BIGGLES - CHARTER PILOT

by Captain W. E. Johns

XVI THE ADVENTURE OF THE SILENT DEATH (Pages 147 - 157)

“Any news?” Flying-Officer Henry Harcourt put the question to Ginger, who was leaning against the fireplace in the officers’ mess reading the evening paper. Ginger folded the news-sheet and tossed it on to the table. “Nothing to shout about,” he answered. “The abominable Dr. Goebbels is bragging that Germany has a secret weapon”. The members of Biggles’s Squadron express their contempt at the thought. Ginger asks them “Is there any reason why Hitler shouldn’t have a secret weapon? Ginger says this will be a war of secret weapons. “Why, even animals and insects know the value of a secret weapon”. This comment then leads to talk of animals with secret weapons. Ginger says he knows to his cost that it is not beyond the power of wild things to produce lethal weapons. “As a matter of detail, the Silent Death, as the thing was called, put our friend, Dr. Duck, in hospital for two months, and, incidentally, put an end to our biological cruise. For some time it was touch and go with him”. Tex o’Hara says “You know you’ll have to tell us the story, so why not begin?”. Ginger laughs and this is the story he told:

“Just before war became pretty well certain, strange events were happening on the West Indian Island of Hispaniola, that part known as the Dominican Republic”. People in Europe were not really concerned with stories about the Silent Terror as it was first called. They were more concerned about the events that were to lead to war rather than “the death of a few poor ignorant Negroes in a distant tropical island”. Dr. Duck had newspaper clippings referring to various incidents of death of cattle, killed in mysterious circumstances and completely drained of blood. Then natives started to die in the same way, struck down at night. On arriving at the area in question, our heroes find that an American journalist has just died the previous night. "It's one matter for a poor ignorant Negro to lose his life, but a white man, armed into the bargain, was a horse of a different colour". The journalist had died in the area where the cattle first died so it was suspected that whatever was doing the killing had its lair nearby. A plan is devised whereby Dr. Duck goes to the place, a sort of dell, where the American had lost his life, and he sits in the centre of the clearing as bait, whilst Biggles, Algy and Ginger, armed with shotguns, would sit on the fringe of the jungle, separately, watching. Every 15 minutes they would all say "All's well" in turn. Whilst doing this, Ginger sees an odd thing. A bat lands in front of him and begins to dance about. Then it hovers in front of his face about a yard away and swings from side to side. This hypnotic effect is described by Ginger "as like having gas at the dentist's (sic). I could feel myself going off. The dickens of it was, I could do nothing about it. I suppose I was too far gone”. “There was a tiny prick in my throat that might have been made by the sharpest needle imaginable”. Next thing he knows, he is being bought round on a camp bed in their house having been rescued for failing to answer "All's well" when it was his turn. He had been unconscious for about an hour. Dr. Duck says this bat is a new species. After mesmerizing its victim, hundreds of bats arrive to drain it of blood. Biggles says they have to destroy the bats before they breed and form new colonies. It takes more than a week to find the colony and Algy does so by accident. He is climbing up a tangle of lianas and becomes aware of a tremendous stink. The bats are behind the lianas in a crack in the rock. Algy pokes one of the creatures with a stick and they all swarm out ripping at our heroes faces with their teeth. The bats had particularly made for Dr. Duck and he is fairly stuffed full of poison. Concern for the Doctor leads our heroes to get him clear and make for the village. “In our anxiety we forgot all about the bats”. Later that evening, they see a mighty column of smoke. The local natives had seen what had happened and covered the face of the cliff with an enormous heap of dry brushwood and set fire to it, suffocating the bats in the smoke. “Not one escaped”. Ginger ends the tale with "As soon as we were well enough to travel we flew Donald back home, and after that experience he decided to take things quietly for a while". (At the very top of page 153, there is a typesetting error where the very first word on the page, "I", is completely missed out. This was corrected in all subsequent reprints).

All sixteen of these stories were originally published in BOY’S OWN PAPER in the following order (the number of the story refers to the order it appears in the original first edition book in July 1943):-

1. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENCHANTED ISLAND

Boy’s Own Paper – October 1941 – as “The Enchanted Island”

3. THE ADVENTURE OF THE HORTICULTURAL HERMITS

Boy’s Own Paper – November 1941 – as “The Horticultural Hermits”

4. THE ADVENTURE OF THE CROONING CROCODILE

Boy’s Own Paper – December 1941 – as “The Crocodile of Conga-Wonga”

2. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ABOMINABLE CAVEMAN

Boy’s Own Paper – January 1942 – as “Bishimi the Caveman”

5. THE ADVENTURE OF THE OXIDIZED GROTTO

Boy’s Own Paper – February 1942 – as “Grotto of Death”

6. THE ADVENTURE OF THE PURPLE CLOUD

Boy’s Own Paper – March 1942 – as “The Purple Plague”

12. THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN SHIRTS

Boy’s Own Paper – May 1942 – as “Mystery of the Golden Shirts”

11. THE ADVENTURE OF THE HAUNTED CREEK

Boy’s Own Paper – June 1942 – as “Haunted”

10. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUSPICIOUS VOLCANO

Boy’s Own Paper – July 1942 – as “Mexican Man-Hunt”

After the July 1942 issue, the size of the Boy’s Own Paper dropped 50% with future issues due to war time paper shortages.

It reduced to 5 x 7.5 inches from 10 by 7.5 inches, which meant you could get two issues out of the same amount of paper previously used for one issue.

7. THE ADVENTURE OF THE PATAGONIAN GIANTS

Boy’s Own Paper – August 1942 – as “Samson of Patagonia”

8. THE ADVENTURE OF THE MUSTY MAMMOTH

Boy’s Own Paper – September 1942 – as “Adventure with a Mammoth”

9. THE ADVENTURE OF THE LUMINOUS LILY

Boy’s Own Paper – August 1943 – as “The Luminous Lily”

16. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SILENT DEATH

Boy’s Own Paper – January 1944 – as “Secret Weapon”

14. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COUNTERFEIT CRUSADERS

Boy’s Own Paper – February 1944 – as “The Lost Crusaders”

13. THE ADVENTURE OF THE INQUISITIVE DODOS

Boy’s Own Paper – March 1944 – as “Biggles” and the Dodos”

15. THE ADVENTURE OF THE GREEN HORSE

Boy’s Own Paper – April 1944 – as “Desert Spectre”

What is strange about the order of publication here, is that THE ADVENTURE OF THE SILENT DEATH, last in the book, is clearly the last story as Dr. Duck is injured and

decides not to continue with his adventures with Biggles & Co. The same story is published here in January 1944, with the same ending, yet three more adventures follow.

Why these are published out of order, I have no idea.