BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN

by Captain W. E. Johns

VI. STRANGE ENCOUNTERS (Pages 69 - 84)

On the journey home, they discover a dead bear in a pitfall. They then come upon a deserted village and Biggles notices the imprint of a tiger paw in the mud. They then see a tiger laying across the threshold of an empty hut, in the manner of a common cat. The tiger gets up and advances towards them when all of a sudden it is shot and wounded. The tiger charges its attacker who stands firm and shoots it again. Biggles runs up and finishes it off with his pistol. The man "was tall, stoutly-built, dark of complexion and full-bearded, and although he was clad only in the rags of what had once been a uniform, he bristled with vitality. Indeed, there was a poise about him, a self-confidence that amounted almost to a swagger, that would have commanded respect anywhere". This is Colonel Alexis Petroffsky from St. Petersburg, the man who had once been a guide to Captain Roderick Mayne. Petroffsky says that Koreans supply him with vodka and cartridges and two had been there today. Biggles says they will do that no more as they have been beaten nearly, if not quite, to death. Invited back to Petroffsky's house, he tells Biggles and Ginger that he lives only to kill tigers and Bolsheviks. Petroffsky tell them that the area is under the control of a man called Prince Ling Soo, a Manchurian bandit. Petroffsky asks where their camp is and Biggles feels that he has to take a chance and tell him. Petroffsky asks if they have any chocolate as it is his one weakness and Biggles says they have some at the camp. Biggles and Ginger set off back to their camp and inform the others of their adventures. Algy develops the photographs. Mayne says Petroffsky is alright when he is sober but when he gets the vodka inside of him, he is liable to be difficult. Biggles is sure there is somebody European behind the situation. The aircraft wasn't flown by a Mongolian tribesman. Biggles plan for the morning is that Algy will stay and look after the camp whilst the rest of them make an advanced base where the Birada aircraft crashed. From there, they will make sorties using the photos in lieu of maps. They turn in for the night.