BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN

by Captain W. E. Johns

XI. GINGER GOES ALONE (Pages 131 - 141)

Ginger makes his way back to the prisoners quarters and is considering how to get their shoes back so they can escape. He hopes he might find the sentries drunk but then remembers the drunken man he stumbled over with the case of vodka. If he could get the vodka to the sentries they wouldn't be able to resist drinking it he is sure. "He made his way to the patch of grass wihc the Mongolian had selected for his private orgy" and finds him still asleep with the vodka. Carrying the vodka openly, for his dressed like a Korean slave worker, he goes towards the guard house and soon has the bottles taken off him. Guards come out to drink vodka and Ginger is able to slip into the guard house and steal the keys. Ginger gets into the prisoners compound and unlocks the shoe pantry where the shoes are kept but he is alarmed to notice that no work has been done on the cutting of the iron bars! Why has no work been done? Ginger notices that the door to the guardhouse has now been shut and he seizes the opportunity to use the keys to lock them in. Then, returning to the prisoners compound, he carefully and quietly opens up the door to the prisoners quarters. All is silent. "Sweat, partly the result of the humid heat and partly due to the intense strain on his nerves, trickled down his nose. He drew a deep breath and again reached for the door. He pushed it. It creaked slightly as it moved. It came to rest. The profound silence remained unbroken".