BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA

by Captain W. E. Johns

IV. ISLAND WITHOUT A NAME (Pages 44 – 51)

“The first sign of tragedy lay on the beach. It was a skeleton. A few shreds of material still clung to it, but gave no clue to the nationality of the dead seaman”. Biggles thinks it must be recent, “the gulls would soon make short work of a body”. They find more skeletons and they find more paper but only reduced to pulp. Ginger finds an empty document file, the same size as the list of names he found. On the file is the German word “Vertraulich” which Biggles translates as “Confidential”. Biggles says “I think we can take it that von Stalhein’s story of being shipwrecked was substantially true” but he suspects that anything with the ship’s name on has been deliberately burnt. There are the marks of at least one bonfire. Finding a handle sticking up from the sand, Biggles pulls out a Geiger Counter* (A footnote tells us * A device for the detection and counting of fast electrical particles, as from radio-active materials). Biggles and Ginger discuss the possibility that von Stalhein did have scientists with him and maybe they were conducting tests around the Montebello Islands where atomic bombs had been tested but it could also be used for locating uranium deposits. Biggles and Ginger notice an offensive smell on the breeze and go upwind until they find an area of scrub. Biggles goes forward to look. “You’d better stay where you are,” he told Ginger, “This isn’t pretty”. It is the decomposing body of a man. “An oriental. I’d say Japanese, or a mixed breed” says Biggles. On the body is found a tobacco tin with pearls inside. Biggles notes the man has been shot twice, once in the leg and once in the stomach. Biggles recovers a signet ring from a bony finger and he also finds a slightly flattened bullet which he suspects came from a Luger (pistol). Biggles speculates there were two shipwrecks and the crews fought. “But as all these survivors would be in the same boat why should they set about each other?” asks Ginger. “That’s just it. They weren’t in the same boat. There wasn’t room for all of them”. Biggles speculates there was only one boat. “Von Stalhein’s party got possession of it. Whether it was their boat, or a boat belonging to the lugger, I don’t know. But we’ll soon find out. That boat should still be on Eighty Mile Beach, and it should have a name on it. I say it should have. I don’t say it has. But if it hasn’t we shall know why”. Biggles says he shall have to report the suspected murder and ensure the pearls get to the rightful owner. They return to the Otter and then they fly to Eighty Mile Beach where they soon locate the lifeboat, left high and dry. The name on the bows had been scraped off. Biggles suspects it belonged to the lost lugger and was the motive for the murders. They fly on to Broome and whilst Ginger refuels the aircraft, Biggles goes to the police.