BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA

by Captain W. E. Johns

XII. DISTURBING NEWS (Pages 137 – 150)

“Night, fine and warm, with a moon nearly full and a sky spangled with stars, settled silently over the airport”. The Halifax had gone southward bound. After a heated discussion “possibly, it was thought, discussing the hazards of finding and making a night landing on an unofficial airstrip”, Cozens had taxied the Auster into a hangar and the three men had all gone off together. At 9.30 pm, a figure approaches the Otter and Ginger alerts the others. It is Cozens, the pilot; he is concerned about the remark that Biggles made about him having to watch his step. “It’s got me worried. This is my first job and I don’t want to put a blot on my logbook”. Von Stalhein doesn’t know he is there as Cozens has made an excuse of checking on the Auster. Algy tells Cozens, “Hold your hat. You’re working for an enemy spy outfit”. Cozens clapped a hand to his head. “I must have been blind,” he muttered. “This explains a lot of things”. Algy guesses that Cozens landed at Eighty Mile Beach to burn the boat. Cozens confirms that was the case. Algy asks “By the way, did you fly a black in to Darwin recently?” Cozens confirms he did. Algy informs Cozens the man’s job was to burn their machine as they are “British Security Police”. Algy says that when the enemy are finished with Cozens “they’ll brush you off like this” and he squashes a mosquito that has landed on the back of his hand. Cozens says he has been working for the gang for about a month. Another pilot, a foreigner, had “killed himself trying to get into one of these outback landing fields that was too small”. They had urgent business and needed a replacement. Cozens also says that their Headquarters in the Territory is at Daly Flats. The unknown man with him is a Russian called Ivan, and the boss goes by the name of Smith and talks to Ivan in a foreign language, presumably Russian. Smith bought Daly Flats, originally a peanut farm, after the owner was “speared by blacks” but Smith seems able to keep in with the locals. Cozens said he took a man from Perth to Tarracooma to fix the wireless recently. Algy is in the process of asking Cozens to draw a sketch plan of where Daly Flats is, when von Stalhein and the man now known as Ivan arrive. Cozens is angered when von Stalhein says to him “You should have told me where you were going”. “I like that! Are you telling me who I’m allowed to speak to?” he replies. “While you’re in my employ you’ll do what you’re told. I want to talk to you. Come on”. Algy says “As presumably they are paying your wages you’d better go with them. We all have to take orders – don’t we, von Stalhein?” Cozens leaves with Ivan and von Stalhein. “We shouldn’t have let him go,” asserted Ginger. “They’ll see that he does no more talking, and as soon as they’ve finished with him he’ll disappear”. “We were in no position to stop him,” averred Algy. “We set his clock right. The decision was up to him. I know I advised him to go but that was in his own interest. Had he refused, von Stalhein would have known that we’d put him wise, in which case, as he knows too much about them, they certainly would have liquidated him. As it is, von Stalhein has no idea of what was said here so he may hold his hand”. Algy, Bertie and Ginger maintain their guard on their aircraft all night. In the morning, the Auster does not depart as they expected. They confirm it is still in its shed. Algy realises von Stalhein could have tried to return to Daly Flats in the lugger, Matilda. “If that’s the case we can say good-bye to Cozens,” asserted Ginger. A phone call to the harbour master confirms the Matilda was in yesterday and left just after ten last night. They are all worried that Cozens has gone. “And gone for good, if I know anything,” murmured Bertie. Algy paced up and down. “This is awful. What are we going to do about it?” They decided to fly up the river and locate the lugger in the hope of seeing Cozens onboard. Word is left for Biggles in case he gets back before they are back.