BIGGLES’ CHINESE PUZZLE

AND OTHER BIGGLES’ ADVENTURES

by Captain W. E. Johns

IV. THE FLYING CRUSADERS (Pages 101 – 115)

This story was originally published in the EAGLE ANNUAL – NUMBER THREE in 1953 by Hulton Press Limited. It was later re-published in an edited version in the BBC CHILDREN’S ANNUAL in 1956 (by Burke, London, in associated with the BBC).

Biggles tells his team about an auction he has been invited to at Mancroft Castle. Sir Giles Mancroft was one of the very early pioneers of aviation and he is now selling his collection of early types of aircraft. “He keeps them in flying trim, too”. Biggles says the sale includes the Flying Crusader and he seems to remember some trouble about the machine “a few years ago”. Biggles says he has a note from a fellow named Smithers, “who used to be one of my mechanics in the war” who now works with Sir Giles and wants to see Biggles. Smithers arrives later and asks Biggles for help. He knows Biggles is attending the auction on Saturday as he sent out the invitations. Smithers says that there were two Flying Crusaders, one a ‘plane and the other a picture. “The first Flying Crusader was a picture presented to one of Sir Giles’ ancestors by the Tsar of Russia at the time of the Crusades. It shows a knight in armour on a winged horse. It was quite small, but as it was painted by the most famous artist of the time I reckon it would be worth something to-day; enough to save Sir Giles having to sell the estate, if he could get it back”. Smithers say that two days before the outbreak of “the war” (Meaning World War II. On 1^st September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and on 3^rd September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany – which of these dates did Johns mean? It is clarified later in the story when Biggles says the theft was in August 1939), Sir Giles gave a party for people interested in aviation to show off his old machines. One guest was an American named Silberman. Smither’s father was a mechanic for Sir Giles and later a butler. At an inquiry, Silberman’s account was that after going to bed, he found he had left his cigarette case in the library and he went to get it. He saw that Flying Crusader picture had been cut out of its frame. The window was open and a light was moving near the canvas hangars where the old aircraft were housed. “Thinking it might be the thief he ran down and caught the man, who turned out to be my father. According to Silberman my father attacked him. There was a fight, and that part was true, because not only did it end in my father being so terribly knocked about that he never recovered, but Silberman himself was in hospital for some time. A gamekeeper heard the noise and rushed in to find my father on the ground, and Silberman leaning against the old Crusader; which is why I think the ’plane had something to do with it”. Smithers’ father had a head injury and died a week or two later. “All he could do was mutter something about the Flying Crusader”. Smithers’ says his father would not have taken the picture, but he did know about the old legend in the family that the picture was actually the key to a treasure which the first Sir Giles was supposed to have brought back from Russia. The stolen picture was never found. Both Sir Giles and Smithers himself went off to war and Silberman went back to America. Smithers is of the view that Silberman took the painting and his father caught him. Silberman killed his father and if he hears about the sale, he will turn up on Saturday. “That’s if, as I believe, the old ‘plane has something to do with the mystery”. By the time Silberman got out of hospital, the castle had been requisitioned by the Government and the planes dismantled and stored so Silberman couldn’t get to them. Smithers thinks Silberman stole the painting and was making for his car, which was stored in the hangar, when his father caught him. Biggles asks if any of the machines have been in the air recently. Smithers tells him that Sir Giles did fly the Flying Crusader yesterday, around the grounds of the castle at about ten feet. Smithers leaves. Biggles says they will attend the auction and he wants Gingers to bid on the Flying Crusader. Biggles says the higher the bidding goes, the more interested he shall become. On the day of the auction, Biggles and his team go to Mancroft Castle and they go to see the aircraft for sale. “Looking at the amazing structures of wood, canvas and wire, Ginger found it hard to believe that these, in their day, had been the queens of the air; that from them, in a lifetime, had been developed the high performance aircraft now annihilating space in every corner of the earth”. Biggles makes himself known to Sir Giles and discusses the missing painting with him. Biggles is able to tell Sir Giles that Silberman is not in the States now. “I happen to know that the Anti-American Activities Committee are looking for him”. The auction commences. “In a somewhat depressing atmosphere Biggles and his friends watched aircraft that had made history being knocked down at prices lower than a junk dealer would have paid for old cars”. Bidding for the Flying Crusader stars well, but by the time it reaches one hundred pounds, only Ginger and a young man with an American accent are left bidding. Ginger eventually wins at £220, the highest price of the day. The aircraft goes back in the hangar where Biggles goes to watch over it. “Safeguarding the Flying Crusader turned out to be a long and tiresome vigil, for not until the first grey of dawn showed in the sky beyond the open front of the hangar was there any sign of an intruder”. It’s the young American. “Are you looking for something?” asks Biggles quietly. He tells the American he is a police officer. The man says his name is Galton and he is a sergeant from the U.S. Air Force in Germany. He got “cleaned out” in a gambling joint in Berlin and a guy named Silberman wanted him to “come here and buy this old crate”. He said he would give him three hundred bucks to buy it. “Said that’d be enough. As you know it wasn’t”. (I don’t know what the exchange rate for the dollar was in 1954 when this was written, but I know that in 1959 three dollars were worth one pound and one shilling, so 21 shillings). Biggles tells Galton that Silberman is wanted by the Federal Police for treason. Galton replies “The skunk. So that’s why he was lying low in the Soviet Sector”. Galton tells Biggles that when he had bought the machine, he was to fly it the following morning to a place not far away called Hookley Green, a place where Galton used to be stationed, where an old windmill makes a good landmark. Biggles gets Galton to side with him and Galton agrees to fly the plane to the rendezvous as agreed. Biggles asks to be given an hour’s head start as he is going to drive to Hookley Green. Taking his comrades and Smithers with him, Biggles drives to Hookley Green. He sees the windmill and says he expects Silberman is hiding there. A short wait follows and then the Crusader flies in, flying dangerously low. Galton lands and gets out and lights a cigarette. A man comes out of the windmill and hurries towards Galton. Smithers identifies the man as Silberman. With a knife in his hand, Silberman climbs into the cockpit and works on something too low for the watchers to see. He then stands up holding a small roll. Biggles moves forward and asks if he is Joseph Silberman. “Yes – why?” Handcuffs are then snapped on his wrists. “I’m Detective Air Inspector Bigglesworth of Scotland Yard,” Biggles told his prisoner. “I’m arresting you for stealing this picture from Mancroft Castle on a night in August 1939”. (We were initially told the theft was two days before the outbreak of the war. So that phrase must be referring to Hitler’s invasion of Poland on 1^st September rather than Britain’s declaration of war on 3^rd September 1939). “A more serious charge may be preferred later, so I must warn you that anything you say may be used as evidence against you”. “The sequel, while remarkable, was not unexpected. The old legend was confirmed. Silberman confessed that he had come across a reference to the picture while, as a history student, he was going through the household accounts of the Tsar of the time it was painted. Following a clue contained in a simply cypher on the back of the picture, a panel was opened in the massive frame in which it been shipped from Russia. In it was found a fortune in gems, the sale of which enabled Sir Giles to retain his ancient home and buy back the Flying Crusader, a silver replica of which now decorates the mantelpiece at Air Police Headquarters. The honest Smithers, who had lost his life trying to defend his master’s property, was avenged when Silberman went to the scaffold”.