BIGGLES
FLIES SOUTH
by Captain W.
E. Johns
XIV. A
HOPELESS PROSPECT (Pages
185 – 194)
“Surely this crowd couldn’t have been in
the village when we were up there?” said Algy, as they marched along. “It’s all a mystery to me,” declared
Biggles. “How they managed to keep
themselves hidden until the crucial moment is more than I can imagine”. Kadar thinks they were at some place beyond
the village “and the old hag went and fetched them”. Kadar thinks they are the descendants of
Cambyses’ army. “How else could they get
their white skins? At least, if they are
not white, they are nearly white. They
are certainly not Arabs”. “I don’t care
two hoots about the colour of their skins,” muttered Biggles. “It is the way they are likely to behave that
matters. They can be Persians, Chinese,
Eskimos, Red Indians, or anything else, as far as I am concerned, so long as
they don’t try any funny tricks”. They
cross over a drawbridge that passes over a moat and see that it contains a
writhing tangle of snakes. They are then
taken to an important-looking building and taken up a long winding flight of
stairs where Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Kadar are all locked in a small room
lighted by a single square window. There
is a seventy or eighty foot drop to the ground. They are bought food and water and Kadar
tries speaking to the arrivals in several languages but to no avail. Kadar writes something down to show them and
one of the men takes his pencil to write something below it. After they have left, Kadar looks at the
writing and concludes the people are Persians.
He thinks that characters of two words may be interpreted as “sacrifice”
and “crocodile”. Out of the window they
watch a torchlight procession coming from the entrance to the village. It is led by the old hag and they recognise Zarwan. It goes to
the oasis; there is a commotion and then silence. “I should say that human sacrifice to the
crocodile is an ancient religious rite with these people, as it was with other
desert tribes years ago,” observed Kadar quietly. Biggles wishes he had shot the crocodile when
he had the chance. They try to get some
sleep and a dozing Ginger slips sideways so his head rests on Biggles leg. Biggles smokes his last remaining piece of
cigarette.