BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN

by W. E. Johns

VIII. THE ORIENTAL TOUCH (Pages 131 – 145)

The Vandal is flying over the Indian Ocean from Penang to Rangoon. “A fortnight had elapsed since their departure from New Guinea. They had made their way by easy stages to Lombok and Surabaya, made famous as the landing grounds of record-breaking pilots on the Australia run, and thence to Batavia, the terminus of the K.L.M. grand trunk air line to the Dutch East Indies. From there they had flown to Singapore where they had been guests of the Royal Air Force flying-boat Squadron stationed there while the “Vandal” was given a quick overhaul by Service mechanics, and then on to Penang”. After flying over a junk with a limp sulphur-yellow sail, they see something in the water. Flying low, they make out a man on a flimsy raft. They land and take him on board. “Poor devil, what a mess he’s in” says Biggles “as he noted the sun-blistered skin of the naked man”. “Carefully they laid the unconscious man on the floor of the cabin. Algy gasped suddenly, “He’s a Chink.” Biggles paused in the act of unscrewing an oil can to stare for a moment in surprise. “You’re right, so he is,” he agreed. “Well, we can’t help that – we might have expected it”. The man comes round and Biggles says “Speekee Engleesh, eh?” “Not that sort,” replied the exhausted man in a cultured voice, with a ghost of a smile. “I was at Oxford,” he explained. The man says his name is Hoi Sing and his father is a rich merchant. He was on his way to India with a valuable cargo when he was attacked by Li Chi, a well-known pirate, smuggler and thief. “He doesn’t run a junk with a yellow sail by any chance, does he?” asks Biggles, explaining that he had seen it at anchor at a previous island. Hoi Sing asks to hire Biggles machine, to be taken back to Penang and then transported with his men to the far end of the island where Li Chi lies at anchor. “You may leave the rest to me. In my country we have our own way of dealing with brigands”. He offers Biggles three to five thousand dollars (a footnote tells us that the Malay dollar is worth about 2s 4d – which would, of course, be in 1934, when the book was published. This would work out as £583 and 80d). “Biggles made a quick mental calculation” and accepts and they fly back to Penang. Biggles goes to see Hoi Sing’s Uncle and the Uncle comes to see his nephew with a chest and pays Biggles the sum agreed for the hire of the machine. They then fly to an island near to the yellow-sailed junk and collect Hoi Sing’s crew. “Biggles eyed them with disapproval, for a more unsavoury crowd he had never seen. Of the fourteen who waded out to meet them nearly all were Chinese, but there was one or two Malay dyaks, armed with the inevitable kris, and a negro”. It takes three journeys to transfer the crew to the island where the junk is. “I can never thank you enough for what you have done for me to-day,” said Hoi Sing courteously. “May I ask you and your friend to accept this” – he handed the pilot a tiny package, sealed with wax. “You may never know how much I am in your debt,” he went on, “but I must ask you, however, not to unwrap my present until you reach Rangoon. Good-bye”. Two days later Biggles and Algy are sat on the veranda of the Hotel Mandalay in Rangoon, when Algy notices a newspaper article that makes it clear that Captain Starkey, of the Government sloop Cormorant had captured a boat belonging to the notorious pirate Li Chi and a number of his crew had escaped to a nearby island. Contraband had been confiscated and Li Chi captured – but he escaped by jumping overboard. Captain Hoi Sing, the captain of the junk with the yellow sail, and his crew, had all been found murdered on the beach of Raffa Island. The newspaper speculates on how Li Chi’s crew could have got to Raffa Island and done this. Biggles opens the package given to him earlier and finds two magnificent pink pearls with a note “A small token of my eternal gratitude, Li Chi”. Realising that they have been duped, Biggles guesses that the chest had forbidden opiates in.