BIGGLES – SECRET AGENT

by Captain W. E. Johns

VI. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE VAULT (Pages 85 – 105)

An hour and a half later Biggles lowers a thin but strong cotton rope out of the window. Tied to the bedpost it allows Ginger to climb down followed by Biggles who then draws the rope clear. Biggles has an electric torch with him and collects the crowbar from the shed. When they are away from the hotel Biggles says “We’ve tackled some queer jobs in our time, but this is about the grimmest. In fact, I’ve never set about anything with less enthusiasm; but there’s no way out of it”. They make their way to the churchyard. At the west wall of the church tower they find the entrance to the vault “the stone that closed it rested on a few courses of brickwork sunk into the ground at right-angles to the wall”. Incised on the stone was ‘M. Beklinder R.I.P.’ Ginger tells Biggles he is afraid of spooks. Biggles says “I should be most interested to see one, because I’ve never seen one yet – and I never shall”. They prize open the slab and wedge it with the crowbar and then descend the steps down into the vault. The vault seems ancient and there are references to Counts, Countesses and Barons, even a Prince who died aged eighteen in the plague of 1660. Biggles finds Beklinder’s coffin and sets about unscrewing the lid. They find that the coffin is full of books. Biggles laughs as the top book is ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’. (First published in December 1812, by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, the first edition contained 86 stories and the seventh edition, in 1857, contained 210 stories). Suddenly, their blood runs cold as they hear a curious soft swishing sound from the entrance. Biggles turns off the torch so the entrance shows as a narrow strip of dark grey light. Suddenly it is blotted out by something. Then the grey strip of light appears again. After a period of waiting Biggles and Ginger venture outside the vault, when something that Ginger took to be a headstone suddenly comes to life. “With a wild screech something white fluttered into the air, and then swept swiftly over the graves. Ginger falls back with a cry of horror but Biggles tells him angrily to keep his head. Biggles says it was a human being not a spook and points out tracks on the dew-soaked turf. They were dressed in a manner calculated to frighten any one else who came along. Putting the slab of the vault back into position and concealing the crowbar under a near-by yew, they set off back towards the hotel. Returning to their open window, Biggles makes a noose and eventually manages to hook it round the bedpost in their room so they can climb back up. Biggles says the girl next door saw them come back in as he saw her curtain move. Ginger asks Biggles if he is going to watch her. “Possibly, if it doesn’t retard our own plans” says Biggles. Biggles plans to get the pigeon away first thing in the morning with a message about what was in the coffin. He also wants to look at room 17 and he sends Ginger down to get the key. Ginger returns to say the key has gone. The only other keys missing were their own key (room 18) and room 15, which must be the girl’s room. Biggles goes to look in the girl’s room as he suspects she is not there. Her door is unlocked and her bed has not been slept in. Biggles goes to open the door to room 17, again it is unlocked, but the door squeaks and a faint cry of alarm comes from inside the room. Biggles closes the door and returns with Ginger to their room. Biggles leaves his door open half an inch and sees a shadowy figure disappear downstairs – no doubt to put the key to room 17 back. Biggles makes a small hole in the wall between rooms 18 and 17 but can see only darkness. He plugs it and both Ginger and Biggles turn in to get some rest.