BIGGLES IN THE JUNGLE

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER (Pages 17 - 27)

The Wanderer is rocking gently on a lake in the early morning. Ginger shoots at an alligator. We are told they have already spent three nights on the Unknown River. Ginger calls down the hatchway, “Are you fellows getting up?” "Coming now" answered Biggles. Ginger grunted, for he was anxious to be off". They take off on another survey flight. “Far away to the west the sun glinted on another lake, which Biggles supposed to be in Guatemala”. Ginger spots the apex of a pyramid and Biggles thinks it Tikal (which is actually in Guatemala). Ginger persuades Biggles to land on the nearby lake to explore. As they taxi to a bit of sandy beach, Biggles spots an unconscious man on the edge of the jungle. The man, in a ragged shirt and blue dungarees, has a gunshot wound to the thigh. (“He must be dead,” muttered Ginger as they approached – is the illustration on page 23). Biggles thinks he must be a chicle-collector or a rubber-tapper. They use brandy and water to restore the injured man to consciousness and then clean his wound. Ginger wonders what language the man speaks. Biggles says if he comes from Belize, he’ll probably speak English, otherwise he will try Spanish. The man is able to sit up. "What's your name?” asked Biggles. “The man uttered an unpronounceable word”. Biggles smiled. “That's all right”, he told the others. “We'll call him Dusky for short". Biggles asks him what he is doing there and who shot him, but before the man can answer, a stranger arrives. “Well over six feet in height, and broad in proportion, with a gun over his arm he looked an ugly customer”. He has a “tangle of black beard”. Biggles asks the stranger if he knows anything about this and points at the wounded man. The man declines to answer and asks what Biggles and his friends are doing there. “Why – have you bought the place or something?” The stranger tells them to get out. Biggles looks surprised. “Are you presuming to tell us where we can go?” Asked what they are doing there, Biggles replies “Believe it or not, we’re just a picnic party”. Presumably in an effort to avoid confrontation, Biggles says “One lake is as good as another to us. If you feel that this one if your particular property, we’ll pull out”. Biggles wants to take Dusty but is told “No you don’t”. “But I said we do” replies Biggles. The man menaces them with his gun but Ginger and Algy return to their aircraft where they have a “Tommy” gun causing the man to hesitate. He turns and strides into the forest where he blows a whistle to call others. Dusky, then Biggles return to the aircraft and a shot rings out. Algy takes off and Biggles tells him to return to the lake they were on that morning.