BIGGLES DELIVERS THE GOODS

by Captain W. E. Johns

XV. SHOCKS FOR BIGGLES (Pages 128 - 137)

Biggles sits and thinks. "His face, with one of those rare complexions that never seem to get sunburned, was beginning to show signs of the strain imposed by the fast-moving events of the last forty-eight hours. That strain, of course, fell on all, but the responsibility of leadership was his alone". Biggles is worried about Algy far more than he is letting on. "While he did not allow himself to dwell upon the possibility of Algy or Ginger becoming a casualty there was always a fear of it lurking in the background of his mind. If one of them went it would make a difference. The others would go on and the war would go on but things would not be the same ........ he was not prepared to let Algy go without making a desperate effort to save him". Tug returns from his reconnaissance with bad news. "The Japs have collected the "Sumatran" - or it looks like it" said Tug. A bigger ship has drawn up to her. Ayert, who has been left by Li Chi to act as interpreter for Biggles, comes up with more bad news. He has heard from his spies that Shansie has fallen to the Japanese. This is particularly bad news as Ginger has set off half an hour earlier to Shansie. Ginger returns shortly afterwards with bullet holes in his tail unit. He went to land at Shansie only to see Japanese planes, zeros, parked under the trees and he was fired upon. Biggles decides to bomb the embankment at Shansie and get the zeros in the resulting flood. Ginger and Tug toss a coin to see who will go with him and Ginger wins. Before setting off, Biggles makes plans for a raid on Victoria Point. Ayert will pick fifty of his best men for the job and they will paint their faces white. Biggles hopes that if Tamashoa thinks there is a strong force of white troops on Elephant Island he will send for reinforcements and so delay attacking them and give them more time to shift rubber.