BIGGLES IN THE GOBI

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. OUTWARD BOUND (Pages 24 – 33)

“A fortnight later, under a serene sky ablaze with stars, a dun-coloured Halifax, displaying no insignia or registration marks, made a covert take-off from the parched airfield at Dacca, in Pakistan, and bored its way, climbing steadily, into the vague emptiness that lay to the north. Ginger was beside Biggles in the cockpit, their faces ghastly in the eerie light reflected from the luminous dials on the instrument panel. Algy occupied the forward gun turret and Bertie the tail, all places having been decided by drawing lots”. In the radio compartment is “a little man with a yellowish complexion and slanting eyes that were no more than slits in his face. This was Feng-tao, the Chinese priest, the man whose tragic news had been responsible for the expedition”. His knowledge of the English language is practically nil so previous conversation has been through an interpreter. He was anxious to return and “his knowledge of local languages would make him a useful ally on the ground in an emergency”, although as there is no interpreter on this flight, communication is limited. Feng-tao has been given a parachute and “it’s purpose and method of employment had been explained”. Lhasa the capital of “Thibet” lies close to their path, then there is a road north for some five hundred miles before swinging to the east for another thousand miles to join the Red Highway at Lanchow. The plan is to arrive at the objective at dawn and then examine the ground. If a level area, free from obstruction could be found within a reasonable distance of the caves, they would land. If a landing ground could be cleared, Algy and Ginger would drop by parachute and search for a suitable site and Biggles would fly back to Pakistan and return a week later. They would take walkie-talkie radios with them but only for use in an emergency. If there was no possibility of landing within miles of their destination, then Feng-tao would be dropped, with a good supply of condensed food, and the project abandoned. There was just a chance the refugees, with sufficient stores, might be able to make their way on foot to India, Burma or Hongkong. After a long fight, they arrive by dead reckoning and Biggles asks Ginger to get Feng-tao to have a look round and see if he can identify anything. Ginger goes to him and “indicated by signs what was required”. Feng-tao looks long and hard “but Ginger soon perceived from the blank expression on his face that he was wasting his time”. He reports back to Biggles “He hasn’t a clue”. Biggles comes down to two thousand feet and they circle. “One factor at least was comforting. There appeared to be plenty of places where a landing might be effected with reasonable safety. The ground was seldom quite flat, but here, at any rate, neither the dunes nor the hills were of any great height, as was made clear by the shortness of their shadows, for the sun was still low in the sky”. (The chapter just ends here, rather unexpectedly, after that line, as if originally the chapter had gone on too long and later had to be cut in half).