BIGGLES AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

by Captain W. E. Johns

13. MURDER MOST FOUL (Pages 137 – 148)

“Taking it on the whole, Biggles and Algy spent a quiet night in the cabin of the Gadfly, although their rest was broken by guard duty, which Biggles thought advisable. There had been a lot of talk over night in Collingwood’s hut, but no definite plan to deal with the situation had been evolved. It was hard to see how there could be one until Ali had declared what he intended to do when his associates in the drug business arrived. Biggles was surprised that the Arab had elected to stay at his own end of the island instead of coming with them to the huts and wondered if there was some sinister reason for it. However, as he remarked, the brain of an Arab worked in its own peculiar way and few Europeans have been able to see inside it. Collingwood was of the opinion that he would join them in the morning when he had had time to think the situation over and note the position of the dhow. That was how matters had been left when Biggles and Algy had said good night to Collingwood and retired to the plane”. The following morning the sea was still rough. The dhow was far away but standing towards the island. Biggles thought it would take some hours to arrive. After breakfast Biggles and Algy set to work patching up the damaged aircraft. “Fabric, dope and scissors, were produced, and they were soon at work”. The dhow keeps getting nearer. Both wonder where Collingwood is, expecting him to come along and see what is happening. They see Ali standing on the end of the reef and the dhow lowers a boat and five or six men get into it. The boat makes it way to the coral reef and Ali walks to meet it. “That was the situation when horror struck. And it struck so swiftly that it was all over in a few minutes”. A snake like tentacle comes up out of the water and grabs the man standing in the stern of the boat. A tentacle coils itself around the boat and half drags it under. Only one member of the crew reaches the reef and that person goes to join Ali. “Of the two horrified spectators on the beach, who had witnessed the calamity, speechless with the suddenness of it all, Biggles was the first to recover. He moistened his lips. White-faced he said to Algy, grimly: “So the devil I killed wasn’t alone. I remember reading somewhere that these giant squids live or travel in schools, like whales”. Biggles and Algy work on repairing the aircraft for another hour and then Biggles asks Algy to go and check on Collingwood, whilst he, Biggles, makes a meal. Algy returns. “Collingwood’s dead,” announced Algy, curtly. Biggles is astonished. “But – but how could he be dead? He was as right as rain last night”. “Maybe so. But he’s dead now,” stated Algy grimly. “What he had was a bash on the skull, then a dagger pushed into his heart”. “Are you telling me he was murdered?” asks Biggles. “Believe it or not, it’s true,” says Algy. “If you’re shaken you can imagine how I felt when I went into the hut and found it looking like a slaughter-house”. Algy says Collingwood has been dead for hours and they conclude it must have been Ali who killed him. “Apart from ourselves there is nobody else on the island” says Algy. “The murdering swine,” grated Biggles, adding they will have to do something about Collingwood. “We can’t just leave him there lying on the floor, a prey for the flies”. Algy says he put him on the bed. Biggles and Algy go to Collingwood’s hut. Biggles struggles to understand why Collingwood was killed. “Why kill a man with whom he must have been on good terms for weeks, perhaps months?” At the hut, they see that Collingwood had been working on polishing the piece of opal that Biggles had found, but the opal itself is missing. Looking for Collingwood’s box of precious stones, they find that is missing as well. Biggles says “Now we have the motive for the murder. Ali, the scoundrel, killed him for what he knew was here”. Biggles and Algy discuss what to do about it. Algy says “I feel like shooting the black-hearted hound out of hand, but being what we are we can’t do that”. Biggles says he is going to find Ali. He is not going to let him get away with all the opal he has stolen. Biggles, knowing that Ali now has a companion, says he is going to go after Ali. Algy will have to guard the aircraft. They check the dhow and see that it is about two miles off shore. Biggles thinks they are waiting for the sea to go down sufficiently for them to enter the lagoon. “They went back into the hut and wrapped the body of the unlucky Australian in his blanket”. They will bury him, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Biggles says “We’ve more urgent things to do at the moment”. “I’m going to find that murdering Arab and have it out with him”.