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.