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”.