BIGGLES IN THE BLUE

by Captain W. E. Johns

IX. THE MANGROVES (Pages 127 – 139)

“Algy and Bertie, bound for the mangrove swamp, in the matter of travail and discomfort fared no better than Ginger in the opposite direction”. As they closed the distance on the mangroves they have to slow down as they are faced with the possibility of having watchful enemies. They reach the shade of the massive trees and Algy notes that they have been on the move for three hours. A miniature lance falls at Bertie’s feet and he thinks they are under attack, but (we are told by footnote) that the seeds of these trees put out a shoot like a dart to hold them and prevent them from being washed away. They come upon some harder ground through which runs a track of sorts. This brings them to a long arm of black, open water and they see the Vega, moored to a tangle of roots. The branches of the trees spread well over it, hiding it from the air. Sitting on deck, smoking and talking are three white men. One is von Stalhein, another, from Ginger’s previous description, they take to be Zorotov and the third appears to be a sailor in white ducks with a peaked cap. There is also “a negro, wearing only a pair of khaki shorts, leaned over the stern doing nothing in particular”. Algy suggests to Bertie they get close enough to try and hear the conversation and they spend some time getting in a satisfactory position. They are just in time as a man comes striding down the track. “He was black, or nearly black. Stripped to the waist, carrying a dirty shirt, he had a blood-stained rag wrapped round the upper part of his left arm. It was evident that he had met with an accident”. “I’d say that’s Morgan,” breathed Algy in Bertie’s ear. They overhear Morgan tell his story which “bore little resemblance to the facts, although the watchers on the shore were not to know this”. He said he had been attacked without provocation by a white man. “Ginger,” breathed Algy in Bertie’s ear. When Morgan is asked what he did with this man, he just leers and says “Don’t ask me dat”. Von Stalhein asks Morgan if he found the birds and checked the photographs. Morgan hands over an envelope and says “Dat’s de place”. He said he stood on the spot from which the picture must have been taken. The man they believe to be Zorotov says it’s too late to do anything. “The barometer is falling in a way I do not like, so I think we must stay here to see what happens”. The white men go below deck to talk. Algy and Bertie leave, but they guess Ginger and Morgan have had a confrontation and Ginger shot him. They worry what has happened to Ginger. They return to Biggles on the beach with the aircraft and are alarmed to hear that Ginger is not back. Algy tells Biggles what they have learnt. Biggles heard him out, his face expressing his solicitude. “That sounds grim to me,” was his verdict in a hard voice. “The number of times I’ve said it’s a mistake to break up the party, yet here I go on doing it. But there, it seemed the best way. Now the weather packs up on us. That’s just dandy. You realise that if this wind gets any stronger I daren’t stay here – not that getting off would be fun”. They wait as long as they can but there is still no sign of Ginger. Biggles tells Algy to fly the machine back to Jamaica and return when the weather is fair. He and Bertie will stay. Algy gets in to take off. “The machine began to bounce a little as it raced into the area made turbulent by the ocean breakers; then, as Biggles had predicted, the surging foam of a broken roller tossed it into the air. (“The surging foam of a broken roller tossed it into the air” is the illustration between pages 146 and 147). For a moment it seemed to hang on the point of stalling; then it picked up and climbed steadily”. Biggles and Bertie find a meagre shelter in a shallow recess among some stranded coral boulders and the weather develops into a screaming gale accompanied by lashing rain that reduces visibility to zero. Biggles acknowledges that Ginger can’t travel in this and neither can they. “It’s no use. We shall have to wait”.