BIGGLES AND THE LITTLE GREEN GOD

by Captain W. E. Johns

14. BIGGLES TAKES A CHANCE (Pages 142 – 151)

“The mist continued slowly, as if reluctant, to disperse, as twilight took possession of the plateau; but as Biggles had said, this improvement in the weather conditions had come too late to be of service to them”. Noises of what sounded like a barbaric procession were clearly coming nearer. Biggles says the Indians would easily be able to follow their tracks in the soft ground. Biggles says he thinks he will walk along and meet them to find out what the fuss is about. “What good will that do? You can’t talk to them. You can’t speak their language,” Algy pointed out with some asperity. “You go down there and you’ll be the first to get a spear stuck in you”. Biggles says his appearance will give the Indians a shock. Conchita suggests he takes Atu-Hua with him and gives it to them. “I don’t think that’s the answer,” returned Biggles. “It might work, on the other hand it might have the reverse effect than the one we want”. Biggles ask Pepe his opinion. “I doubt their brains, what little they have, ever get out of low gear. You could shoot some of them. That is something they would understand”. Biggles looked shocked. “That’s pretty good, coming from you, a Chilean. These people may be Indians, but it doesn’t alter the fact that they’re Chilean subjects just as much as you are. The colour of their skins doesn’t alter that. I’ve no more right to kill one of them than shoot a white man in Santiago”. Pepe says “That is a matter of opinion. If a man tries to kill you, you have every right to kill him". “They haven’t tried to kill us – yet” says Biggles. Biggles says they can’t let the Indians interfere with the machine. “If we lose that we’re here for keeps”. Algy insists on going with Biggles, but Biggles orders him to stay where he is. Biggles went on. “If I don’t come back I can only suggest you defend the machine for as long as you can. But don’t start shooting until you have to; by which I mean you’ve no alternative if you’re to try to save your lives. There should be a spare gun in the locker. Give it to Pepe. He’d better keep the last bullet for Conchita, unless she’d prefer to fall into their hands alive”. Biggles steps out of the plane. “He hesitated as a thought struck him, a factor so obvious that he wondered why it hadn’t occurred to him before. All along he had taken it for granted that the Indians knew about, and were in fact familiar with, the god they had once worshipped. Atu-Hua. They would therefore recognise him if they saw him. It seemed this had happened. Pepe’s story practically confirmed it. Yet how could that be? Not one of these wild men, whatever their origin, could possibly have seen the idol. Why should they recognise it? How could they recognise it?” True, the Indians may know from folk-lore about the god, but that did not mean they would be able to recognise it if they saw it. Biggles became more and more convinced that he had become involved in a plot, a conspiracy, deeper and more sinister than he had suspected. Biggles walks to the fringe of the forest about a minute before the Indians emerged from the same spot. “They were led by a weird-looking creature swathed in rags and decorated with sundry primitive objects”. They come to a dead stop. “They stared, goggle-eyed as the saying is, jaws sagging, faces expressionless in the manner of natives the world over when suddenly confronted with something beyond their understanding. The party numbered about a dozen”. Biggles raises a hand in what in civilization is generally taken as a ‘stop’ sign, although elsewhere it can be interpreted as a greeting. Biggles was satisfied that so far the natives had shown no signs of hostility, “although what they would do when their brains began to work might be a different matter”. Biggles points at the track the Indians have come up and says “Go”. Nobody moves a muscle. He tries the same word in Spanish with the same result. Biggles then says “Atu-Hua”. The Indians might have been stone deaf for all the notice they took. Biggles thought the time had come to take drastic action. He took out his pistol and fired a shot over the Indians heads. The entire party turned and plunged back into the forest. In seconds there was not a soul in sight. Biggles relaxed at this ridiculous anti-climax, put the pistol in his pocket and lit a cigarette. Algy came running up, gun in hand. Biggles tells him what has just happened. “They departed as if I was the devil himself”. Returning to their plane, Biggles tells Algy “I’d make a small bet that these wretched Indians we’ve got tangled up with don’t know anything about a god, or anyone else, called Atu-Hua. The name, when I tried it on them, produced no more result that if I had said Charley’s Aunt. In fact, living as they do, tucked away in the middle of nowhere, I’d go as far as to wager they don’t know the first thing about what’s going on in the world today. Maybe they’re lucky, at that”. Biggles says if someone wants to start a native uprising by producing “this long-lost miracle-worker named Atu-Hua” then “he’s likely to find himself up the creek without a paddle”. Algy asks why the natives started a song and dance when they found Atu-Hua in the wreck of the Caravana? “If I know anything about unsophisticated natives they jump at the chance to make a song and dance about anything. After all, the poor devils don’t have much in the way of entertainment. Any excuse will serve for a kick-up”. Algy wonders if they will come back and Biggles says they had better keep a look out as they may not make as much noise as they did last time.