BIGGLES FLIES NORTH

by Captain W. E. Johns

XIII. SOUTHWARD AGAIN (Pages 146 – 153)

“For three hours the airmen worked feverishly”. The snow starts, but they get the job done and taxi the aircraft towards Angus’s cabin to drop of the rest of the stores for him. Angus gives them the precious transfer document that they had come to collect. He also gives them a small sack of gold. This is Mose’s ‘poke’ (a gold poke is a small sack used to carry around gold dust and nuggets) and he asks Biggles to find Mose’s daughter in Vancouver and give it to her. The Jupiter takes off and they fly south and are soon out of the falling snow. They discuss what to do about McBain and Biggles thinks the “wisest course would be to submit a report of the whole affair to police head-quarters and let them do what they like about it”. They will need to land at Moose Creek with the skis on but Wilks says that when the lake is frozen, that is where he always lands. The windstocking is by the side of the creek when the ice is safe to land on and that is what they find. They think they might find McBain at Moose Creek, but he is not there. Refuelling at Moose Creek for the fight onwards to Fort Beaver, Biggles goes to find Canwell, the traffic manager. Canwell tells them they are too late. The biggest gold shipment they have ever made has just been taken by McBain who left ten minutes ago. Biggles returns to the others. “He’s got ten minutes start. Not expecting to be followed, he’ll cruise; if we run on full throttle we may overhaul him. Get aboard – step on it”.