BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN

by W. E. Johns

IX. DOWN IN THE FOREST (Pages 146 – 159)

As Biggles taxies into position to take-off outside Rangoon harbour on the next leg of their journey to Calcutta, with Akyab as an intermediate emergency landing-ground, he discusses with Algy whether to take a chance and cut across Burma rather than follow the coast-line. As the weather appears to be perfect they decide to chance the short-cut. As they fly further and further they encounter fog and then “without a single warning splutter, the engine cut out dead”. “Not by the slightest movement did the pilot at the joystick indicate that the cessation of noise, in the present atmospheric conditions, was as likely to prove as fatal as a death sentence”. The engine comes to life again. Biggles and Algy know they must have a faulty magneto. The engine cuts out again and picks up but eventually it cuts out for a third and final time. They descend in the mist down to what must be the forest below them. When they at last see something, Algy spots some water. “The pilot made a swift turn that nearly flung Algy overboard, determined at all costs not to lose sight of that narrow lake that meant salvation”. Biggles is able to land safely – must to everyone’s relief and the plane drifts whilst Biggles helps Smyth with the magneto. It is late in the afternoon by the time the fault is fixed and by which time they have drifted down a number of water ways; taxying back to the lake is difficult. They don’t know which fork in the water ways to take and are soon hopelessly lost. They decide to settle for the night and make camp, moving to a clearing and starting a fire. Here they are plagued by animal noises and all sorts of insect life. Algy breaks a branch shedding ants everywhere. “Look what you’re doing, you fool,” snapped Biggles in a tense voice, reaching out for the fallen limb to drag it to the fire, but he sprang aside with a shuddering “Ugh!” In due course they see the eyes of crocodiles. Biggles goes to get the gun out of the plane and finds a huge snake there. The tension gets to them all. “Biggles, what the Hell are these things?” asks Algy on seeing millions of leeches (“what the heck” in the Boys’ Friend Library version and “what on earth” in the Thames and Dean versions). Suddenly and unexpectedly, they hear Elgar’s “Salut d’Amour” (this was written by Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934) in 1888) being played on the piano and shortly afterwards the music stops and a man in immaculate evening dress appears. “What on earth are you fellows doing here?” asks the man. Biggles explains how they landed on a lake, or river, but drifted out of it and are now lost. The man says the lake is just through the trees – and so is his bungalow. He has a plantation a bit lower down. When Biggles explains they have a very nasty passenger onboard the aircraft at the moment, the stranger says “Why, it’s Penelope!” Penelope is his pet python. The man says he had just let her out for her “evening ramble”. “Come on, let’s go and get a drink – come on, Penelope”.