BIGGLES - CHARTER PILOT

by Captain W. E. Johns

IV THE ADVENTURE OF THE CROONING CROCODILE (Pages 35 - 45)

“Flying-Officer Ginger Hebblethwaite, in bathing shorts, lay on the soft turf that fringed the river bank and stretched luxuriously as the sun warmed his bare back. Most of the officers of his squadron were there, for the squadron had moved into reserve for a short spell of rest. It so happened that the reserve aerodrome was bounded on the one side by a river, so as the day was hot and the sun bright, the temptation to bathe was not to be resisted”. When Ginger is not in the water long, he says it is because if a piece of weed or something touches his leg he thinks of crocodiles. He asks Bertie is he has ever had a crocodile grab his leg. Ginger says he was grabbed by a crocodile but this one talked; “The Crooning Crocodile of Congawonga”. Angus Mackail says this sounds like another adventure with dare-devil Donald and Ginger is asked to tell the tale. This is the story he told.

Various reliable sources had spoken of a talking crocodile in the Central African village of Congawonga. First mention was a Major Kilton, a British political officer. He was eaten by cannibals. His diary was found and that was the first report. Then there was Monsieur Boulenger, of the Belgian Missionary Society. He died of fever but in his delirium spoke of the talking crocodile of Congawonga. Thirdly, was a London reporter named Davis who saw and heard it but when he wrote his story, he faced ridicule. Congawonga was a native village on the fringe of a small lake overflowing from the Congo River. “There was some doubt as to whether the place was in the Belgian Congo, French Equitorial (sic)Africa, or British Sudan”. Biggles flies them all to a river some four miles away from the village, to investigate with Dr. Duck, and they secretly make their way to a specially built pond and temple where the crocodile is said to live. Here they see a witch doctor talking to the crocodile and they hear it talking back. (An Exchange of Confidences – is the illustration on page 41). Ginger says “Just emerging, half in and half out of the temple, was the croc. Its mouth was opening and shutting, and there was no doubt whatever that it was making the noise. I must confess it shook me more than a little. On the stone edge of the pond, on his knees, bowing and scraping, was a figure all done up in rags, feathers, and a mask. You must all have seen pictures of an African witch-doctor, so there’s no need for me to describe him in detail, but he wasn’t pretty to look at”. “The high priest then made a short speech to the natives. They dashed off and presently came back with a load of stuff which they threw on the slipway”. When everyone has gone, Dr. Duck takes a flash photograph, and a blinded Ginger falls into the pond and the crocodile comes out and seizes his leg. Algy shoots at it and the crocodile scrambles back into its temple where Biggles follows it. Here he tears the skin off to discover a white man ("Actually, we discovered later that he wasn't really white, but a half-caste"). This fellow is in league with the witch doctor in a racket to get the ignorant natives to hand over "rubber, palm-nut kernels and other marketable commodities. There was even a little gold-dust". There is then an ugly confrontation with the natives who have heard the uproar. “The natives started a sort of stamping dance, crouching, all very intimidating”. Biggles manages to find one who speaks English. “His idea of English wouldn’t have passed at the B.B.C., but it was better than nothing. It transpired that he had once made a trip to the coast, where he had picked up a bit of pidgin English”. Biggles tries to communicate the truth to him and told him to tell the chief that the crocodile god was a fraud, that there had been a man inside it all the time to swindle them out of their rubber and stuff. Dr. Duck takes a flash photograph of the natives and that causes them to flee. Biggles’ party then return to their canoe and then to their aircraft. The "crooked half-breed" is taken with them and handed over to the authorities, who when they heard the story clapped him in jail. He was awaiting trial when they returned home. Ginger finishes his story and reaches for his clothes. “It’s getting chilly,” he declared. “I’m going back to the mess for a spot of tea”.