THE BOY BIGGLES

by Captain W. E. Johns

NB - IN THIS BOOK BIGGLES IS REFERRED TO AS “JAMES” BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY SUMMARIES; I HAVE REFERRED TO HIM AS BIGGLES.

XIII THE LAST ADVENTURE (Pages 172 - 180)

“The morning came when James, now fourteen years of age, (from information in BIGGLES LEARNS TO FLY we can calculate that Biggles was born in August 1899, so this must be August 1913) was informed by his father that his passage to England had been arranged so he had better start putting together the things he would like to take with him. The intention at this stage of his life was that he should go to his father’s old school before going on to university to study for the stiff Indian Civil Service examination in order to follow his father’s profession. As we know, this did not happen. Long before the necessary time had elapsed his father had died and the world was tearing itself to pieces in the most ferocious war it had ever known”. (As to exactly when Biggles’ father dies, it is not clear. In the First World War Story “On Leave” – from THE CAMELS ARE COMING – Biggles’ father is briefly mentioned. Biggles flies back to England, on leave, and lands at Lympne (by Folkestone) and gets the train to London. “Arriving home, he discovered the house closed; he telephoned a friend of the family, only to find out that his father and brother, his only living relations, were in the Army and “somewhere in France”. So it would appear that Biggles’ father died after this. We know from a footnote in BIGGLES GOES TO SCHOOL that Biggles’ brother, Major Charles Bigglesworth, D.S.O, M.C., was killed in action in September 1918). Biggles goes off to tell Sula Dowla and finds him on his way to collect an orchid. Sula says Habu Din is intending to fetch the orchid for his own garden and Sula is going to get there first to see the expression on Habu’s face when he discovered it was gone. On the journey they stop and chat and Sula asks about England. Biggles says “My father says I must go to school. Besides, if I stay here I shall probably die of fever. Every time I have an attack it gets worse”. Biggles says “One day I’ll come back” (and he does, in the Biggles story “BIGGLES GOES HOME”). Their conversation is disturbed by noise of an uproar and Biggles and Sula run to see what is going on. An old man appears to be wrestling with a leopard. “Close at hand a goat was rushing about as if demented. The noise was indescribable”. Biggles can’t shoot for fear of hitting the old man. The leopard falls clear from the old man and then goes for Sula who fends it off with a hatchet. “It is easier to imagine the scene than describe it”. When the leopard crouches to spring, Biggles gets his chance to shoot it. Two more shots finish it off. The old man is unharmed apart from a few superficial scratches. The man’s goat, called Lachme, is a pet. The leopard had gone for it and the man had tried to save his pet. Habu arrives to collect his orchid and “understandably, Sula professed to have no further interest in it”. Biggles returned home. “Three weeks later he was on his way to England, where there were no tigers or leopards – anyway, not wild ones”.