BIGGLES
& CO.
by Captain W.
E. Johns
IX. INTO
THE FIRE (Pages
168 – 200)
I
- When Biggles looked in the window,
to his utmost surprise, he sees not just an empty room but a vast chamber with
a large carved table in the centre.
Chairs are arranged around it with a large one at the head. In front of this chair is a blotting-pad,
bound in red leather, with a large silver ink-stand an on the pad he sees the
sealed package of jewels with the seals still unbroken! He climbs in to go and get it. Suddenly, a door opens so Biggles hides behind
the door. “The plan was a forlorn hope
at the best, and like most forlorn hopes it failed”. Biggles is seen by a “flunkey” dressed in
medieval style. “Biggles’s clenched fist
shot out like a piston in a vicious upper-cut, which made contact with that
vulnerable spot known in boxing circles as the solar plexus. The recipient of this unpleasant salutation
uttered a spasmodic gasp; a spasm of agony convulsed his face, and he collapsed
like a pricked balloon on to the floor”.
Biggles conceals the unconscious man in a small room off the main
chamber but then hears several people walking into the room he has just
vacated. Biggles wonders what to do with
the man, who will no doubt soon recover.
“In fiction he could, of course, have been bound and gagged, and Biggles
was prepared to inflict both these indignities on him” but he has nothing with
which to bind him. Biggles decides to
put on his clothes in order to walk to the door and leave. In the main room, nine or ten feet away, four
men are seated at the table. “The room
itself was more of a museum than a living-room.
At one time it had evidentially been the banqueting-hall of the castle,
for a minstrels’ gallery ran the entire length of one end; below it was a small
door that appeared to give access to it”.
Biggles walks out just as the man at the head of the table opens the
package of jewels. The package is
empty. Biggles “stopped dead, staring at
the case incredulously, for once shaken completely off his guard. He forgot where he was and what he was
doing. He forgot everything except the
one inexplicable, unbelievable fact that the case was empty”. Biggles felt “his gaze drawn to the leader’s
eyes. As it came to rest upon him he felt the blood drain from his face as his entire
system reacted violently to such a shock as he had never before
experienced. It was not the round muzzle
of the automatic that appeared over the edge of the table that caused it; it
was the shock of recognition. For the
face into which he was staring was that of a man who, he thought, was buried
deep in the arid sand of Palestine. It
was Erich von Stalhein, once second in command of German Intelligence in the
Middle East”. It was von Stalhein who
broke the silence. ‘Major Bigglesworth,’
he said quietly, ‘years ago I reported to my Higher Command that you had more
nerve than any other officer in the British Flying Corp – no, don’t move,
please”. Von Stalhein introduces Biggles
to his comrades and allows him to change back into “his hastily discarded
suit”. “Better put them on again; we
shall then be able to discuss the situation with the dignity it demands,”
suggested the German. They discuss the
jewels. Biggles gives his word that he
thought the diamonds were in the box and says he didn’t come into the room
trying to recover an empty box. Biggles
places two fingers in his mouth and blows a shrill whistle. There is a pause, where von Stalhein says,
“Well, nothing appears to have happened” – then the lights go out. Von Stalhein immediately opens fire in the
darkness. Biggles makes for the
minstrels’ gallery. Through the door,
and in total darkness, Biggles just wants to find Algy. He trips over armour. At that moment, the lights come back on
again. Biggles is in a long corridor
furnished as an armoury and he grabs an antique rifle and one cartridge. By an open window, Biggles can hear sounds of
pursuit round the castle and can hear the baying of a hound. “Suffering Icarus, I certainly have stirred
up a hornet’s nest and no mistake”.
Working his way through the castle, Biggles reaches a magnificent flight
of stairs and scouts around various rooms.
In due course, he comes upon a room where von Stalhein is in a cold
fury. A look through the partially open
door reveals seven men, the four from the dining-room, two guards and –
Algy! In front of von Stalhein is the
empty jewel case but also a similar one.
“Biggles had learnt a little German during his previous affair with von
Stalhein; his knowledge was rusty from lack of use, but he was able to gather
that the German was calling attention to the seals on both cases, presumably
for the purposes of comparison”. Biggles
carefully and quietly puts his hand into the room and takes the key from the
other side of the lock and inserts it into his side of the lock. Then aiming his gun at the light bulb, he
pulls the trigger. Click. Nothing happens. But he has now drawn the attention of those
in the room. “Your powder seems to be a
trifle damp, Bigglesworth,’ von Stalhein observes dryly. Then the rifle goes off. The bullet hits the chandelier and creates a
distraction. Algy swipes the lamp onto
the floor and plunges the room into darkness.
He runs to the door and then Biggles slams it and locks it. A bullet is fired from inside the room and
rips a splinter out of a door panel.
Biggles and Algy run for it.
II
- They reach the top of the main
staircase and hear people coming up.
They are forced to run up a narrow set of stairs in order to get
away. Here they find a chain of rooms,
each leading into the other until in the last room they see a crude ladder
fixed perpendicularly to the wall. They
climb up and find it gives access to a flat roof. They shut the trap behind them and then find
they are by the top of a large chimney; Biggles sees it has rungs at the
side. “Are you proposing to go down that
black hole of Calcutta?” asks Algy. (This is a reference to an infamous incident
in India when 146 British and Anglo-Indian soldiers were held overnight in a
small dungeon, 14 by 18 feet, in Fort William, Calcutta, India, following the
capture of that fort on 20th June 1756. 123 died from suffocation, heat exhaustion
and crushing). Biggles says they
only need to go down far enough to be out of sight. Biggles goes first and Algy follows. They go some twenty foot down. Men come onto the roof and one drops a
lighted match down the chimney. The hot
match-stalk goes down Algy’s neck. The
men go and Algy and Biggles climb out.
They don’t know the time as both of their (wind up) watches have
stopped. “The moon disappeared behind
the distant forest, and the Stygian (a
reference to the mythical River Styx in Hades) darkness enveloped
them”. They rest and Algy sleeps.