BIGGLES - CHARTER PILOT

THE ADVENTURES OF BIGGLES & CO. ON A WORLD-WIDE CRUISE OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published July 1943

CONTENTS – Page 5

There is no list of illustrations in this book but here are the details of the illustrations (Frontispiece by Mendoza and four illustrations by the same artist on pages 41, 71, 95 and 135)

I THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENCHANTED ISLAND (Pages 7 - 16)

“Most of the officers of Number 666 (Fighter) Squadron, sometimes known in the Royal Air Force as Biggles’s Squadron, were present, lounging around the mess fire. Dinner was over. The weather was bad, so although the squadron was at “ready”, there seemed little chance of it being called out”. The officers present are:-

The Commanding Officer, Squadron-Leader (James) Bigglesworth, D.S.O.

The Flight-Commanders,

Flight-Lieutenant The Honourable Algy Lacey

Flight-Lieutenant Lord Bertie Lissie and

Flight-Lieutenant Angus Mackail

Flying-Officer “Ginger” Hebblethwaite

Flying-Officer Henry Harcourt

Flying-Officer (George) “Ferocity” Ferris

Flying-Officer “Tex” O’Hara

Flying-Officer "Tug" Carrington

Flying-Officer “Taffy” Hughes

The station adjutant, “Toddy” is also there.

Henry Harcourt tosses aside the newspaper he has been reading and says that you can believe nothing you read and nothing you see. Ginger says that on the contrary, he does believe anything with the limits of possibility. Henry asks Ginger “Just what have you seen that inclines you to such a pleasant state of mind?” “Oh, I’ve seen things,” returned Ginger mysteriously. “Such as?” insisted Henry. Ginger thought for a moment. “Well, you’ve seen the C.O. knock down Huns, but what would you say if I told you that I once saw him knock down a crab five feet across?” Ginger is laughed at. Ginger asks Biggles, “Do I speak the truth, sir?” “Absolutely. Algy Lacey was there, too. He’ll confirm it”. Ginger is asked to tell them all about it and he seeks permission from Biggles, which he gets. This is the story he then told.

Between the wars, Biggles, Algy and himself advertised to do charter work, using their amphibian, "Wanderer" (which featured in the previous book, Biggles in the Jungle). They are chartered by Dr. Augustus Duck (whom they nickname "Donald"), a rich and eccentric biologist. Dr. Duck wears a frock coat, striped trouser and buttoned boot with cloth tops. He usually wears a top hat and hang a whacking great umbrella on his arm. The charter is initially to take the doctor to a new island that has suddenly appeared in the Atlantic. The island is reported to be roughly three miles long and one mile wide, but, after a six-hour flight to get there, our heroes find the island to be smaller because it is sinking back into the sea. They find it not more than two miles long by half a mile wide. “I had a look at the island, but there wasn’t much to see. It was, in fact, just what you would expect of something that had come up from the bottom of the sea – a mass of seaweed-covered boulder with pools of water between”. The island appears to be lava thrown up from the sea bed, as it floats, and it has collected various creatures on it on the way up. A forty foot long eel has burst under the change of pressure on the way up from the sea bed. But other creatures are alive - and huge. Ginger gets a shock from an electric eel. He is then attacked by a giant crab and says “the shell was a good five feet across; and the two big claws – well, they were big enough to tear a man in halves if they go hold of him”. Biggles and Algy comes to Ginger’s aid and Biggles fights the crab off with an axe. (Biggles sank the axe in the middle of the brute’s shell – is the frontispiece illustration taken from a line on page 13 – and it is also the picture on the cover of the first edition). Dr. Duck is chased by a giant decapod (the picture displayed on the spine of the cover of the first edition of the book) and Biggles keeps it back by lighting petrol. The island then starts to sink and our heroes just manage to escape in time, taking off from the dangerously rough seas, as the island sinks back into the ocean. Ginger finishes by saying that he’ll tell them about some other trips another day. Biggles says its time they went to bed. “The squadron’s on early patrol in the morning, don’t forget”.