BIGGLES FLIES NORTH

by Captain W. E. Johns

XVIII. TRAPPED! (Pages 197 – 206)

Biggles asks Delaney if he thinks the crowd will attack them in a Government building. When a bullet thuds against the side of the cabin and a splinter of wood jerks into the room, they have their answer. Biggles asks if they are allowed to kill anyone in defending their lives, or are they liable to be charged with murder? “Not while I’m here, I reckon” says Delaney. A stone is thrown through the window with a message tied to it. It’s from Smyth and it says he has found Delaney’s horse and is going to ride to Blackfoot Point for help. There is an officer and four troopers there but it is twenty miles away and they can’t expect much help before dawn. The hostile crowd continues their demands to hang the airmen and they fire shots at the cabin. Biggles tells Delaney there is no sense in him getting killed with them. He might as well leave and the airmen will hold the crowd off without him. Delaney is having none of it. The crowd cry out for a log and they use a tree to try to batter down the door of the jail. Delaney fires at the crowd but is shot in the shoulder. Biggles shouts out that the constable has been hit and demands a truce whilst bandages are fetched but the crowd are having none of it. Biggles suggests to his comrades they surrender as he doesn’t want Delaney to lose his life saving theirs. The door is rammed and Delaney fires through the door, blindly. The cry goes up that he has killed Fred. Biggles shoots one of the men holding the battering ram and that stops them. The attack continues throughout the night. Eventually, the mob set fire to the jail and although “Delaney swore soundly” they are forced to leave the log cabin. The airmen are all seized and have their wrists tied behind their backs. They are taken to a hanging tree and three ropes with nooses are thrown over it. “Silly sort of way to die,” complains Algy. The noose is slipped around their necks and Biggles calls out “Keep your eyes on McBain, Delaney; he’s the man who murdered Mose”.