THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR

by W. E. Johns

XIV. COMBAT TACTICS (Pages 227 – 236)

“Over a hurried meal” Biggles describes his adventures and the fact that they can’t go back the way they came as they will be arrested “and he repeated the story the negro had told him of the trumped-up charge against them for “killing” the prison warder – “the fellow I dotted on the back of the nut with the mooring-spike,” he explained”. Dickpa says the only solution is to fly to Bolivia, the border of which is some two hundred and fifty miles away and then fly on another four hundred miles to La Paz, the (then) capital. Biggles lays a compass course to Lake Titicaca, the great inland sea of Bolivia and worries about the look of the weather. “Well, let’s get this treasure aboard before we do anything else,” exclaimed Algy. They taxi the Condor to the foot of the hill and then set off on foot up to the summit when a steady drizzle of fine grit begins to fall, followed by choking sulphurous gas. There is a hollow booming and it becomes clear that an eruption is starting. All but Biggles run for their lives. “Biggles stood for a moment impotent; the ground rocked under his feet and a rain of hot cinders began to fall. Panic seized him, and he raced after the other, (amended to ‘others’ in later books) catching his breath as through the gloom he saw a great boulder as large as a house bounce down the hill in great leaps and miss the Condor by inches”. “It’s the end of the world,” he thought vaguely as he ran. They get in the plane and manage to take off. “The next ten minutes were a nightmare of horror that would never be forgotten by any of them” as they fly through a dust cloud as an eruption takes place behind them. “There would be no more landing on the plateau”. Suddenly, Biggles is aware of machine-gun fire as a twin engined flying-boat swoops down on them. Biggles takes evasive action to avoid the Curtiss aircraft, whose crew are trying to shoot them down, presumably under the impression that they have treasure in their plane. Unarmed, Biggles tells Algy to “Get something to throw!” He then does “the famous Immelmann turn” to get behind his pursuer and dives over the Curtiss, the Condor’s “wheels almost scraping the top plane as it passed”. Algy hurls a two-gallon metal oil drum, weighing perhaps nearly thirty pounds. (Then he hurled it down with all his strength - is the illustration opposite page 236). “The drum caught the Curtiss fair and square on the centre section, and the effect was instantaneous. The machine lurched sickeningly, and its top wings folded back like those of a butterfly about to alight. Then it plunged earthward, twisting and turning like a piece of crumpled tissue paper”. Biggles shouts to Algy “Don’t worry; they asked for it; now they’ve got it”.