BIGGLES IN THE BLUE

The Biggles Air Adventure in the Caribbean (The wording on the bottom of the front cover)

(THIS WAS THE FIRST BIGGLES BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE BROCKHAMPTON PRESS)

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published July 1953

COLOUR FRONTISPIECE – “Rumkeg Haven”

CONTENTS – Page 5

ILLUSTRATIONS – Page 7 – (six illustrations by Stead – the frontispiece, then facing pages 18, 82, 99, 146 and 163)

I. BIGGLES IS SURPRISED (Pages 9 – 27)

The book opens (as usual with the Air Police stories) with Biggles being called in to see Air Commodore Raymond. “Did you want to see me, Sir? “Yes, make yourself comfortable. I have an item of news that I feel sure will interest you”. Biggles says “Tell me the worst, nothing would surprise me”. The news is that Erich von Stalhein is in Jamaica. Biggles’s eyebrows lifted a trifle. “I was wrong,” he admitted. “That does surprise me”. Major Charles of M.I.5 has passed them the news. The story is this. A friend of von Stalhein’s called Werner Wolff, left the German intelligence service between the wars for politics. He became a sort of liaison officer with the big industrial concerns. He never got caught after the war finished and was never seen of or heard of again. Although in hiding, he kept in touch with von Stalhein. For the past eight years he has resided on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica, as a respectable Norwegian gentleman named Christen Hagen. He originally turned up in a yacht named the Vega, having sailed single-handed across the Atlantic. He bought an old place in a secluded quarter called Rumkeg Haven, in a bay called Tew’s Anchorage. Having grown a beard, being sunburnt and wearing dark glasses against sun glare, he was never recognised. This has all come to light as Werner Wolff, alias Christen Hagen has just died from natural causes. “There was found, in his safe, a personal letter of commendation from Hitler, with a signed photograph, which he must have valued so highly that he couldn’t bring himself to destroy it. That was his one slip, or weakness; a natural one, perhaps. He had disposed of, or hidden, everything else concerning his past”. Biggles wonders what bought von Stalhein into the picture and what would be the point of him going to Jamaica if Hagen was dead. Raymond says to start with Hagen might have some money tucked away. In his desk was found a fair wad of American dollars, but more importantly, when he bolted, he took with him certain documents. They were the experimental data and blueprints of secret weapons, up as far a V.18. (In World War 2, the V stood for “Vergeltungswaffen” and in German meant “retaliatory weapons” or “reprisal weapons”. There was only a V.1, a V.2 and a V.3 actually used). Raymond says the UK knew these papers existed and they hunted high and low for them. So did France, America and Russia. An engineer on Wolff’s staff said, under interrogation, that Wolff packed them in a valise (a small travelling bag or suitcase) at Kiel, just before he pulled out. The documents were not in Hagen’s house. It was searched from floor to roof. Nor were they in his yacht. Raymond says “Imagine what Russia would give, at this moment, for those drawings!” adding that von Stalhein would rather give them away to an enemy of the UK, than sell them to the UK for all the money in the mint. Raymond says that Hagen was in the act of writing to von Stalhein, when he died. “Wolff, or Hagen as he was known, lived in a villa on the outskirts of Kingston with one servant, an elderly negress named Josephine, who was maid-of-all-work. She knows nothing”. Raymond has a translation of the letter that was found, as it was in German. The envelope was addressed to Herr Ernst Stalling, Hotel Prinz Karl, Zindenplatze, Berlin. “We knew from you that von Stalhein used the Hotel Prinz Karl” (*and a footnote tells us to see Biggles Follows On). The letter reads “Dear Erich: It is some time since I wrote to you, but I have not forgotten the promise I once made that should difficulties arise here I would pass to you certain information, knowing that you would use it to the best advantage. You will understand to what I am referring. The time, it seems, has come. My doctor has just informed me that my days are numbered, and death, when it comes, will be sudden. In these melancholy circumstances, I am writing to you what may be my last letter. The papers, etc,. are safe, and in …” The Air Commodore looked up. “That’s that lot,” he said simply. “Death chose that moment to strike”. There was also a sketch with the letter. A drawing consisting of an oval, elongated like a pear with a dent on one side and a small square mark just off the pointed end. Biggles looks at the sketch and notes it is on tissue paper. He wonders if it was a tracing of something, possibly from a map. Raymond tells Biggles that von Stalhein is staying at a boarding-house called Maison Respiro and he is posing as a salesman for Rhine wines: He even has samples. Biggles asks if Hagen had any friends. According to the servant, Josephine, the answer is no, although he was friendly with his nearest neighbour, a retired British naval commander named Evans. They discussed natural history as Evans was writing a book on the birds of the West Indies. Biggles assumes he is being asked to find “Hagen’s box of tricks”. Raymond says yes, but only to prevent them falling into the hands of a potential enemy. If they were destroyed, that would be acceptable as well. Biggles takes the documents for further study and says “I seem to spend my life looking for needles in haystacks”. “That’s because you so often find the needle,” rejoined the Air Commodore soberly. Biggles says he will want the keys to Hagen’s house as well as his safe. Biggles returns to his own office “to face the expectant gaze of Air Constables Algy Lacey, Bertie Lissie and ‘Ginger’ Hepplethwaite”. (Johns has spelt Ginger’s surname wrong here! It should be Hebblethwaite with two B’s and not with two P’s. This error is in every UK edition of the book, including all the paperbacks. Strangely, the error is not in the French translation of this book ‘Biggles a la Jamaique’ where the name is spelt correctly with two B’s!). Biggles tells them they are off to the West Indies. “Erich von Stalhein is already off the mark. If he gets what he’s after, there’s liable to be a considerable explosion in which Western Europe will go up in a cloud of smoke and come down in a shower of dust”. Biggles puts the sketch on the table and says “This is what we’ve got to find” and he tells his men to memorise the shape.