BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN

 

by W. E. Johns

 

 

XI.           THE SHEIKH AND THE GREEK  (Pages 176 – 198)

 

Biggles and Algy are outside a restaurant in the Avenue el Fontana, Alexandria discussing selling their pearls in Egypt rather than getting “stung badly by the Customs people” in Paris.  Biggles is handling one of Li Chi’s pearls when he drops it “with an ejaculated “Damn!” (This is “Darn it” in the Boys’ Friend Library version but is just “broke off with an ejaculation” in the Thames and Dean & Son reprints) and a nearby stranger picks it up saying “It seemed to know where to come”.  The man introduces himself as “an agent for the illustrious Sheikh Abd-el-Ahmud, who has the most magnificent collection in Arabia”.  The Sheikh is at his palace in Hejaz on the east coast of the Red Sea.  Biggles doesn’t want to travel all the way there.  “But why not?  I promise you the difference you will receive in price will more than recompense you for the trouble.  Besides, the Sheikh is famous for his hospitality – wine – beautiful women –”.  “Never mind that,” broke in Biggles coldly, “we’re talking about pearls”.  Biggles is told they would be paid in gold and the man gives them his card.  His name is Constantine Stampoulos.  Biggles and Algy talk it over and the next morning finds them flying to the Sheikh’s palace with Stampoulos on board.  After a brief stop at Heliopolis they land at the palace which “presented a rather squalid appearance and was hardly what they had expected”.  Stampoulos goes off in advance to meet the Sheikh and when the Sheikh sees the pearls, he only offers a thousand pounds.  “One thousand pounds!” cried Biggles incredulously.  “They are worth three times that sum in the open market”.  “Give me the pearls,” said Biggles sternly, “we are wasting our time”.  The Sheikh puts the two pearls back in the bag and Biggles takes it.  The Sheikh asks, via Stampoulos, if he can fly with them to Azir and he will pay two hundred and fifty pounds for the trip.  “For a moment Biggles was spellbound, tempted to agree, for the offer was as munificent as the other was niggardly, but his temper got the upper hand.  “No,” he almost snapped”.  Biggles and Algy get in the aircraft and fly away.  Biggles checks the pearls and his eyes blaze like live coals.  He lands by a small island.  “That crooked double-crossing dago has done us”.  Their two magnificent pearls have been swapped for two dull and lifeless pearls of similar size.  Algy notices a ship bearing down on them.  It is a Navy destroyer and a boat is dispatched to go to their aircraft.  The ship is the H.M.S. Scud and Biggles is taken on board to see the Captain, who is Captain Watkins. Biggles in incensed by his treatment and the Captain asks his name.  “Bigglesworth,” replied Biggles icily.  Major J. H. Bigglesworth”.  (Now this is interesting, because in the first Biggles book, ‘The Camels are Coming,” Biggles is referred to as J. C. Bigglesworth in a notice of posting in the story “On Leave”.  This is the first time we are told Biggles middle initial.  We are never told his middle name, although in the book Biggles Goes to School we find out that the name of Biggles brother is Charles, later to be killed in the First World War.  Could it be that his middle name is Charles?  If his middle initial is ‘H’, then what is his middle name?  In any event, in the first story of this book, “The Gold Rush” Biggles says his name is “James C. Bigglesworth”).  This continuity error is also in the Boys’ Friend Library version of this book but does not appear in the later Thames and Dean & Son reprints of Biggles Flies Again, where the text is amended so that he just replies “Bigglesworth” icily).  The Captain asks him if he is related to a fellow who served in 266 Squadron.  When he says he was in 266, the Captain said that his young brother was in his flight.  “Biggles stared and then thawed.  “Watkins – of course,” – he mused.  “A good lad,” he went on.  “We called him the Professor.  Lacey – who is with me now – the Professor and I did many shows together.  We were with him when he went – west”.  (Henry Watkins, known as ‘the Professor’ was a fairly main character in the book Biggles of the Camel Squadron, although he is not explicitly killed in that book.  I am of the opinion that the best candidate for the story where he is killed is the story “The Great Arena” from that book.  It is well recognised that all the 266 Squadron stories are written out of order.  In Biggles of the Camel Squadron, the character of the Professor appears in two stories after ‘The Great Arena’, but if you accept that the First World War stories can’t be in the order they were written, then that is the story where he was most likely killed).  Captain Watkins tells Biggles he is in a prohibited area.  Biggles wasn’t aware and he explains what has happened to him.  When Biggles describes the characters involved, the Captain shows him a photograph of “the Sheikh” which Biggles recognises.  His real name is Rene Lafoix, a French secret service agent.  “He still works for the French, of course, but he has developed some profitable side lines in pearls, slaves, and hashish.  Stampoulos, by the way, is his agent in Alexandria”.  The Captain says they have been trying to capture him “but he’s slipped through our fingers; an eel is a roll of sandpaper compared to him”.  The Captain suspects that they wanted to be flown out of the area and the pearl business was only an excuse to get in touch.  Biggles asks if the Captain has a machine gun as he has a plan.  Algy flies Biggles back to the Sheikh’s palace and then takes off again.  Biggles uses his revolver to keep hostile Arab guards at bay and speaks with Stampoulos, who is now dressed in Arab’s clothing.  Putting his gun away, Biggles makes a proposal, if they give him back his pearls and pay him one hundred pounds in gold, he will fly them to Azir.  “The Greek laughed, a short, unpleasant laugh.  “Do you think you are in a position to dictate terms?” he scoffed.  “I certainly do, or not being entirely a fool, I should not have returned to this den of thieves,” replies Biggles.  “What is to prevent me killing you now?” asked the Greek, with an evil smile.  “Come here and I’ll show you,” said Biggles, imperturbably, crossing to the window.  The others followed.  “I’m going to show you what will happen if I’m not back in my machine in half an hour,” he went on, waving his handkerchief through the window”.  The ‘Vandal’ flies down near the palm grove and there is a deafening explosion, then it turns and Smyth opens fire with a Vickers gun into the ground.  Biggles says “If anything happens to me, I can promise you that neither this building nor any man on the oasis will be standing by the time they’ve finished”.  “Where did you get that gun?” snarled the Greek with an evil scowl.  (Where did you get that gun - is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on page 194).  The Sheikh and the Greek confer and accept Biggles’ terms.  “Put the pearls on this table, and count out the money, and I’ll give you my word that I’ll fly you direct to Azir without any further conditions or argument”.  Biggles flies to Azir and lands near the pier where there is also a British destroyer.  Biggles says to be on the safe side, his two passengers should pretend to be their servants and carry their bags.  An officer, in white ducks, with two bluejackets in attendance stops the Sheikh and the Greek and searches “their” bags.  They contain many pounds of hashish.  The Sheikh tries to knife Biggles but is overpowered.  “Got your pearls, Bigglesworth?” asked Watkins, smiling.  “Yes, and you’ve got the body,” grinned Biggles.  “Empty that dope of yours out of our suitcases, we want to be getting along.  See you later”.  (It is possible that the 1936 book ‘Biggles in Africa’ is something of a sequel to this story as the villain is called ‘Stampoulos’ in that book and he is growing and supplying dope.  Indeed, the original first edition of the book, ‘Biggles in Africa’, refers to this story in a footnote on page 231 when Biggles says of the villain “I once had a spot of trouble with a Greek in the Red Sea; curiously enough his name was Stampoulos, and he may be the same man for all I know, although it isn’t an uncommon Greek name”).