BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN

by Captain W. E. Johns

IV. DANGER AND DISASTER (Pages 43 - 56)

When Biggles awakes the area is shrouded in mist. The mist lifts as Algy arrives, bringing with him Bertie and Ginger. The planes wings are covered with reeds. Biggles' plan is to locate the enemy camp, if there is one, using the small plane with Ginger taking photographs of the surrounding area. This they do and Biggles spots what he thinks is a trench, a straight black line, with squared-off ends. "Straight lines don't occur in nature, so there's something there", says Biggles. Shortly afterwards, Biggles and Ginger are attacked by an aircraft, a monoplane, a high performance fighter. Biggles instructs Ginger to bail out with the cameras and save the precious recognisance photos as they will probably never get another chance to take them. This Ginger does and he manages to avoid the trees and land in long grass. Ginger hears "the horrible, tearing, rending noise of a crashing aircraft" and sees just on machine remaining in the air, the hostile fighter. The fighter then turns to where Ginger landed and rakes the area with gunfire in an effort to kill him. Ginger hides the cameras and then makes his way to the crash site where Biggles is waiting for him, unharmed, smoking a cigarette.