BIGGLES
AND THE PIRATE TREASURE
by Captain W.
E. Johns
V. BIGGLES
BUYS A WATCH (Pages
80 – 92)
This story was originally published in THE EAGLE ANNUAL – NUMBER 2 –
published in 1952 by Hulton Press Ltd.
“Detective Air-Inspector Bigglesworth,
walking briskly down the Strand towards his office at Scotland Yard, (Scotland
Yard used to be a 4 Whitehall Place, London until 1967), pulled up as a
hand fell on his arm”. The person
stopping him is Flight-Sergeant Crane.
They chat and Crane says “Seems a long while since we sweated together
under those bloomin’ palms in North Africa”
(presumably a reference to ‘Biggles Sweeps the Desert’ although the character
of Crane is not specifically named in that book). Crane is now a doorkeeper at “a big store
down the road”. Crane asks Biggles if he
wants to buy a watch. Crane explains
that he has been the victim of a con. “I
was on my job when who should come along but McDew –
you remember, that flashy, red-headed corporal rigger at Karga
Oasis (the setting for ‘Biggles Sweeps the Desert’) in the war? You had him posted as a no-use
scrounger”. Biggles nodded. “I remember the fellow. Bad type”.
Crane continues “Well, he told me the tale. Just got to London and had his pocket picked,
he said. The banks were shut of course,
and there he was, no pals and nothing to live on till Monday morning. Would I lend him a fiver? I ses not
likely. So he ses I’ll leave you my watch for security. It cost ten pounds so you’re safe. I’ll be back for it on Monday, don’t you
worry. I ses
fair enough. I give him the fiver and he
gives me the watch.
Did he come back for it on Monday?
No. Nor any other day. After about a week I ses
to myself, you fool, you let him sell you a watch. It’s a good watch, mind you, but I don’t
happen to want it”. Biggles
laughed. “He took you to the cleaners
all right. Still, I won’t see you stuck
with it. I’ll have it”. Biggles gives Crane five pounds and takes the
watch. As Biggles passes a jeweller’s
shop he goes in and asks “What you mind telling me how much that watch would
cost, new?” The surprising answer is
between ten and twelve pounds. Biggles
asks how much the jeweller would give him for it. The man takes the watch in a back room and
when he returns, he says he wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Biggles is then grabbed by Inspector Gaskin
of C Division. Gaskin had been tipped
off by the jeweller. Biggles and Gaskin
both return to the Yard in Gaskin’s car.
Gaskins says the watch can be bought wholesale in the country where it
is made for “about thirty bob” (30 shillings. There were 20 shillings to the pound prior to
decimalisation on Monday 15th February 1971. So that would be £1.50 in modern money). “By the time it had paid export duty,
transport, import duty and purchase tax, wholesaler’s and retailer’s profits,
it would cost, over here, not less than ten pounds. So if all those
expenses could be avoided a fellow handling the watch could make a nice profit
on it. By making three or four pounds a
time on them, a thousand watches of that sort would net a lot of money”. Biggles nodded. “I get it.
So that watch was smuggled in?”
Gaskin confirms that is the case.
But you couldn’t sell it to a respectable shop as all watches imported
under licence have a special mark; no mark means it was smuggled in. Biggles returns to his colleagues in the
Operations Room. Ginger asks him what he
has been doing. “Buying a watch” Biggles
replies, showing Ginger his purchase.
Biggles tells Ginger to take some money from the safe, go round the big
stores, clubs and hotels and speak to hall porters to see if any have a watch
to sell. (A new paragraph starts
after a break). “In an hour Ginger
was back. With exaggerated deliberation
he laid five watches on Biggles’s desk, in each case naming the hotel where it
had been bought”. Biggles gets Ginger to
get Marcel Brissac on the phone and Biggles and Marcel discuss watches. “Poor old Marcel is in a flap,” he told
Ginger. “He
says there are enough smuggled watches in France for everyone to wear one round
each wrist and ankle and still leave plenty over. He says they’re being flown into the country
at night”. Ginger has a description of
the man dealing with the watches. “A
slick-looking type with red hair, who speaks with a slight Scotch accent”. Biggles nodded. “That’s the man. Do you remember a tricky corporal rigger in
North Africa named McDew – Roderick McDew? I have a
clear recollection of him because he’s that rare thing, a dishonest Scot”. Ginger remembers him. Biggles sends Ginger to get McDew’s home address from R.A.F. Records and also to get
information from Doyle of Air Intelligence about unidentified aircraft crossing
the coast. Two hours later, Ginger
returns with the information. The
address was Balburnie, near Forres,
Scotland (Forres is about 25 miles northeast of
Inverness). There had been several
scattered crossings of the coast, except at one point. For three consecutive months south of Moray
Firth, on the occasion of the full moon.
Ginger is then told to ring the Ops room and tell Algy to get the
Proctor topped up. They will fly to
Inverness Airport as the moon will be full on Thursday. (A new paragraph starts after a break). “And so it came
about that Thursday morning found Ginger, with Biggles at the wheel of a hired
car, cruising along one of the few, narrow roads, that wind for many lonely
miles across the rolling heather-clad hills between the Moray Firth and
Speyside. On this particularly road was
the croft known as Balburnie”. (W. E. Johns lived in this area, when he
lived at Pitchroy Lodge in Scotland). Visiting the address of McDew,
Biggles speaks to his father and says he served with his son and happened to be
passing. The father says his son comes
home once a month and will be home tonight.
He says his son loves walking in the heather, especially at night, when
he often goes to Dubh Chtais. They leave and later see McDew
driving past in a racy-looking sports car.
(A new paragraph starts after a break). “At ten o’clock the moon crept up over the
distant hills to reveal a scene that was heart-chilling in its utter
loneliness”. Biggles and Ginger are
hidden and waiting. In due course a
shadowy figure appears and, later, “softly through the still air came the sound
that told Ginger that their vigil had not been in vain. It was the drone of an aircraft”. (“Their vigil had not been in vain” is the
illustration opposite page 76). A
light appeared on the ground and three times a torch flashed upwards. A helicopter lands. Biggles and Ginger approach quietly and when
they are seen, McDew runs off carrying a bag. Ginger has to shoot the rotor blades to stop
the helicopter pilot trying to escape.
The pilot is handcuffed. The man
claims to have done nothing and knows nothing about any watches. “In that case they must be in the bag your
friend was carrying,” said Biggles evenly.
“He will, no doubt, try to get to London with them. Well, he won’t get far. The number of his car is known, and police
are waiting for it on every road leading south.
It looks as if they’ll catch him with more watches than he will need for
some time - the sort of watches that aren’t easy to explain”. “As a matter of fact, this is just what
happened.”