BIGGLES SEES IT THROUGH

by Captain W. E. Johns

XI. GINGER LOSES HIS TEMPER (Pages 154 – 165)

(To understand this chapter, it really needs to be remembered that Ginger is flying a Gloster Gladiator, which is an open cockpit bi-plane. It possessed a top speed of around 257 mph but even as it was being produced it was being eclipsed by the new generation of monoplane fighters. The Finnish Government were given 10 Gladiators and bought a further 20 more for the Finnish Air Force and these were delivered in January and February 1940). When Ginger had flown to the lake he saw the Russians first then Biggles smoke signal. “With the events of the next few minutes we are already acquainted”. When Biggles indicated Ginger should fly home, he set about complying with the order. He could see the end strip of shirt flapping wildly in the violent slip-stream and it did not look very safe. Of course, Ginger had no means of getting the papers into his cockpit. After about ten miles, Ginger can see the end of the line trailing back from his right hand wheel. “This could only mean that the ‘drag’ on that side of the line was greater than on the other side, in which case it was only a question of time before the whole thing blew off altogether”. In due course the line slips off. “Immediately a sort of madness came him” and Ginger “began to hate the sight of” those papers. He turns and sees the length of rag sinking slowly earthward and dives towards it. An attempt to grab it fails, but it catches around the fin of his aircraft. Ginger flies about a further five miles and the rags slip off again. “He nearly screamed with rage, and as he tore after them he grated his teeth with fury. Never had he hated anything so wholeheartedly as he hated those papers”. In his first charge he misses them, but in his second he catches the line on his wing-tip and it causes the other end to whip round so that the packet actually hit him on the head before bouncing clear again into space. His final effort was the most hair-raising for by now he is perilously near the ground. The rag catches on one of the blades of his propeller and the packet bursts and the papers float slowly down to earth. Ginger’s wheels brush tree-tops as he levels out. “At that moment his rage was such that had he had the papers in his hand he would have torn them to shreds with his teeth”. There is nowhere really safe to land but Ginger attempts to do so further down the valley. “If I get down without busting something I shall be the world’s greatest pilot,” he told himself grimly. Judging by results he was not the world’s greatest pilot, although his effort was a creditable one”. He lands but strikes a rock and bursts a tyre and buckles a wheel rim. Collecting his rifle from the cockpit, a weapon which he had brought against emergency, Ginger walks up the valley and recovers the fallen papers. “He had no difficulty in finding them, for they lay close together”. He wraps them in the original piece of canvas. Ginger now worries about Algy, who will no doubt set off to the lake. Ginger thinks Biggles will be escaping west, the way Ginger was flying and if he sets off eastwards, they may be able to make contact. If Biggles’ Gladiator was at the lake they may be able to get a wheel to repair Ginger’s machine. Ginger decides to walk back and find a high spot that commands a view of the country and try and find Biggles. Ginger knows it is not safe to keep the papers on him in case he is apprehended, so he hides them in a hole under the root of a tree that he finds and seals the mouth of the hole with a large stone. Ginger sets off over the “rugged, untamed country and settles under an overhanging rock to pass the night. He dozes and dreams of Biggles telling him to go home. He hears Biggles cry out “Oh, go home” so vividly it was almost real. Ginger sits up and sees the grey light of dawn penetrating the tree-tops. When Ginger is about to set off, he hears a man running – as if running for his life. He then sees Biggles run past, chased by a bear! Ginger chases after them. Biggles stumbles and the bear is upon him. Ginger runs right into the bear and puts the muzzle of his rifle to its ear and pulls the trigger. The bear collapses and rolls down a hill. Biggles looks up and says to Ginger “What in the name of all that’s crazy are you doing here?”