BIGGLES' SECOND CASE

A Biggles Adventure

by Captain W. E. Johns

Published in March 1948

CONTENTS – Page 5

ILLUSTRATIONS – Page 7

I. AFTERMATH OF WAR (Pages 9 - 18)

Biggles is introduced as "Sergeant Bigglesworth, D.S.O., D.F.C." in this book. He is with his three friends, all members of the Scotland Yard Air Squad, Algy, Bertie and Ginger. Ginger is bemoaning their lack of work as they have only had one case in six months. Ginger refers to "Raymond" and Biggles frowned. "I don't know that I approve of the familiar way you refer to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and an Air Commodore at that, by his bare surname, as if he were a sort of lackey". Biggles says the Air Commodore will try and find them something. Ginger shrugged. "Okay. Tell him to get busy. This messing about an office waiting for an enterprising crook to take flight isn't my idea of a gay life". Raymond arrives and invites our heroes down to his office. He then tells them about a German man reporting to British HQ in Germany and asking for an interview with the Commander-in-Chief. Before he can be seen another man shoots him three times at point blank range. Before the man dies, he has an interesting story to tell. His name was Muller and he served on a German U-boat, specifically U-517, under Captain Ulrich von Schonbeck, an efficient, ruthless and fanatical Prussian Nazi. Schonbeck has been operating from an unknown island in the South Indian Ocean seizing gold from ships and then sinking the ships and machine gunning the survivors on the helpless life-boats. He now has five million pounds worth of gold buried somewhere. Returning to Germany after the end of the war, but keeping his U-boat at a Baltic island, he was going to reveal the existence of the gold to the surviving leaders of the "Nazy party"; He was unable to make contact and decided to keep the gold and go to Chile where himself and the crew could all live in luxury. Five crew members did not want to go so he had them shot, but Muller, being one of those five, was only wounded and survived. Schonbeck's first Lieutenant, a "brutal fellow" named Thom went after Muller and was the person who shot him. The U-517 is believed to be on it's way to get the gold.