BIGGLES WORKS IT OUT

by Captain W. E. Johns

IX. ALGY LEARNS THE ANSWERS (Pages 101 – 113)

“Algy returns to the South of France with a commission nearly as vague as the previous one”. He has to watch the Villa Hirondelle. He flies to Nice and then hires a car and drives to Eze, where he finds accommodation at the Golf Hotel. Algy watches the villa until he sees a small black van leaving late at night, then he follows it in his hired car. Algy follows the van for four hours. Eventually it turns up a narrow side turning and Algy follows with his headlights turned off. Algy is familiar with this area of France and knows there are at the Plaine de la Crau, “a vast, stony plain, eighty square miles as flat as a cricket pitch carpeted with nothing by pebbles of all sizes”. Algy’s tyres start to sink into the pebbles and he stops, realising why the van had extra wide tyres. Walking just less than a mile, Algy comes to some buildings, apparently abandoned hangars, and sees the van outside a corrugated-iron bungalow. Algy listens at an open window to conversation in German. Algy gets a glance inside and sees Groot and Erich von Stalhein. Apparently, Groot had been the driver of the van. A big aircraft arrives, a Douglas D.C.3 with a tricycle undercarriage. Two men get out, Canton and a man Algy has never seen before. Four men in mechanic’s overalls come from one of the hangars and unload the machine. Five small but obviously heavy sacks are put into the van. Canton comments “It would have saved a lot of trouble if the old man had brought the lot over in one go instead of in driblets, just to suit that bunch of Roumanian (sic) bullion-mongers”. The unknown man with Canton is referred to as Luis. The men all go back to their bungalow for a drink and Algy continues to listen. He hears reference to a newly recruited pilot and von Stalhein is annoyed that he hasn’t seen him. Canton asks if he still has “Bigglesworth” on his mind. Von Stalhein says “He’s a menace, and you’d be wise never to forget it. You say he’s been to Australia. Someone has been asking questions in Algeria about the Ahagger. Put those two facts together, and I don’t like the sound of them. The sooner we move our head-quarters to behind the Iron Curtain, the sooner I shall sleep comfortably”. Von Stalhein asks about the new pilot that Canton calls “Smith” and mention of his “eyeglass” and a description of him, together with Canton recalling the police Auster was at Nice airport, leads von Stalhein to identify Bertie. “You picked him up! Don’t flatter yourself. He picked you up”. Canton says he will go and deal with Bertie. “If you bump him off, how are you going to account for his disappearance?” inquired von Stalhein. “I’ll say he had an accident. He’ll have one, too, I promise you, when I get near him”. Canton’s voice was charged with venom. The men go to leave.