BIGGLES AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

by Captain W. E. Johns

6. MYSTERY AFTER MYSTERY (Pages 66 – 76)

“Biggles went first to the top of the rise and reconnoitred the landing strip in the direction of the Nissen huts. This was not because he was afraid of Collingwood or anything he might do; for when all was said and done he had more right to be there than the man who he now regarded with deep suspicion. It was simply that he preferred Collingwood not to know that he had gone off leaving Algy alone”. With no sign of Collingwood, Biggles sets off on his tour of inspection. He walks along the sea-shore, heading for the far end of the island and this is not without difficulty as “the foreshore was rocky and piled with the debris of countless storms”. “Biggles, of course, had not the remotest idea of what he was looking for, or hoping to find; but he was sure there must be something; something Collingwood didn’t want him to see”. He nearly completed his outward journey without seeing anything to arouse his curiosity. There was nothing worth a close inspection. Then he reached a little depression like a little valley where vegetation flourished at the bottom. As he came to the palms where he intended to end his journey, he was surprised to see signs of cultivation. There was one crop covering about half an acre. “The ground, he observed, was good fertile soil, so this was the place Collingwood would naturally choose if he decided to raise his own cereals”. “He walked right up to the crop. As he did so his expression began to change, first to astonishment then to understanding. “So that’s it,” he murmured. There was nobody present and Biggles knows the crop will take care of itself until it was ready for harvesting. (Johns doesn’t tell us what it is). “He did not linger in the vicinity. There was no need. He had found the answer. He had seen – or thought he had seen – all that was necessary. All he had to do now was get back to the lagoon as quickly as possible by the shortest route. Biggles reached the end of the landing strip and saw Collingwood approaching in haste from the opposite direction. Biggles crouched in the cover of some bushes to watch where he went. Collingwood passes him and Biggles waits and minute and looks for him, only to find that he can’t be seen. Collingwood has completely disappeared. Biggles walks slowly a little way, so he can see the crop under cultivation, but Collingwood is not there. To avoid being seen, Biggles sits down to think. He decides to wait for Collingwood to reappear and he waits for an hour. As the sun begins to fall, Biggles decides he can wait no longer and he is just about to leave, when he hears a sound. “The sound he heard was voices; human voices, engaged in what seemed to be normal conversation”. Presently, two men come into view; one is Collingwood. “What was surprising was that the other should be a coloured man. Biggles took him to be an Indian, not so much perhaps on account of the colour of his skin as because India was the nearest mainland. He was an older man than Collingwood, dressed native fashion and altogether an unpleasant-looking type. From a belt hung a heavy knife, or dagger. He passed close enough for Biggles to see that this face was badly pitted by smallpox, although for that he was not to be blamed”. Collingwood appears to have a full haversack. Biggles wonders where they have come from as he hadn’t seen them. When the men have passed by, Biggles goes to the track they have made and follows it to where they came from. Biggles parts some shrubs and finds a black hole in the bank. “It was hardly large enough to be called a cave, although it seemed to go back some distance. Anyhow, it was large enough to allow a man to enter, and the regularity of the sides showed that it was man-made, not a natural formation”. Biggles looks inside but it is pitch-dark. He sees an army entrenching tool lying on the ground. “He examined the sides of the hole and the stuff that had been excavated, lying at his feet. It was the same material as the piece he had picked up in the hut. Collingwood has said it was phosphate. This he could not believe”. He decides to return with a torch. Returning to the lagoon with daylight fast fading, Biggles is alarmed to see the Gadlfy is no longer on the water. It is now ashore on one of the little beaches of coral sand. “He could not see Algy. Alarmed, afraid something had happened, he broke into a run”.