BIGGLES HITS THE TRAIL

 

by Captain W. E. Johns

 

 

XIV.                DELUGE  (Pages 229 – 251)

 

I   -   “It took them two hours, working at feverish speed, to complete the job.  Biggles and Algy ripped the bullets out with pliers; Dickpa and Malty emptied the cases, and Ginger pressed the yellow cord-like substance, from which the explosive takes its name, into biscuit tins.  All camp equipment and everything not required for the journey home was then unloaded and thrown on the bank”.  Biggles keeps an eye on the sky as the weather is becoming stormy.  Algy is left in the cockpit “for a snappy take-off”.  Malty keeps an eye out for Chungs with the Lewis gun.  They have left him twenty-five rounds.  Dickpa and Mac take their seats in the machine.  Ginger goes with Biggles to help carry the stuff and they set off.  There is a flash of lightning and a distant rumble.  “Thunder,” said Ginger, a trifle nervously.  “I’m not deaf,” snapped Biggles, for after the events of the last few days his temper was inclined to be a trifle short”.  The enormous rock is actually swaying in the wind.  Biggles and Ginger stuff the cordite in a crack in the rock.  Biggles splashes petrol over the cordite and they run back to the plane trickling petrol as they go.  Two hundred yards away, there is another flash of lightning.  Looking back, Ginger sees the petrol has been set alight by it!  Biggles drops the can and they run as fast as they can to the Explorer.  (Like mountain goats gone mad they tore towards the boat - is the illustration on page 235).  Malty, seeing what has happened jumps into the hull followed by Ginger.  Biggles jumps into his seat and they swing round.  “Under the impulse of her powerful engines, the Explorer surged forward, leaving a trail of creamy foam in her wake, but she had not reached anything like the speed necessary to lift her from the water when there was a flash, quickly followed by a sharp, ringing explosion”.  The huge spur of rock falls creating a cloud of spray that rose into the air almost as high as the Mountain of Light.  If the wave hits them “the lightly-built flying boat would just crumple up like so much tissue paper”.  The plane runs towards the low wall of the dam but doesn’t have enough power to take off.  (With engines roaring, he set his nose at the dam - is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on page 236).  Magically, almost at the moment of impact, the dam disappeared and Biggles is able to take off “through whirling wraiths of white mist”.  Turning back to look at the damage, Biggles sees the dam in not there.  “Had he not known that it could not be so, he would have thought that the tidal wave had washed the dam clean away, but he knew that was not the case, for the dam had burst before the wave had struck it.  He could only conclude, therefore, that the dam had collapsed under the pressure of some terrific under-water pulsation”.  “The flood had not yet reached the town itself, but it was perilously near, and the inhabitants were pouring up the hill in order to escape the deluge”.  The power-station was submerged.  Biggles says to Algy “Did you ever see anything like that in your life?  Have a good look, for I doubt if you’ll ever see anything like it again”.  Steam gushes from what Biggles had once called blow-holes, where he fell through.  The side of the mountain begins to collapse and landslides only caused the water to rise higher.  “Well, I don’t think they’ll start any world-conquest for a bit” said Biggles as he flies away and tries to set a homeward course.  However, the compass is not working.  Biggles tells Algy he will have to go down and they land on the rolling plain.

 

II   -   Malty asks if a compass is really necessary.  Couldn’t they just fly south-west?  Biggles retorts coldly.  “What do you think I am, a pigeon?  Could you point to the south-west?  They only have enough petrol to fly to India in a dead straight line.  Ginger hopes the sun will come out presently so as to give them a direction but their aircraft doesn’t have the performance to fly above the clouds as they are already at fourteen thousand feet.  Ginger looks at the compass and suddenly it jerks about.  Malty is looking at the stalagmite.  It soon dawns on Biggles that it is the radium affecting the compass.  They don’t want to ditch the radium but Malty has to walk two hundred yards away before the compass returns to normal.  McAllister suggests hanging the stalagmite out of the plane on a wire.  At the right distance if won’t affect their compass.  This they do and wind it in before they land.  “Eight hours later, after an uneventful voyage, the Explorer landed on the aerodrome at Chittagong, just as the sun was going down behind the mysterious jungle”.  The Aerodrome Manager wants to know where they have been as “half a dozen service machines have been wasting their time looking for you for the last twenty-four hours”.  Biggles says they have been down with engine trouble and their compass went wrong.  “The official looked at the instrument and grunted.  “Yes, that’s not much good”.  The official is still suspicious of where they have been.  “Would it surprise you to know that Marshall Li Chen has sent a nasty note to the British Legation in Pekin, requesting that the pilot of the British aeroplane that is annoying certain of his subjects be requested to return to his own country”.  “Biggles started.  “Li Chen? I seem to have heard that name,” he said, with a puzzled air”.  (Li Chen is not to be confused with Li Chi from Biggles Flies Again).  Li Chen is the head of the Chinese Government.  “I’m sorry, laddie, but I’m afraid I can’t help you” replied Biggles sadly.  “I was never in China in my life”.