BIGGLES
FLIES SOUTH
by Captain W.
E. Johns
XII. ALGY
TO THE RESCUE (Pages
159 – 171)
It is broad daylight when Algy awakens
from dozing. A dreadful feeling crept over
him that he was the only creature alive in the world. Algy knows that madness lies that way as it
is “the fatal mental state which the French desert troops, the Foreign Legion,
and the Bataillon d’Afrique call le
cafard”. (Literally ‘avoir le
cafard’ translates as having the cockroach – it means to feel low, blue down in
the dumps or depressed). Algy
decides to return to following the caravan.
They might lead him to an oasis and he might be able to recover some
petrol. With petrol, he could fly the
plan and “ten minutes in the air would be more likely to reveal the others,
dead or alive, than a month of searching on foot”. The heat become torture as the sun climbs to
its zenith. The sand is so hot it burns
his feet through his shoes. Algy reaches
the lance and pulls it out. He finds the
sun-bleached bones of Mazeus in his ancient armour. Algy carries on, using the lance as a
staff. It is twilight by the time he
reaches the Arab camp. Two empty petrol
cans remain but they have moved on. Algy
spends the night there and awakens at dawn.
He then follows the tracks of the caravan “little dreaming that Biggles
and the others were, at that precise moment, turning their backs on the Tourer
and starting off down the wadi”. The dreaded heat soon comes up and Algy has a
tortuous journey. He is nearly at the
end of his endurance when he rounds a rock and sees the oasis in the
distance. Approaching stealthily, he
sees there are two Arabs sleeping by the pool.
Algy goes to the other side to fill his water bottle but there is then a
huge disturbance when the crocodile comes out and grabs one of the sleeping
Arabs. This results in such a commotion
that Algy flees, with his lance and water bottle in one hand and his rifle in
the other. Algy then finds some paper
with English writing on and recognises it as wrapping from their stores. Biggles and the others must have been
there! Suspecting they may have gone up
to the village, Algy does the same. He
finds a place where the rampart has crumbled and gets into the village. Here, Algy finds his three companions staked
out and guarded by three Arab Tuareg.
The rest have gone down to the oasis in response to the commotion caused
by the crocodile. Algy stands the lance
against the wall and takes aim at an Arab with his rifle “for he knew that the
only arguments the desert nomads understood were bullet and cold steel, and any
other method of approach would be mere foolishness”. However, the lance falls over and the noise
alerts the Arabs just as Algy fires; he misses.
The Arabs charge him and Algy shoots two of them but the third one sets
upon him with a knife. Algy stabs him in
the throat with the lance “and impaled him as cleanly as a butterfly is impaled
upon a pin”. One of the Arabs previously
shot, is only wounded and shoots at Algy.
Algy “took out his automatic and deliberately shot the savage
dead”. Algy cuts Biggles, Ginger and
Kadar free and gives them water. They
are fairly badly sun burnt and suffering from ant bites but at least the main
body of ants hadn’t reached them. Algy
goes to see if the other Arabs are returning from the oasis and notes their
attention has been drawn by the shots.
Biggles takes the rifle to hold off the Arabs whilst Algy helps the
others across to the gateway.