BIGGLES
FLIES EAST
by Captain W.
E. Johns
XXI. STERNE
TAKES A HAND (Pages
237 – 246)
At a house on the outskirts of the
village of Jebel Zaloud, in a house that once had
been the residence of the merchant Ali Ben Sadoum, is
the Air Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force in Palestine. Biggles and Algy awake in chairs having been
there all night and are called in to see the General who has been up most of
the night working on important dispatches.
The General asks which one of them is Bigglesworth and he then asks if
Biggles was the one whose intervention led to the stay of execution for Sheikh
Haroun Ibn Said, otherwise known as El Shereef. Biggles says “Quite,
sir. I hope to repay you for your
consideration”. Biggles says that Haroun
Ibn Said, a good friend of the British, was innocent, framed by El Shereef himself.
Biggles explains that Hauptmann Erich von Stalhein is El Shereef. There is a
knock at the door and the General is told that Major Sterne has arrived. The General calls for Sterne to come up. “Biggles, after a nod to Algy, stepped back
against the far wall”. Sterne enters
dressed in flowing Arab robes. The
General tells Sterne that Haroun Ibn Said is not El Shereef. “Not El Shereef!”
cried Sterne. “What nonsense! If he
isn’t El Shereef, then who is?” “You are, I think,” said Biggles
quietly. “Don’t move – von
Stalhein”. “Ah,” he said softly, and
then again, “Ah. So
I was right”. “You were,” said Biggles
shortly, “and so was I”. Von Stalhein
raises his hands and as he does so he tears off the top of his burnous and throws it in Biggles face. He then goes through the window “like a
bird”. Everyone chases after him but von
Stalhein gets on a horse and gallops off.
The General gets in his car and chases after von Stalhein, with Biggles
in the back and Algy on the running board.
A mile away is Kantara and von Stalhein gets
to the British aerodrome before he can be overtaken. Von Stalhein then jumps into a Bristol
Fighter warming up on the tarmac and takes off.
The General tells Baines, his driver, to stop at the nearby archie
battery and the General then tells the lieutenant there to shoot down the
Bristol. “Get it and I’ll promote you to
Captain in to-night’s orders”. The
archie battery opens fire at the plane which escaping into the distance. “Biggles was torn between desire to watch the
frantic but methodical activity of the gunners – for he had seldom stood at the
starting end of archie – and the machine, but he could not tear his eyes away
from the swerving two-seater; knowing from bitter experience just what von
Stalhein was going through, he felt almost sorry for him”. Shells burst all around the Bristol and
eventually one bursts between the wings and the aircraft takes a “dizzy
earthward plunge”. The aircraft
disappears behind a hill and comes down over the German side of the lines. They all hear “the sinister but unmistakable
sound of an aeroplane hitting the ground”.
“Biggles drew a deep breath.
“Well,” he said slowly, “that’s that”.