BIGGLES - CHARTER PILOT

by Captain W. E. Johns

XIII THE ADVENTURE OF THE INQUISITIVE DODOS (Pages 118 - 127)

“It seems to me,” lamented Flying-Officer Henry Harcourt, “that chivalry in war is as dead as the dodo". Flying-Officer Ginger Habblethwaite, (there is a typo in the Oxford editions here as his surname is Hebblethwaite with an ‘e’), without looking up from the book he was reading, answered, “Who said the dodo was dead, anyway?”. Henry goes to get the encyclopaedia and reads out aloud about dodos. The flightless bird was found on Mauritius in 1505 and extinct by 1700. “All that is known of the bird is from early drawings and written descriptions, for, so far as is known, no specimen exists today, stuffed or living”. Ginger claims to have seen the creature. Ginger says that Dr. Duck thought the dodo might have swum to another island and decided to make a protracted cruise over a few dozen islands which he had selected as the most likely spots to find a surviving dodo. “Having gone so far I might as well tell you the whole story – you won’t be satisfied, I suppose until I do”. Ginger leaned back on the settee, put his feet on a chair, and continued:

“I needn’t go into the course we plotted; it would take too long. I forget the names of the islands we visited, anyway. We just cruised from isle to isle, landed, had a look round, and went on again. For several weeks we had no luck at all, but we all had some good fun. We saw plenty of birds, sea-birds by the million – but no dodos. Not one. Only Donald’s enthusiasm kept the quest going. I think the rest of us felt that a dodo-hunt was just a few degrees worse than a wild goose chase. Still, we didn’t care. Donald was paying the bill”. Then one day, returning to Madagascar to refuel, they see an uncharted islet about a mile long and two or three hundred yards wide, that makes Biggles worry he is off course. “It was one of the few occasions that I have seen Biggles really upset. A good workman doesn’t blame his tools, but he told me that he could only conclude that something had gone wrong with the compass”. The sky has already clouded up to such an extent that Biggles can't see the sun and the situation forces him to land as, if he is off course for a return to Madagascar, they won't have enough fuel to carry on to Africa. Biggles lands on the islet which appears to be just an empty flat rock and then fog descends effectively leaving them trapped. They spend the night there and take turns on watch. Ginger's watch commences at 4.00 am. In the dark and the fog, he trips over something. Waking Biggles and returning outside just as the sun rises they find the entire islet covered from end to end with thousands and thousands of Dodos. Ginger then wakes the others and Dr. Duck is beside himself with excitement and he takes a live Dodo as a specimen into the aircraft. The Dodos are completely docile and nothing with move them. Not shouting or even firing guns. This is a problem as the sea is starting to get up and they need to clear a runway for take-off. “Looking round, I saw that two or three of the birds had managed to climb up on our elevators”. Algy pulls one off the tail plane but it digs its toes into the fabric and takes several square inches with it. “Steady on,” shouted Biggles, “they’ll tear the machine to pieces if you go on like that”. Biggles has the idea of using the engines of the plane to clear a path. The Dodos are blown away by the slipstream and then the plane is turned around so that it can take off into the path cleared behind it. They manage to take off but the captured Dodo escapes through the door which had been accidentally left open in their haste to get back on board. “I need hardly say that we didn’t go back for it”. The plane makes it back to Madagascar with only about a pint of fuel to spare. Ginger got up and stretched. “Well, that’s all,” he said. “But it anybody ever tells you that the dodo bird is extinct – just refer him to Biggles. What he thinks of those dizzy fowls is nobody’s business”.