BIGGLES IN THE GOBI

A FURTHER ADVENTURE OF DETECTIVE AIR-INSPECTOR BIGGLESWORTH

AND HIS AIR POLICE, THIS TIME IN THE DESERT KNOWN AS THE BLACK GOBI IN THE HEART OF ASIA

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published October 1953

The “BIGGLES” Books by Captain W. E. Johns – Page 2 – featuring 20 books.

TITLE PAGE – Page 3 – This page has a small vignette of the skull and horns of an Asian desert sheep called ‘Ovis Poli’ (this is referred to on page 79 of the book).

CONTENTS – Page 5

ILLUSTRATIONS – Page 6 – (six illustrations by Stead, including the frontispiece, with illustrations facing pages 30, 65, 96, 137 and 152 and a drawn map on page 10)

FORWARD – Page 7

“Some regular readers of these stories have complained that Algy has of late been rather pushed into the background. This is to some extent true, but it could not be avoided unless Biggles was to be guilty of the folly of leaving himself without a reserve. In his capacity as Biggles’ second-in-command it would naturally fall to Algy to hold the fort in case an operation should go wrong or Biggles become a casualty. In other words, it is not good generalship for a commanding officer and his second-in-command to expose themselves to the same risk at the same time, although on occasion it may be unavoidable. In the following pages we have a case in point. Readers must judge for themselves who took the greatest risk, Biggles or Algy. Anyway, it turned out to be an affair in which Algy found himself in charge, in the actual field of operations. The story is now told in the hope that readers will no longer feel that he is always left “holding the baby”.

A word about the Gobi. The desert of Gobi is the general term for the remote, sterile, inmost heart of Asia. The limits are still undefined, but it embraces roughly 300,000 square miles of land which nowhere approaches the sea”. Johns goes on to describe the Gobi in more detail. “All the places named in the following pages really exist, including the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. The first man to see this amazing shrine, which is of great age, was the famous Asian explorer, Sir Aurel Stein, in 1908”. Johns goes on to expand on this discovery. The forward is signed W. E. J.

I. VICTIMS OF OPPRESSION (Pages 11 – 23)

“When Biggles and his police pilots filed into the Scotland Yard Headquarters of their Chief, Air Commodore Raymond, one glance at his face was enough to tell them that something unusual was in the air”. Raymond says he has asked them all to come because the matter is so complicated they might as well all hear about it together. “The actual spot that is worrying us is just about in the centre of Asia, more than a thousand miles from the nearest sea – literally the back of beyond, as you might say”. (Johns original title for this book was “Biggles – Back of Beyond” before it was changed to “Biggles in the Gobi”). Raymond points out the first difficulty is the political aspect. The present government in China is communist. “China is, if you like, behind a bamboo curtain, inasmuch as Russia is in and we are out”. The result is that many Western Europeans have been treated abominably, among the greatest sufferers being the missionaries and doctors who have devoted their lives to the improvement of conditions in the more backward parts of the country. Some have stayed and some have got out, others have been brutally murdered. Several of these unfortunate people have been smuggled into the remote heart of China. Word has been received from a Chinese priest, who walked some fifteen hundred miles to bring word as one of the refugees, a missionary, had previously saved his life. These people will have to stay where there are until they die, unless somebody goes to get them. The distance is vast, the place has to be located, there is the hazard of landing “knowing that a crack-up, if not serious in itself, would result in the rescue party being in the same hopeless plight as the people they were trying to rescue”. The Chinese priest is called Feng-tao and he is currently in Hongkong (Johns spells this as one word). Biggles wonders if Feng-tao would go back as a guide. There are eleven people to be rescued, six British (four men and two women), one American, one Swede, one Dutch, one Swiss and a Frenchman. There is a place called the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. “It consists of a cliff honeycombed with innumerable caves, most of them interconnected and all wonderfully painted or decorated with images of Buddha”. “But this is not the actual place where the refugees are hiding. There is a similar shrine in the same region”. It is near Tunhwang, some twenty miles southward, at an oasis called Nan-hu on the Tang River. Raymond has all the available information in a docket. The refugees are being taken care of in a guest-house by “a saintly man who, unless he has been removed by the Russians, is well disposed towards us”. His name is Ching-fu. The government would like the people rescued “but they’re not prepared to plunge the country into another war to achieve that”. Raymond says they can’t really ask for permission, if China says yes, the Russians would say no, and even if both said yes, they couldn’t be trusted. If a private individual tried to fly across China, “the government could pretend to know nothing about it”. “Don’t frown,” says Raymond, “That’s how things are done nowadays”. “Things in the Far East are so critical that it needs only a spark to start a conflagration”. Biggles studies the large world map on Raymond’s wall and notes the nearest point from which they might fly is Dacca, in Pakistan. Raymond says “That would mean flying over the Himalayas and Thibet (as Johns spells it) – the so called Top of the World”. Biggles says it is about thirteen hundred miles each way and a Halifax would do it comfortably, with petrol for three thousand miles. Biggles hints about having guns on the Halifax and Raymond is alarmed by that. Biggles tells him “Don’t worry. I shan’t shoot unless I’m shot at; but when I’m shot at I shoot back. It’s just a bad habit of mine that I haven’t been able to cure”. The best way not to get caught is not to be shot down. Raymond reluctantly agrees and asks if Biggles will go. “Of course I’ll go. You knew I’d go. At least, I hope you did” replies Biggles. Raymond says he will get a Halifax and try to get Feng-tao to go as well. Biggles takes the docket. “As the door closed behind him the Air Commodore shook his head dubiously and reached for another cigarette. But only he knew what he was thinking”.