BIGGLES IN THE JUNGLE

 

by Captain W. E. Johns

 

 

VIII.                ALGY EXPLORES  (Pages 80 - 89)

 

An anxious Algy decides to set off in moonlight down the perilous steps to find Biggles and Ginger.  Dusky goes with him (appearing to ignore the fact that he was shot through the thigh only days before?).  Dusky spots Biggles' note to Algy in the first light of the false dawn.  They go on to the valley, making their way down the rocks.  Standing and listening just before dawn, the pair can hear an animal roaring and Dusky goes off to explore.  He comes back for Algy and leads him to where Biggles and Ginger are in the cage.  Algy sees that the cage is divided into two compartments.  Biggles and Ginger in one and Juanita - a black panther – in the other.  Algy goes to shoot the panther, but Biggles stops him saying the shot will bring a crowd.  Algy can only find one way of getting them out, and that is by opening the panther cage and then raising the dividing bars.  He concludes he better “shoot the brute” and Biggles agrees.  Before he can do this, “a dozen men, mostly native, but with some white men among them, were racing towards the spot.  One fired a revolver as he ran.  Algy gets on the roof of the cage and lets the panther out.  It runs towards the oncoming men, scattering them.  Algy then raises the partition to let Biggles and Ginger out.  Biggles tells them all to make for the stairway.  The King of the Forest shoots Juanita.  Our heroes return to the perilous stairwell at the back of the village.  They ascend, with Biggles bringing up the rear, chased by the King's men, specifically headed by five local Indians, forging ahead.  After an hour in intense heat, Biggles’s party have to rest.  Biggles fires at the Indians behind him.  “That’ll give them something to think about, anyway,” observed Biggles giving the order to march.  It takes them until midday to reach the top, but, strangely, the Indians don’t appear to be behind them now.  At the top of the steps, they come under fire and Biggles realises the Indians have got to the top by another route.  Biggles decides they need to dash for the aircraft and take off.  The Indians begin firing at the aircraft and the fuel tank of the aircraft is holed and petrol pours out.  Biggles plugs it as best he can with his handkerchief and takes off rapidly as the fuel runs out.  The plane just has enough fuel to take off from the plateau, and they intend to glide to the river on empty, if only they can make it.