BIGGLES 'FAILS
TO RETURN'
By Captain W.
E. Johns
XVIII. HOW
THE RENDEZVOUS WAS KEPT
(Pages 208 - 216)
Biggles and Ginger swim to the mooring
buoy holding the plane. Suddenly there is
a lot of activity at the harbour and at first our heroes think they have been
seen, but that is not the case. Biggles
goes inside the plane with a torch and finds a man on a bunk there. They order him out and he swims for the
shore. Searchlights are turned on. Biggles starts the plane. They speed towards the harbour entrance only
to see a black bulk coming in. A ship is
arriving. Three ships in fact, two
destroyers and a tanker. Speeding up,
Biggles manages to get outside just in time and is then able to take off. As they do so they are caught in searchlights
and are shelled. Noticing that the
petrol gauges are less than a quarter full, Biggles realises the planes were
waiting for the tanker to refuel them "the Wops were evidently expecting
the ships". Ginger spots the boat
off Cap Martin and they land in order to take onboard the passengers.