BIGGLES IN THE BLUE

by Captain W. E. Johns

III. AN EGG MAKES A MYSTERY (Pages 47 – 60)

Two hours later, Biggles and Ginger are back at Rumkeg Haven. “The atmosphere of any large, unoccupied house, is usually one of brooding melancholy, and this one, Ginger found, was no exception”. They went over the house just to get the general lay out then started the search in the room where von Stalhein was disturbed. “This was an automatic choice, for, furnished both as a sitting-room and as a study, it was obviously the place where the ex-Nazi had spent most of his time”. “Ginger had no delusions about the magnitude of the task they had set themselves. If Hagen’s secret, or the clue to its whereabouts, was hidden somewhere in the structure of the house, as it might be, then short of taking the house to pieces it was likely to remain undiscovered”. The contents of the house are described. Ginger thinks it odd that there is a large white egg on the mantelpiece. It just seems out of place. “To narrate in detail the investigations of the next hour would be pointless, for only one item of the slightest interest came to light”. That is a folded piece of tissue paper from which a piece had been cut. The sketch had been made on a piece that fitted exactly. The safe only contains the signed photo of Hitler, some account books and loose money. There are so many books, that to go through every one would be a long and wearying process. There is an atlas and a couple of maps on the wall but nothing matches with the sketch. Ginger returns to the egg. It is about three times the size of a hen’s egg and the shell is chalky white. He draws Biggles’ attention to it. “If you’d get a bright idea occasionally, instead of fiddling about with birds’ eggs you’d be some use to me,” said Biggles. Ginger suggests calling on Evans, the man next door. Biggles knows Evans has already been interviewed, but he thinks it’s a good idea. A “black manservant” showed them into the sitting-room of the retired naval officer, “an elderly but virile, jovial-looking man who greeted them cordially”. Biggles says they are special investigators from London enquiring into the estate of the late Mr. Hagen, who lived next door. Evans asks how many of them are on the job? He has already been visited by a man, whose description is clearly von Stalhein. Evans says that Hagen never told him anything about himself and his interest in Hagen may have been inspired by selfish motives, for Hagen was sometimes able to help Evans with his hobby. Hagen bought him information about birds, their haunts, movement and migrations. He was going to get him a scarlet flamingo egg and some photographs of their nests, which are turrets of mud raised about the shallow water of the lagoons. Evans says there are two known colonies of the flamingos. One on the island of Inagua and the other on the island of Andros. Hagen had said he knew of another, smaller colony, on an uninhabited island. Evans doesn’t know the name or whereabouts of this island. When Evans describes the egg, Biggles says that Hagen did get it for him as it is on the mantelpiece in his house. Biggles wants to leave the keys to Hagen’s house with Evans, as it would save him carrying them about and they would always be available should he want them. He tells Evans he is welcome to use the keys to collect the egg at his convenience. Biggles adds “if that other fellow should come back asking more questions – the foreigner you mentioned – send him packing. He’s an imposter, trying to pull off something on his own account”. Biggles then has a thought. “Did you by any chance say anything to him about the flamingos?” Hagen says the birds were mentioned, when he was asked where Hagen went in his yacht. Biggles asks if there are any snakes around here? Evans says no, at least he has never seen one. He says there is an exceptionally nasty one on some of the islands, called the fer-de-lance. “It gets its name from its triangular or lance-shaped head. Also, I believe, it comes at you like a lance. The brutes are about six feet long, greyish-brown in colour, with dark cross-bands edged with yellowish-green”. Biggles and Ginger leave. (Interestingly, there is a footnote at the end of this chapter that says “Commander Evans was evidently unaware that, although in 1940 there was a colony of about 10,000 flamingos on Andros, by 1952 it had vanished, the loss being due chiefly to local people taking the eggs and young. A Society for the Preservation of the Flamingo in the Bahamas has recently been formed and Wardens appointed. According to the Fauna Preservation Society there are now about 7,500 flamingos on Inagua”. Johns must have got his facts wrong as he was using an older book for research and either it was pointed out to him, or he realised it himself before the book was published, allowing time for this correction to go in).