BIGGLES IN THE UNDERWORLD

by Captain W. E. Johns

2. A MEETING AND A WARNING (Pages 19 – 31)

“Biggles, now a member of the Icarian Club, sat in the lounge and without much interest regarded the little crowd of both sexes that lined the bar, talking loudly above the clatter of a fruit machine and ‘hot’ music coming over the radio. The time was 8.0 p.m. (with just the one zero) and the club was beginning to get busy”. “He had been sitting there, on and off, for nearly a week, and for all the good he had done he might as well have stayed at home”. The club is “one of a thousand others within a mile of Piccadilly Circus, the centre of night life in London, their purpose being a meeting-place where alcoholic drinks could be had outside the usual licensing hours – at something like double the normal price. To drink merely for the sake of drinking was to Biggles a waste of time and money”. The manager of the club is a dark, sleek, affable little man named Constantine Nestos and known to everyone as ‘Charlie’. This was Biggles sixth successive night at the club, when suddenly his luck turns and a man answering the description he seeks comes in, now wearing an ordinary dark suit and an R.A.F. necktie. The man goes up to Carlo, the bar tender, to order a drink and when he turns away he knocks into Biggles, spilling his drink. He offers to buy Biggles another drink and Biggles joins him in a beer. The man spots Biggles R.A.F. tie and they get chatting. Biggles says his name is Bigglesworth. “To save complications Biggles had more or less been forced to join the club under his own name”. The man says “My name’s Caine. Brian Basil Caine. The initials, BBC should be easy to remember”. (I wonder whether Johns had actor Michael Caine in mind. Certainly, the description fits). Biggles asks him if he is still in the Service but he says he was slung out six months ago after a Short Service Commission. Caine says he has bought a little machine of his own so he can “put in a spot of aviating if I feel like it”. He has an American Starfinder, a two-seater. They go and sit down and Biggles asks Caine where he keeps it. Caine says he runs a small farm in Hampshire and he has a big barn with a pasture adjacent. “You’re on the official register of private owners, of course” prompts Biggles and Caine says “I can’t be bothered with all that fiddle-faddle. It doesn’t mean a thing”. Biggles says he may be landed with a tidy fine. “That wouldn’t worry me. I prefer to mind my own business. I haven’t had any trouble so far”. “As Caine was still willing to talk Biggles pursued his questioning, wondering how many drinks Caine had had to loosen his tongue to such a degree of indiscretion”. Caine says he has “a little flat in Town for when I feel like hitting the high spots”. Then he asks Biggles if he is looking for a job. Biggles says he is always open to offers and then gets more drinks. Asking about the place in Hampshire, Biggles is told it is near Carthanger and it is called Twotrees Farm. Caine says sometimes he flies over the Channel to see a friend and he doesn’t bother with the formalities. Biggles enquiries further about the job, but Caine is called away to take a telephone call in the manager’s office. Caine returns and resumes his seat, “but he had changed. His conversation was no longer ‘free and easy’: he seemed subdued, almost taciturn, as if he had something on his mind. Biggles found himself being regarded with a different expression: not exactly hostile, but suspicious”. Caine gets up and says he has to be getting along. A feeling comes over Biggles that he is in deeper water than was apparent from the surface. Biggles thinks Caine has been given a warning, possibly about who Biggles was. Biggles collects his hat and raincoat and leaves the club. He sets off in the direction of Shaftesbury Avenue and he is unprepared for what is about to happen. As he passes an unlighted doorway, a figure steps out and swipes at him. Biggles instinctively sidesteps and feels something brush his arm. The man then runs away, disappearing amongst others on the pavement. When Biggles looks at the sleeve of his raincoat, he sees that it has been slashed from shoulder to elbow. “Lazor the Razor had lost no time in trying to put his mark on him”. Resolved to be more careful in future, Biggles takes a taxi home, “that is, to the flat where they all lived, not the office”. The others can see what has happened to his coat. “Look as it you’ll need a new coat,” put in Ginger. “I nearly needed a new face,” replied Biggles grimly. “It’ll be easier to buy a new coat. Don’t worry. I shall see to it that the Sheikh pays the bill”. Biggles tells everyone what has happened at the Icarian Club, then he looks in the telephone directory to see if he can find Caine’s address in London.