered
down. The four uses of the word remained
in all editions of this book up until, and including, the 1985 Dean edition -
although, bizarrely there is a slight change where Biggles “bade” goodbye
rather than “bid” good-bye. When Red Fox
published their paperback version in 1994, the passage was changed to “A bad,
good-for-nuthin’ lot they are! I heard
them laughing about you, Sir. They say,
police all down the river by Manaos and Para all want to hang you for killin’
man in the jail at Manaos” and it is an “old rubber tapper” that is bade
goodbye. Those changes remained in the
following edition). Later, the others told him”. Four men dash after Biggles’ plane but are
just too late to stop him taking off.
“The leader, the same pock-marked individual that Biggles had stunned in
far-away England, stopped dead with a
foul oath”. He shots the black
man dead in cold blood. “Two big tears
rolled down the old man’s cheeks as he slipped forward like a swimmer in deep
water”. Biggles lands the plane on the
top of the plateau, where Dickpa, Algy and Smyth meet him. They tell Biggles what they have seen, how
close he came to capture, and the fact that they shot the man who was with
him. “Biggles sat silent in his cockpit
for a moment, and, when he looked up, his face wore a strange expression. “One day – soon, I hope – I shall kill them,” he said stonily.