BIGGLES
FLIES SOUTH
by Captain W.
E. Johns
XIII. CAPTURED (Pages 174 – 184)
Algy gets Ginger and Kadar into the shade
of a narrow street where Kadar is fascinated by the lance, recognising it a
Persian work. They hear Biggles firing
the rifle and make haste. They reach the
spot where the wall has broken down that Algy entered by and a few minutes
later, Biggles joins them. “Those black
devils are crawling up the hill under cover of the rocks; they’ll be at the
gate in a minute or two” he says. They
make there way down to the wide expanse of maize
where they are able to rest. “In as few
words as possible, yet omitting nothing of importance, Algy told the others his
story”. Biggles explains that they had
got lost but did return to the aircraft to leave a message and a map for
Algy. Biggles asks Algy how many Arabs
there were and on hearing there were around twenty, works out that there cannot
be much of guard left on the petrol and stores if any. They could recover the petrol and hide
it. This they then do, finding the
stores apparently unguarded. They find a
nearby depression in the sand and move the petrol there and cover it. Algy then fires his automatic as he runs into
an Arab, presumably who had been left on guard but had gone to watch the goings
on at the village. The shot brings the
Tuareg pouring down the hill but “from both sides of the hill, from the cacti,
from the corn fields, and anything else that offered cover, came a crowd of
amazing figures”. They are wearing
armour and equipped with ancient weapons.
“It’s Cambyses army” cries Kadar.
Biggles thinks they are Arabs who have found the armour but Kadar points
out they are white. “Never mind what
colour they are, we had better bolt for it; we can’t face that mob” says
Biggles, but turning, he finds they are surrounded. They watch the Tuareg fight the newcomers and
Zarwan bolts towards them, imploring them in broken
English to protect him. “Yes, I’ll protect you, you murdering swine” snarls
Biggles and he starts beating him with a camel-wane, a yard-long cane used by
all camel drivers. “At last the camel-wand
broke into halves; Biggles flung the pieces aside, and hurled the now sobbing
half-caste from him”. When he has
finished beating Zarwan, Biggles notices a ring of
warriors around him. Then a strange
“monkey-like figure” appears and begins shrieking orders in an unknown
language. “That’s the creature we saw in
the tombs, isn’t it?” said Kadar.
Biggles nodded. “Yes, I think
it’s the old lady herself,” he agreed.
Biggles party, Zarwan and three Tuareg
prisoners are all seized and taken off up the hill towards the village.