BIGGLES IN THE
ORIENT
By Captain W.
E. Johns
XIV. THE
TRAP (Pages 138
- 150)
Half an hour later, Biggles returns to Jangpur. He pretends
to be unsteady and ill and says that his engine is giving trouble. Watching airmen and native porters think he
is drunk. "Tight as an owl"
says one. An ambulance takes Biggles to
sleeping accommodation that he had previously arranged. Biggles appears to fall asleep. Even Bargent says
"I'd swear he was three sheets in the wind". As soon as he is alone, Biggles gets up and
opens his window and then slips his automatic pistol into his pocket and waits
on the bed pretending to be asleep. Time
passes. Then a native in a loin cloth
creeps into the room through the window and puts a rag over Biggles lips and
nostrils. Biggles grabs the native but
he is covered in oil and Biggles can't get a grip. The man stabs Biggles in the arm in the
struggle and then gets out the window and Biggles has to shoot him. Frayle arrives and
sees Biggles is wounded. "It's only
a scratch" says Biggles. "Send
for the M.O., Frayle, to have a look at that fellow
outside. Tell him to bring his needle
and cotton - my arm may need a stitch".
The man outside is identified as Kong Po, a dhobi-wallah
(laundryman) and he's dead. "He's
Chinese according to his station identity card". Alter it to Japanese," says
Biggles. Biggles explains the man came
to the room to strangle him and he explains how Sergeant Gray was murdered in
precisely the same circumstances and for the same reason. "Some of your fellows thought I was
drunk. Only the spy, who was pretty
certain to investigate, would know the truth - or what he thought was the
truth. That I had been drugged. It was up to him to see that I didn't come
round, so he came to do me in. I was
waiting, with the result that he got it, not me". Biggles asks Frayle
how he came to employ Kong Po. Frayle says he was telephoned by a wealthy merchant: A man called Larapindi. Biggles searches Kong Po's room and finds a
box of chocolate and chewing-gum from Charneys of
London. In Kong Po's loin-cloth is found
a thousand rupees. "Too much for an
honest dhobi-wallah" says Biggles. Despite his injury, Biggles flies back to Dum
Dum ("I don't fly with my left hand"). Biggles sees Raymond and gives him the rupees
and asks if he can find out which bank issued the notes, and to whom. Algy reports that a man calling himself Lal
Din's brother turned up and Algy followed him to the warehouse of Tahil and Larapindi. Raymond confirms the rupees were issued to
the same firm. Algy is instructed to get
a light truck. Biggles is going to take
the members of 666 Squadron with him to break into the warehouse. But first he is going to call in at the home
of Mr. Larapindi.