BIGGLES IN THE UNDERWORLD

by Captain W. E. Johns

8. PAUSE FOR SPECULATION (Pages 85 – 94)

“When Biggles and Bertie reached the open door they were confronted by an outside world of deep night. It was pitch-dark. They could see nothing”. “We’ve lost him,” muttered Biggles. “He could have gone anywhere. I’ve made a mess of it”. “Not as far as I’m concerned, old boy,” Bertie said warmly. “You arrived in what they call the nick of time. Much obliged and all that”. A beam of light appears round the end of the stack, followed by Ginger. He hasn’t seen anything. Bertie says the Sheikh may have dashed across the field to go for his car because he told him he had a car. They go towards the cars and hear the sound of a car being started and see lights coming on and then moving down the lane. Ginger suggests they use the house phone to put out a call to get the car stopped. “Unless he’s a bigger fool than I take him to be, he won’t try to get far in a police car,” returned Biggles tersely. Alerted by sounds of crackling, they turn and see the haystack is on fire. “A lovely finish to a brilliant night’s work,” observed Biggles with biting sarcasm. Bertie says the Sheikh caused it when he fired his gun. Bertie had warned him about it. “He realized the danger, too. That was why he switched to his razor”. Ginger suggests ringing Algy to tell him they have found Bertie and Algy can stand down. Biggles asks Ginger to first check their car is still there. Bertie gives Biggles a quick account of his night. Biggles tells Bertie about the bloodstains in the house. Ginger returns to report the Sheikh has taken Bertie’s car and theirs is all right. They all go to the house and Biggles rings Algy to tell him that Bertie is all right. Algy speaks to Biggles for a while and when they hang up, Biggles tells Bertie and Ginger that the bloodstained Jag has been found outside Repford cottage hospital. “It belongs to Caine. He’s inside with a six-inch gap in his face. Or he had. It’s just been sewn up. Needed twenty stitches”. Caine was saying he fell on a carving knife. Biggles adds “He can tell that to the marines. We know better”. (The phrase “Tell it to the Marines” is an English idiom, originally with reference to Britain’s Royal Marines. The phrase is an anapodoton – the full phrase is “tell it to the marines because the sailors won’t believe you”, but only the first clause is usually given, standing for the whole. The idiom depends on its implication that marines, unlike the speaker, will gullibly believe nonsense). Bertie says he heard raised voices in the house as it two men were arguing. Ginger says “If that was Caine’s Jag that nearly knocked us for six as we came up the hill, it’s no wonder he was in a hurry”. Biggles speculates that Caine came to the farmhouse and the Sheikh sent him back to the club in order to find Biggles and say what he told him about having a farm and a plane was all rot. Caine must have been fool enough to tell the Sheikh what he had done. If the Sheikh hadn’t seen Caine and Biggles together himself, then Nestos, the club manager may have told him. Biggles says he did some plain speaking to Caine, telling him the sort of man he was associating with. “Of course, if he was daft enough to repeat what I said, when he came back here, and challenged the Sheikh to his face, so to speak – and he was quite likely to do that – I can imagine the Sheikh losing his temper. There may have been a fight in which the Sheikh went for his razor and Caine got the sharp edge of it”. Biggles rings the cottage hospital and speaks to the Night Sister as he wants to speak to Caine. Biggles is advised to leave it until tomorrow as Caine is very weak, having nearly died from loss of blood. They saved him with transfusions and have now sedated him. Biggles thinks Caine may be ready to tell the truth about what’s been going on. Biggles says he will see the Air Commodore tomorrow and get him to tell the local police about what has happened. They can then have a look at Twotrees Farm and take care of the dog. “We can’t just leave the poor brute to starve. Let’s press on home. I’m tired”.