BIGGLES IN THE BLUE

by Captain W. E. Johns

VII. GINGER GOES ALONE (Pages 103 – 115)

Ginger sets off for that point of the lagoon where the mysterious ‘bump’ occurs (Johns had described this as a lump in the previous chapter). “There had been some debate as to whether he should take a direct route to the lagoon, or follow the coast until he was opposite the nearest point and turn inland. The latter method of approach would be a good deal further, although possibly the walking would be easier. Remembering that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, he took the direct overland route”. Although the terrain, seen from the air, was flat there are numerous obstacles. The time schedule soon goes by the board. He passes the ruins of a deserted village, a line of primitive, coral and thatch cottages. It is very hot and he constantly uses his handkerchief to mop the perspiration that pours down his face. There is caked mud in what had been puddles of stagnant water. Everything seems to sparkle due to dried salt. There are tall thorn bushes and monstrous cacti and Ginger has to make long detours to avoid clumps of them. “Yet, curiously enough, there was plenty of wild life in this harsh land”, various birds, lizards and innumerable land crabs, the ground was strewn with millions of shells of those that had died. Ginger is pricked by thorns and in certain places, mosquitoes in swarms rise up to plague him. He pauses under the deep shade of an ancient banyan tree, drinks water and continues. He comes up to a low cliff, full of holes, like a petrified sponge, but doesn’t attempt to climb it, but he does find a narrow track through a maze of prickly thorns to ease his passage. In three hours, he had covered around three miles, when he rounds a corner and comes face to face with an old sow, with her litter of piglets. Ginger whips out his automatic, thinking the pig is going to charge at him. The sow moves away into the bushes, but Ginger keeps his gun out as there was “still a chance that the father of the family might be about to resent his intrusion with more belligerent tactics”. Ginger rounds a bend and suddenly comes face to face with a man coming in the opposite direction. “It was the negro, Napoleon Morgan”. Ginger immediately hides his gun behind him. “The questions that flashed into Ginger’s mind were, how much did the negro know? Did he know who he, Ginger, was, and his purpose there?”. Morgan glares at Ginger in an expression of calculated hostility. “Then the negro smiled, and the smile was even more significant than the glare. Without haste the man took a razor from his pocket and began to strop the blade meditatively on the palm of his left hand”. ( … the smile was even more significant that the glare” is the illustration between pages 98 and 99). “What do you think you’re going to do with that?” enquired Ginger coldly but the man does not answer. Ginger tries to avoid conflict. “Put that thing away”. Ginger repeats the request but the man springs at him with incredible speed. Ginger’s pistol hand jerks forward and he fires without aiming and jumps aside. “Ginger was round in a flash, gun ready, to see the negro on his knees, both hands resting on the ground. The open razor lay a yard away. A black hand crept towards it”. “Another inch and I’ll plug you properly,” grated Ginger pugnaciously; and he would have done so, for he was boiling with rage at the unprovoked attempt to murder him. Blood on the man’s hand indicates to Ginger that he has wounded him. Morgan gets up. “One step towards that razor and you’ll get what, if I had any sense, I ought to give you anyway” Ginger tells him. He sends Morgan on his way, then picks up the razor, closes it and throws it into the bushes. Ginger doesn’t know whether to go back and warn his comrades or carry on and finish his task. If he goes back, he risks being ambushed. He chooses to carry on even though four hours have already passed. “He prayed fervently that Biggles would give him an hour or two’s grace before sending someone to look for him, as he had practically said that he would; for Morgan on the prowl was a more deadly menace than any wild beast”.