BIGGLES GOES TO WAR

by Captain W. E. Johns

XV. A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING (Pages 175 – 194)

The wolves come nearer. “Have a crack at them, Ginger” says Biggles. Ginger fires and the wolves all disappear. Biggles worries about what Algy will do. If the snow melts, the river will be in spate. Biggles wonders how they might cross it. Swimming in the freezing conditions and with the speed of the current is out of the question. Ginger comes up with the idea of making a raft out of tree trunks and old rotten rope and chains. It takes them half an hour to make the raft and in that time the river rises about a foot. The urgently of the situation increases when they hear voices and see soldiers with bloodhounds. The three men get on the raft and push off but they are quickly seen by the searching soldiers who open fire. Biggles fires his automatic back at them to upset their aim. Getting to the other side of the bank, they run for cover, zigzagging towards the trees. However, they are still in Lovitzna and still some two miles from the border. They reach the frontier, which is just an unguarded barbed wire fence so they climb over it easily. They then hear a formation of enemy aircraft flying overhead, no doubt looking for them, but they remain hidden in the trees. After more hiking they try to reach a farmhouse for food but this involves coming into the open and the patrol leader of the enemy aircraft unexpectedly skims low over the hills and sees them against the rapidly melting snow. The aircraft opens fire with machine-guns and strafes them. Things are looking bad, however Algy arrives in the new two-seater air craft that they had captured the previous day, but now painted with Maltovian markings. (In a split second the single-seater was screaming vertically skyward, with the other machine hanging to its tail- is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on pages 188 and 189). Algy scares the attacking plane off and is just about to pursue it when he sees Biggles out in the open waving his handkerchief. Algy lands and Biggles warns him that there are half a dozen more fighters about somewhere. Biggles thinks that the fleeing aircraft has gone to fetch them. Biggles loads the Count into the empty seat of Algy’s two-seater and says that he and Ginger will wait in this same field for Algy to return. Biggles and Ginger make their way to the farmhouse, where several curious spectators are watching. They then see six Lovitznian fighters arrive, but Algy has already got away and the fighters soon turn back. By producing a Maltovian ten-mark note they are soon given a meal at the farmhouse. In due course Algy returns for them and with Biggles flying and Ginger and Algy squeezed into the other cockpit together, they fly back to Maltovia. Ginger is on the floor of the cockpit and Algy is above him and like this they are able to return to base. They land and taxi in, but there is no sign of Smyth. Maltovian soldiers come out led by Bethstein’s aide-de-camp, a man called Vilmsky. (‘What is the meaning of this?’ Biggles was really angry - is the illustration on page 195). He is there to arrest the three airmen on General Bethstein’s orders, on a charge of espionage.