BIGGLES SWEEPS THE DESERT

by Captain W. E. Johns

IX. A PERILOUS PASSAGE (Pages 108 - 121)

Taffy drives at speed back to where Tex and Tug are holding the prisoners as they are pursued by Messerschmitts which bomb and strafe them. Arriving, they abandon the armoured car as the area is heavily attacked. Everybody, including the prisoners dive for cover. Suddenly three Spitfires arrive. It must be Algy, Ferocity and Henry. The attacking machines, which are low on ammo anyway, are driven off, and one Messerschmitt is shot down. Taffy has been wounded in the leg and the German driver killed but everyone else is all right. The rest of the prisoners have escaped in the confusion. The armoured car has been hit but the engine is still working so it can still be used. They all get in the car and with Taffy at the wheel they set off back to their base at the oasis. Biggles tells the rest how he parachuted into the top of a palm tree and hid up there. (“I sat in the top of the palm like a caterpillar in a cabbage, listening to the Nazis talking underneath” – is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on page 119). When it got dark, he climbed down and looked around the German base and he ended up fighting with Ginger. Suddenly, they are disturbed by the sound of Morse code and in a panel in the side of the car they find a two-way radio. Biggles takes a note of the message which is in code.