BIGGLES HITS THE TRAIL

by Captain W. E. Johns

X. BIGGLES DECLARES WAR (Pages 162 – 178)

As dawn breaks, Biggles and Ginger wonder where Algy is. He should have flown the plane up by now. As the plateau floods with light they can see the Explorer and a crowd of blue robe figures surging about it. “They’re Chungs,” said Biggles at last, in an expressionless voice. The plane has been captured. Ginger asks what can they do. “Frankly, Ginger, I can only think of one thing,” replied Biggles. “To sit here and slowly starve or freeze to death is not my idea of a happy ending. Neither does the prospect of starting to walk back to India, without the others, even if we could, make any great appeal. So if you’re agreeable, I suggest that we walk down the path, shooting every thug we meet, until something stops us. If we can reach the cave and re-take the machine, so much the better; we’ll make that our objective, so to speak. If we do manage to get it, then we’ll proceed to drop boulders on Chungville, or whatever they call their precious town, until there’s no petrol left in the tanks. By which time there should be plenty of work down below for the local glaziers. How does that strike you? “O.K. by me, Chief”. They hear gunfire and Biggles recognises the Express rifle. “That’s Algy shooting”. They see Algy running in the distance as he crosses the narrow bridge. He is firing at invisible pursuers as he goes. Biggles advances forward and gets out the machine gun to help cover Algy. Suddenly Algy is caught in the beam of a ray and paralysed. Biggles finds a Chung around the corner of a rock. “His face, reptilian in its cold ferocity, was half hidden behind a black tubular object”. Biggles kicks it out of his hand. “At that moment the Chung was very near to death, and he appeared to realize it, for he shrank down and shielded his face with his arm”. Biggles takes him prisoner. Biggles notices he is remarkably well dressed, with a robe of purple silk and a great ruby on his right hand, and also that he is wounded, probably from the night before. Biggles, Algy and Ginger return to the summit with their prisoner. Algy tells his story. To prepare for Biggles and Ginger’s return they had driven a stake into the top of the cliff and left the silk rope coiled by it. Malty kept guard by the hole in the rock. Dickpa and Mac were sent to rest whilst Algy was by the rope, lying down looking into the gorge. Suddenly there are about fifty Chungs at the machine, whether they got Malty, Algy doesn’t know. Dickpa and Mac are captured and marched off. Algy lay still until seen then slid down the rope at speed burning his hands. The rope is cut when he is ten feet from the bottom. Algy then ran to find the path up. He came across of bunch of them preparing to become invisible and fought his way through them. The Chungs chased him up and the rest, Biggles knows. “I thought I’d managed to pull it off until at the last minute that yellow-faced dacoit (a member of a robber band or gang in Indian or Burma) stabbed me with a ray – one of the pocket sort that Mac spoke about, I suppose” says Algy. Looking out, Biggles sees a flag of truce and a strange procession comes into view. A commanding figure, resplendent in purple robes, is under a canopy upheld by two attendants. There is a retinue of twenty or more Chungs and Angus McAllister is there to act as interpreter. (“Tell the boy under the brolly that anything he has to say can be said from there” - is the illustration on page 173). Angus says “His Highness, Ho Ling Feng, has asked me to say that his son, the Prince Sing Hi, was on the hill when you attacked it last night. He has not returned, so he must have been killed. Ho Ling Feng wishes to recover his body”. “Biggles started, and threw a quick glance at the others. “Does this Sing Song fellow wear a purple surplice and a ruby ring? He shouted. “Yes,” came the answer. Angus says that Dickpa and Malty are prisoners in the palace and they have all been condemned to the centipedes. “Centipedes nothing!” shouted Biggles. “Give my compliments to the boss and tell that that Sing Hi is here with us, but if there is any more talk about centipedes, we’ll make him Sing Low – and the pitch him over the cliff”. Biggles says their prisoner is wounded and likely to die at any moment. Biggles offers a deal. The unconditional release of Dickpa, Angus and Malty. Malty can then see to the prisoners with his medicine chest. Angus and Dickpa can meet Algy at the machine and he will fly them up to the lake. Two Chungs can then “collect young Sing Song – or whatever his name is. And you can tell the head lad that if he makes one false move he will hear a loud pop, which will be his blue-eyed boy hitting the floor of the gorge. Is that clear?” This is agreed. Biggles, “Algy, off you go”. “Algy started. “Off I go where?” “Back to the machine”. “Have you got the brass face to suggest that I walk down that path into the gory clutches of that band of thugs?” “Of course. You heard what I said. How else can we get the machine up here? I’d go myself, but it’s up to me to watch the proceedings”. Algy rose reluctantly to his feet. “I’m not exactly dithering with enthusiasm about it,” he said gloomily. “However, I see there’s nothing for it”. Biggles tells Ginger that all they can do is wait.