BIGGLES IN THE SOUTH SEAS

by Captain W. E. Johns

XI. A RUDE AWAKENING (Pages 170 – 180)

Ginger was the first to wake in the morning. He lay thinking, and reasoned that Biggles had to leave and would return for them. Full Moon wakes and sees Castanelli’s schooner. They wake Shell-Breaker. He says Castanelli has been caught in the hurricane and the Avarata damaged. He will therefore pull in and stay a long time. Ginger, Full Moon and Shell-Breaker crawl over the ridge out of sight of the lagoon then run to the farthest end of the island to hide amongst the coral. Castanelli steps ashore and searches the lagoon side of the island. He finds the remains of the camp and also an oyster shell. As the sun sinks into the western ocean, Ginger realises that Biggles will not return that day. He asks Shell-Breaker how far there are away from Rutuona by small boat? The answer is one or two days depending on sea and wind. Ginger decides to steal Castanelli’s dinghy, which is moored by his schooner. When night falls, Shell-Breaker and Ginger swim out to the schooner. Full Moon gathers coconuts and is to meet them, where the reef joins the island. Ginger climbs into the dinghy, only to discover there is a man asleep there, who awakes with a wild yell. “Something crashed against his jaw and the world exploded in a flash of blinding light”. Ginger is knocked unconscious. He comes round only minutes later and finds himself on the deck of the schooner. Castanelli sneers “So we meet again – yes?” Castanelli wants to know where Ginger’s pals are. Ginger explains he doesn’t know, he was trapped in a cave by a shark and when he got out, he only had time to climb into a palm before the seas swept everything. “Get plenty pearls?” asks Castanelli. We got a few says Ginger, who saw no reason to lie. He explains a swordfish holed their “ship” and they had to jettison the diving-gear to save it from sinking. “Where are ze pearls?” leered Castanelli. Ginger replies, “On the ship, wherever that is”. Ginger admits he knows roughly where the pearl bed is. Castanelli says Ginger is to show him in the morning otherwise his Solomon Island boys will eat him. Ginger is taken and put “into the same evil-smelling compartment from which he had once rescued Shell-Breaker