BIGGLES IN THE BLUE

by Captain W. E. Johns

X. STALEMATE (Pages 140 – 155)

“Biggles and Bertie spent a miserable night. They got little sleep. Added to the discomfort of the storm was the anxiety on Ginger’s account, and they spent most of the night talking about the one thing or the other”. The storm abates as dawn breaks and, after “a quick bite of food”, they set off to find Ginger. “They could not of course be sure that they were following precisely in his footsteps; all they could do was take a compass bearing on the lagoon as they knew he had”. They come upon the deserted village and hail Ginger but have no response. Their route takes them somewhat nearer to the shore than Ginger’s did. As a result, they find something that he had missed. An occupied house, “standing near the door, an axe in her hand as if she had been chopping wood, was a massively-built negress of past middle life. Tethered to a post nearby was a donkey”. Biggles wants to speak to her but as soon as she sees them, she quickly goes indoors and slams the door. Biggles tries to speak to her but it is obvious that she has no intention of answering. “It looks to me mighty like a guilty conscience about something, old boy,” opined Bertie shrewdly. “They continued on their way, encountering the same difficult and uncomfortable conditions as had Ginger on the previous day. They observed that these alone would have made it impossible for him to be back on time”. To their great relief they see Ginger walking towards them and they are reunited. Ginger says that Morgan came for him with a razor but Ginger had his gun handy and had to use it. Biggles tells Ginger the Vega is in the mangroves and Algy has had to take the machine back to avoid it being wrecked. Ginger explains that he spent the night in a hut and shows Biggles the photographic film label. “Ginger told all there was to tell, except that he did not mention the negress, regarding the incident as something outside their own affairs”. Biggles wants to investigate further as they are now so near to the hut. They prepare sharpened sticks as digging tools. Reaching the hut, they dig down and soon find a cuff button and eventually they find a piece of flat wood. “Below was a cavity. It was empty”. “It must have been there,” said Ginger awkwardly. “Of course it was there,” muttered Biggles. “Everything fits. The lagoon. The mark. The birds – everything. This was Hagen’s cache. What else could it be?” Biggles thinks about the situation. He doesn’t believe that Morgan found it as it has been some time since the dirt was turned over. Ginger says that Biggles can ask von Stalhein as he is coming now with Zorotov and Morgan. They are coming from the direction of the sea, having walked along the beach. Biggles says “Let ‘em come” adding “I’m certainly not running away from any Iron Curtain riff-raff. If they want a fuss they can have it”. The newcomers are talking in English, “apparently for Morgan’s benefit” and they overhear von Stalhein say “Yes, without doubt, this is the place. He told me of the hut. Yes, it fits with the photos. There is the ridge with the flamingos’ nests”. When they hear Zorotov speak, it is clear that he is in command of the party. Biggles walks to the door of the hut and looks out, “Good morning, von Stalhein”. “There was dead silence as the advancing party froze in its tracks”. Biggles tells von Stalhein that he has come a long way for nothing as the stuff isn’t here. “Let’s call it Wolff’s scrapbook” says Biggles. Biggles is accused of lying. When Morgan is told to do something, Biggles tells him “You’d be very foolish indeed to put your hand near your pocket. Try something silly and I’ll make a hole in your hide where it’ll hurt more than the one you collected yesterday. And that isn’t a lie, either”. Von Stalhein looks in the empty hole and then around the hut. “Zorotov, pale and tight-lipped with chagrin, turned on von Stalhein in a fury and let out a spate of words. He spoke in a foreign language but was obviously being very rude”. Biggles says to von Stalhein that he can’t understand “why you, once an officer and still sometimes a gentleman, associate with people who behave as if they were brought up in a sewer”. “For the first time ever, Ginger thought he detected a shadow of shame on von Stalhein’s face. It was gone in a moment”. Biggles tells Morgan “If ever I hear of you in Jamaica, or any other British island, I’ll have you put, for attempted murder, where your dirty pay packet won’t be much use to you. Get out of my sight, you sneaking traitor, before I get really angry and give myself the pleasure of shooting you here and now”. “That’s a threat!” cried Zorotov, throwing out a hand and looking from one to the other. “I call on everyone to witness that this man makes a threat of murder”. Biggles’s eyes glinted. “A threat?” That wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. And it goes for you, too, you reptile”. Ginger hadn’t seen Biggles so angry for a long time. Biggles asks von Stalhein “Have these Reds got your mesmerised or something?” Von Stalhein bit his lip but did not speak. Zorotov tells Biggles “We shall meet again”. “If we do, the pleasure will be all yours,” Biggles told him. Von Stalhein, Zorotov and Morgan leave. “You’ll be asking von Stalhein to come and dine with us next,” said Ginger cynically. “There’s a difference between a bad man and a good man gone wrong,” answered Biggles coldly. Biggles wonders who would have come to this place and “rifled the cache”. Ginger remembers the person he saw and tells Biggles he saw “an old woman. A negress who I suspect comes here to pinch flamingo eggs. She was here yesterday. I saw her”. When Ginger mentions she has a donkey, Biggles says he thinks he knows where she lives. Maybe she knows something. “Bertie said at the time, that it looked like a guilty conscience, and he may have been right”. They set off and pass the edge of the lagoon. Biggles surveys it and decides there is sufficient water to land their aircraft on it. “The journey was resumed”.