BIGGLES FLIES
WEST
By Captain W.
E. Johns
XI. THE RESCUE (Pages 161 - 172)
Biggles stooped, caught Dick by the arm
and helped him to his feet. “You’re all
right now, laddie” he said kindly. Dick
starts to collapse. “Here! Hold up!”
cried Biggles sharply. “We don’t allow
fainting”. Looking at Pedro's body, a
few inches from his hand is the cursed gold doubloon. “As I have remarked before, that coin doesn’t
seem to bring its owner much luck, does it?” remarked Biggles
suspiciously. Biggles tells Dick not to
touch it, saying “I’ve seen enough of the confounded thing, anyway”. Biggles kicks it into the hole that Dick had
hidden in. Dick tells Biggles that Algy
and Ginger are prisoners. Biggles stared
"Prisoners!" he ejaculated.
Biggles and Dick go to rescue Algy and Ginger and they hear someone
coming so they hide in the bushes.
"’Frisco Jack, I suspect, and he’s coming this way. He's probably looking for the n****r" (This is the sixth Biggles book to feature the use of the very offensive
“N” word by W. E. Johns. The word
appears three times in this book, once in Chapter VI and once in this Chapter,
“The Rescue” and once in Chapter XII, “A Lucky Fall”. Of course, in its day, the word was in
regular use and not considered offensive at all, otherwise it would not have
appeared in a children’s book, where even mild expletives are watered
down. The word remained in all Oxford
editions of this book and also in the 1974 Knight paperback version. In the 1996 Red Fox edition, this is changed
to “his friend”). 'Frisco Jack sees Pedro and runs to him,
giving Biggles and Dick a chance to pass him on the far side of the rocks and
run to Deutch's camp.
Biggles tells Dick “It’s not time for half-measures. We shall have to go the whole hog. I don’t go about the world shooting at people
for the sake of stirring up strife, but, by thunder, when other people start
the row I do my best to make things hot for
them”. Only Deutch
is at the camp and Biggles holds him at gunpoint. “Hands up, Mr. Deutch
– and keep them up,” he ordered harshly.
“Any argument from you and I’ll blow you in halves. And if you have any doubt about that, just
try it,” he added vindictively. Biggles
clapped the muzzle of the pistol to Deutch’s
head. Dick uses the razor taken from
Pedro to free Algy and Ginger. Biggles
searches Deutch’s pocket and takes a revolver from
him and the maps that had been taken from them at Marabina. The plan is to take the canoe and go out to
their aircraft and take it back, now the storm has passed. But it is too late, the amphibian starts up
and takes off. Harvey is already in
it. Dick is sent to see if ‘Frisco is
returning and he reports that that he is “but he’s coming very slowly because
he’s helping Pedro along”. Biggles
doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks because ‘Frisco Jack is a
sharp-shooter and some one will get in the way of a
bullet and it is more likely to be them than him. A change of plan is called for, so the canoe
is loaded up with supplies. Deutch shouts threats and calls for ‘Frisco Jack, who then
opens fires on Biggles’ party as they escape in the canoe. “I don’t think he’ll hit us at this distance”
said Biggles calmly. “Outside a hundred
yards revolver shooting becomes pure chance”.
'Frisco Jack continues to fire at them, but the range gets longer by the
second and they make for the islet where Biggles found the old pirate
fort. Leaving the others at the fort,
Biggles crosses to the island to get some coconuts to complete their supplies.