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.