BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA

by Captain W. E. Johns

XV. THE BATTLE OF DALY FLATS (Pages 175 – 188)

“For a minute or two those in the house could only watch with helpless resignation and dumb despair the destruction of the Auster. There was no question of trying to save it even if the blacks had not been there, for one of the spears, with a flaming brand attached, that had been used to fire it had pierced a fuel tank with a result that need not be described. The heat had driven back the blacks, but they were still there, doing a follow-my-leader dance in close procession, shaking their spears, yelling, and stamping on the dry earth until the dust flew”. (“The blacks, shaking their spears, yelling and stamping” - is the illustration opposite page 158). “Pity this couldn’t have happened when that stinker Smith was here,” remarked Bertie, wiping condensation from his eyeglass”. Cozens says they need to tidy up as they can’t leave the bodies just lying about. Bertie and Cozens go off to do that, leaving Ginger watching the Aborigines. When they return, Ginger reports that the natives have gone. Time passes; they suspect that Biggles will arrive to find out what has happened to them. They search Smith’s office and open a locked room to find it is both an armoury and chemist’s shop. “Guns and rifles stood in racks with boxes of ammunition at their feet. On a bench were instruments, scales, bottles of chemicals, racks of test tubes and retorts. On a table was a pile of what seemed to be pieces of rock”. A lot of the weapons are obsolete. Ginger thinks guns were being bought in on the lugger to avoid customs. They speculate that the mineral specimens are where Smith or his men, have been prospecting, probably for uranium. “We found a Geiger Counter on the island. Now we know what it was for. The ship carried money, too; perhaps to pay the natives, in which case it will most likely turn out to be phoney”. Bertie finds tear gas grenades. Cozens hears voices in the distance and recognises Smith’s voice. “He always talks as if everyone was deaf. Looks as if he may get caught in his own trap. We shall soon see”. “We can’t let him do that,” objected Ginger. “Why not?” asks Crozens. “There’s something not nice about standing by doing nothing while white people are speared by blacks”. Cozens says “I’m not risking a spear in my neck to save a thug who would have bumped me off, and who’s about due for hanging, anyway”. Ginger wants to shout out a warning to them “to give them a chance”. Ginger shouts out “Von Stalhein. Go back. The blacks are on the warpath”. On hearing this, Smith advances, with him is Ivan, another white man, and two blacks carrying parcels. “In an instant the air was full of flying spears, thrown by blacks who had appeared from nowhere, as the saying is”. “Ivan and his companion, being behind Smith, fell at once. They hadn’t a chance even to draw their guns. Smith runs towards the house. Bertie, Ginger and Cozens give covering fire and “three blacks fell”. Smith has only ten yards to go when he goes down with a spear between his shoulder blades. The native who threw the spear is shot down “hit perhaps by three bullets, for everyone fired at him”. Of the two natives carrying the parcels, one fled up the path “never to be seen again” and the other is wounded with a spear in his thigh. Whilst the Aborigines gather their spears, Ginger runs and gets the tear-gas bombs and throws them, so that the natives are soon enveloped in the white vapour of the gas. Then an aircraft arrives, flying low over the treetops is the Otter. It lands whilst more gas bombs are thrown to drive the Aborigines away and the gas causes uproar in the bushes. Biggles gets out. “He did not look too pleased as he snapped: “What on earth’s going on here?” “The blacks have gone mad,” Ginger told him tersely. “Hark at ‘em! They’ve killed I don’t know how many people”. Smith’s dead body is pointed out. Biggles has Colonel MacEwan, the Security Officer, and his personal assistant and two police officials with him. Biggles wants to know who started this, but Ginger explains it had all started by the time they arrived there. MacEwan asks “How many blacks are there in this mob?” and Cozens answers “There’s about a score left”. (A score is a group or set of 20). “From this point the Australian authorities took over”. Biggles asks where von Stalhein is and is told that he didn’t come back from the lugger. Biggles nodded. “He usually manages to slip away when Old Man Death’s about. No matter. The police will pick up the lugger, no doubt, when it tries to get out of the river – if not before”. “It may be said here that this did not happen, in spite of strenuous efforts to catch the Matilda. What saved it was the early arrival of the “wet”, which destroyed visibility for days and must have given the lugger a lucky chance to slip out of the river undetected”. Colonel MacEwan only has to walk through the house to satisfy himself of the truth of Biggles’s allegations. With regard to the Aborigines, who “when sanity returned must have realised what they had done, for they quietly faded away into their jungle retreats”. “Papers revealing the names of enemy agents operating in Australia, including those who had landed in the lifeboat with von Stalhein, were found, and the entire plot exposed, although for security reasons the soft pedal was kept on the story. The black servant who had reached the house with a spear in his thigh recovered, and gave some valuable evidence. “The scheme was much as it had been visualized. The plan was to spread a network of agents and operatives all over the continent both to spy on secret experimental work with atomic and guided missiles, and undermine the country’s economy by the infiltration of agitators into the native settlements as had been done elsewhere. When the trouble started certain selected blacks were to be provided with firearms. Behind the background of disorder scientists were to explore the outback for minerals useful in nuclear research”. It was some of these people who were onboard the ship that was due to meet the Matilda but couldn’t as it was caught in the willie-willie. Biggles and his party returned to Darwin to make a full report before returning to London. They also visited Bill Gilson before they left, who was promoted for his handling of the Tarracooma business, which resulted in long prison sentences for his prisoners. “Cozens soon got another job and is now flying a Quantas Constellation”. (Johns has spelt QANTAS incorrectly again, using a U, whereas it is an acronym standing for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”). No action was taken for Cozens violation of the regulations regarding the Auster and he was also awarded compensation for what he had lost. “So taking things all round, the only people who came to any harm from Biggles’s visit to Australia were those whose sinister conspiracy had taken him there. Which was as it should be”.