BIGGLES AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

by Captain W. E. Johns

2. THE LONELY ISLE (Pages 22 – 33)

“From horizon to horizon the sky was blue; an immutable canopy of purest lapis lazuli. Across it the sun toiled its age-old course, hurling down heat with silent force. The sea was blue; the implacable ultramarine blue of unfathomable depths. Between the two a man-made intruder called an aeroplane droned a passage as deliberate as that of a migrating bird. In the control cabin were two men, Biggles and his life-long friend and partner, Air Police Sergeant Algy Lacey. They were dressed alike in plain khaki drill suits. Both wore tropical helmets as a protection against the sun, which near the Equator can be as tiresome in an aircraft as on the ground”. They had been operating the plane for a week, resting only at night and their last port of call was Dum Dum, the aerodrome for Calcutta in India. Biggles only speaks to ask “See anything?” and the answer is always the same from Algy, “Not a thing”. However, eventually Algy sees breakers, waves hitting land. They approach the island, which must be Jean Bonney as, according to the chart, there’s nothing else within two hundred miles. Biggles tells Algy to watch out for smoke as any castaway would light a fire if he hears an aircraft. “I can’t imagine anyone living on Bonney from choice” adds Biggles. The island itself was mostly verdant, but there was a fair amount of rock and sand. A group of coconut palms at one end, probably sprung from nuts thrown ashore by the waves, tossed their green fronts into the air”. Algy can see one or Nissen huts still standing. As they fly round the island, Algy thinks he sees a man bolt into one of the huts. It was either a man or a monkey. Biggles decides to go down. The landing strip running down what might be described as the backbone of the island is still there and although it looks a bit rough, it is not as rough as Biggles expected. Biggles flies over the lagoon examining it as best as he can, then he lands on the lagoon. They tie the plane up to a rock that looks “ready-made for mooring”. The only sound is the booming of breakers on the opposite side of the island. Biggles notes a ripple at the far perimeter of the reef and thinks it must be a break in the reef, the ripple being caused by the swell outside surging in. Biggles had been told there was no break in the reef. After Biggles has a cigarette, they go to explore the island. They walk to the Nissen huts situated at the extreme end of the runway. “You must have been mistaken when you thought you saw someone,” says Biggles. “If there is a Crusoe living here he must be blind and deaf, or he would have seen us”. They find the stump of a young palm tree, freshly cut. Algy concludes the air strip has been recently used. Algy is willing to make a small bet that whoever has cleared the runway is still there. “Then all I can say, pal, is this. If you’re right he’s up to no good. Otherwise why should he hide himself? Honest men don’t run away from visitors, certainly in a place like this” says Biggles. “I must say it’d be queer behaviour for a genuine castaway,” admitted Algy. They reach the nearest hut and look in but it is only filled with a quantity of refuse. At the next hut, the door is propped open with a lump of coral. “They stopped. They stared. Just inside, seated on a camp stool, was a man. He did not move except to glance up from something he was doing with a large, rather beautiful sea shell”. “Can I help you?” he said quietly, casually, in an educated voice. After a pause to recover from his breath-taking astonishment Biggles answered, just as politely: “No, thank you. We thought we might be able to help you”. “I’m much obliged, but I’m not in need of assistance,” was the reply, given rather curtly. The man continued his occupation with the shell. Biggles looked at Algy. Algy, eyes saucering, looked at Biggles. What more was there to say, since the man had made it abundantly clear that he was not inclined for conversation? Biggles touched Algy on the arm as a signal for them to move away”.