BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA

by Captain W. E. Johns

IX. MURDER IN THE OUTBACK (Pages 94 – 107)

“It was still only nine o’clock the next morning when Biggles and Ginger arrived at Bill Gilson’s house”. Bill says “You fellas don’t waste any time”. “We’ve not to waste,” returned Biggles, introducing Ginger. (Why did Biggles introduce Ginger to Bill? They had all been to the Island without a Name in Chapter 6 and were on first name terms … Has Johns forgotten this?). Biggles asks Bill “Had Joe Hopkins, your old prospector pal, come in yet?” The answer is no. Biggles tells Bill what happened to him the previous night and that he has reason to elieve there is an airstrip at the top end of the Daly. Biggles asks about the behaviour of the natives and Bill says there have been reports of difficulties. “Of course, some of ‘em have always been awkward and unreliable; and lately, instead of getting more friendly, as you’d expect, there’s been what you might call a stiffening in their attitudes towards white men”. Biggles says it has occurred to him “that this is just how the trouble began in Malaya and Kenya”. Bill was staring. “Do you mean Mau-Mau, and that sort of thing?” Bill says that couldn’t happen in Australia. Biggles says “Last night, after that wop (The Armada paperbacks of this story printed in 1970 and 1977 both had this word changed to ‘man’ and it remained “man” in the 1981 Armada reprint and when this book was republished by Angus & Robertson Publishers in 1981.), had flung a spear at me, the idea suddenly came to me that the set-up in the sparsely populated areas of Australia is exactly the same as in East Africa. Natives, without settled homes, outnumbering the whites. Isolated homesteads far apart. Stockmen, farmers and prospectors out on their own … It only needs one or two people to walk about telling the natives that white men are a lot of thieves who have swindled them out of their land, and turned them into slaves, and the next thing is murder”. “This dirty business is all part of the Cold War. It has worked in Malaya, Kenya, Indonesia, Burma and all over the Middle East, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t happen here”. Bill says he has found out where Tarracooma Creek is, it’s an old sheep run on the edge of the desert, 100 to 150 miles south-east from them. Hopkins is in that direction, living in a wurlie, a rough shelter, at the foot of the MacLaren Hills. Biggles says he wants to fly out to Tarracooma Creek and suggests they check on Hopkins on the way and he asks Bill to go with him. They fly the Halifax out and Bill is able to direct them to where Hopkins is. Landing, they find, Hopkins dead inside his wurlie. (“He’s dead,” was all Bill said” - is the illustration opposite page 94). Bill inspects the body. “Blacks. He was clubbed, and stabbed to death with spears”. Bill notices that the dead man’s rifle is missing. “Had his initials on the butt, I remember”. “The blacks probably killed him for his rifle” says Biggles. Bill says “Poor old Joe. And to think how many times he’s shared his water and tucker with the devils”. Biggles shook his head. “That cuts no ice with blacks when the savage inside ‘em bursts through the thin skin of the apparent friendliness they pick up from contact with whites. More than one doctor has been murdered by the man he’d just cured. What are you going to do about it?” (The Armada paperbacks of this story published in 1970 and 1977 both had the original wording but in the 1981 Armada reprint this was rephrased as “That doesn’t always make much of a difference. If they need ammunition and weapons badly enough, they don’t let anything stand in their way. More than one doctor has been murdered by the man he’s just cured”. It was this rephrased version that was used when this book was republished by Angus & Robertson Publishers in Australia in 1981 in a large format edition, illustrated with cartoons). They dig a shallow grave for the man and gather his belongings into his ‘swag’ bag. Bill notices that Hopkins gold dust is missing, he used to keep it in a little kangaroo-hide bag. Bill turns and sees “a hundred yards away a score of naked aborigines”, all armed with spears and watching them. Bill goes to speak to them, unarmed. Biggles says to Ginger, “There are times when fearlessness can be foolishness. If I know anything about natives, that bunch is all keyed up to jump. They themselves, with their animal brains, (The Armada paperbacks of this story from 1970 and 1977 both had the phrase ‘animal brains’ but that was changed to ‘simple minds’ in the 1981 Armada reprint and when this book was republished by Angus & Robertson Publishers in 1981, this phrase was also “simple minds”.) don’t know yet which way they’ll go. They may run. If they don’t anything can happen”. Bill tries to talk to the natives in pigeon English. “The blacks remained like graven images, their brutish eyes unwinking, on the policemen”. (The Armada paperbacks of this story from 1970 and 1977 both had the phrase ‘brutish eyes’ but that was changed to ‘dark eyes’ in the 1981 Armada reprint and when this book was republished by Angus & Robertson Publishers in 1981, this phrase was also “dark eyes”.), Biggles, sensing trouble, sends Ginger to start the aircraft. Bill turns away. “The movement might have been the signal for which the blacks were waiting. While Bill’s eyes were on them, like animals, (this phrase remains in all the reprints) they hesitated to do anything; but the instant he turned, they acted. With shrill whistles and strange cries they began to fan out”. A spear is thrown. Ginger turns the Halifax so the natives are blasted by the slipstream. Biggles and Bill get aboard and they take off, to fly back to Broome, rather than Tarracooma, where Bill can report the murder and the incident.