BIGGLES
– SECRET AGENT
by Captain W.
E. Johns
XI. DESPERATE
MEASURES (Pages
172 – 185)
Biggles says their job is to get Beklinder
out of this place and out of the country. The arrival of his son hasn’t made it
easier as Beklinder is unlikely to go without his son. Then, of course, they need to get Algy out as
well. Walking down the secret tunnel
they come to a door. It is unlocked but
very stiff and with great effort, Biggles manages to open it. They find themselves in a large vault – a
torture chamber. There is still a rack
and pokers to put people’s eyes out. A
doorway the other side leads to a spiral staircase and that leads up to the
roof of the main central tower. Ginger
does not like the look of the crumbling brickwork on the roof. “For heaven’s sake be careful of that
parapet,” warned Ginger. “It looks to me
as if you’d only have to cough to send the whole works overboard”. Down below they can see a big limousine being
brought out and they hear a storm-trooper chauffeur say they are going to take
the Beklinders away. Biggles says they
have to stop them as once they get through that gateway,
we shall never see them again. Biggles
uses his foot to push at the flimsy parapet and with Ginger holding on to him
he pushes it down on the limousine.
Ginger only just manages to stop Biggles and himself going over the edge
with the stonework. The crash coming as
it did in the silence sounds like the whole castle had collapsed. Biggles realises that they could still use
Beklinder’s own car. Biggles and Ginger
return down the spiral staircase in darkness as they daren’t use the torch in
case it is seen. Some rough stones
attract Biggles attention and using the torch briefly he finds a blocked up doorway.
By working stones loose they are able to get
out onto the courtyard. They then
replace the stones to keep their hidden corridor secret. Biggles peeps round the tower and sees that
they are getting the Professor’s Morris out.
Biggles and Ginger have to hurry to use the rope to lower themselves
down the parapet, a drop of some twenty feet, to the track that skirts the
bottom of the rampart. Running through
the forest, Biggles gets to the road to the village and places a piece of dead
wood from the lower part of the nearest tree across the road. Biggles then places this twig in the middle
of the road and leans his torch against it to show a red light up the
road. “The torch was one of the
triple-light type”, primarily intended for signalling to Algy. Biggles plans to hold up the car with the
Beklinders in, with Ginger one side of the road and he, Biggles on the other
side. As the car approaches, he
disappears into the trees.