BIGGLES IN THE SOUTH SEAS

by Captain W. E. Johns

XIII. WHAT HAPPENED AT RUTUONA (Pages 193 – 208)

Biggles was still at Rutuona with Algy and Sandy. During the hurricane, a palm-stem had crashed down on the port wing-tip and crushed the leading edge. Flying was out of the question until it was repaired. Brushwood piles up around the Scud, so that by the time the hurricane has passed, it was almost buried. They have to make a bridge out of the rubbish just to get ashore and have an uncomfortable night with the mosquitoes in the swamp by the edge of their creek. “Biggles had seen many jungles, but never growth so impenetrable as that which fringed the creek. It was impossible to move in any direction without hacking every inch of the way with their knives”. They reach a swamp with huge water-lilies, the homes of revolting-looking centipedes, nearly a foot long. Impossible to cross, they have to go round. They had hoped to reach the village in a few hours, but after all day in the jungle, they had covered less than a mile. They have to spend another night in the jungle. Algy is bitten by a centipede and his ankle swells up. They eventually make it to the beach and are able to travel to the village. Algy sees a native smeared from head to foot with white chalk or mud. Sandy thinks something has happened, the native was in war-paint and carrying a war club. They hear drums. Sandy says “I only hope some fool hasn’t been causing trouble or we may find ourselves in the cooking-pot presently”. In the village, they find it almost deserted and they shout for Roaring Wave. A figure comes out of the bushes and they are astonished to see Shell-Breaker! “What for you make war?” asked Sandy curtly. “Make war on Atanelli,” muttered Shell-Breaker. They ask him where the others are. Sandy translates and says Ginger’s a prisoner on Castanelli’s schooner. Shell-Breaker explains how they were trapped in the cave by a shark and then the hurricane hit and how they tried to steal Castanelli’s dinghy. Shell-Breaker stole it after Ginger’s capture and rowed it single-handed to Rutuona. Full Moon stayed behind to see what happened. Shell-Breaker has only arrived an hour ago and his story has sent everybody war-mad and they are preparing their war canoe for an attack. Biggles thinks they could taxi the ‘Scud’ to the island to go and rescue Ginger but Algy cautions against the idea, pointing out the pitfalls. “We must look at the thing sanely”. They decide they haven’t got enough men for an attack on the schooner, so Algy suggests they tow the war canoe. That can hold thirty or forty natives and they could get another ten or a dozen in the cabin of the aircraft at a pinch. Sandy says that they shall have to watch what they are doing. “If we once set these boys on to Castanelli there will be no holding them, and if they kill him we shall be answerable for it”. “That doesn’t worry me,” declares Biggles, explaining that Ginger is on board as a prisoner and they would be justified in trying to get him off. They send Shell-Breaker to get Roaring Wave and they then tell him their plan and Roaring Wave agrees to help. Nearly forty men carry their war canoe down to the water. They are going to canoe back to the “Scud”. Thirty natives get in, fifteen either side and they row to the creek where the ‘Scud’ is. The natives hack at the brushwood and free the aircraft. “It was a long, tedious business getting the machine entirely clear, and darkness was closing in by the time the work was nearly complete”. The aircraft is towed into clear water and ten natives transfer to the aircraft to reduce the drag of the canoe. The canoe is then taken in tow and with her engines roaring, the aircraft taxies out towards the open sea. “The ancient war-chant of the Marquesans rose into the still air”. (The ancient war-chant of the Marquesans rose into the still air - is the illustration on page 207). “Biggles glanced at Sandy and smiled; but he would not have done so if he had known that at that very moment Ginger was just being dragged down to the bottom of the lagoon”.