BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

3. ACCORDING TO PLAN (Pages 21 – 29)

“A week later the plan was put into action”. “A notice to the effect that Princess Lazu of India, now staying at the Savoy Hotel in London, intended to leave on Saturday for a visit to friends in Scotland, had appeared, with a photograph, in the appropriate newspapers and magazines. The photograph, showing Ginger made up as a young woman, getting into her Rolls-Royce. Bertie, in chauffeur’s uniform was holding the door open for her”. (There is something ridiculous about Ginger, who was aged about 15 in his first Biggles story “The Black Peril”, which the book says was set in 1934. So Ginger was born in 1919. In 1969, Ginger must be 50. We have a 50 year old man pretending to be a young Indian Princess). Algy, meanwhile, is checking up on well-known collectors of early porcelain. Four days after the publication in the papers, Bertie is cleaning a hired Rolls in the hotel garage, playing the part of a dutiful chauffeur. He is approached by a strange man and offered one thousand pounds to just leave the car for one minute, when the Princess stops for lunch on her journey to Scotland. “Push off,” requested Bertie icily. “Think it over. Maybe you’ll change your mind. If you do I’ll see you get the money”. Bertie wonders whether this is anything to do with the man they are after “for as Biggles had said, this attempting to bride the chauffeur of a wealthy owner was a common occurrence”. On the Saturday morning, Bertie takes the Rolls to the entrance “of the well-known hotel”. The ‘Princess’ came out carrying what was obviously her jewel case. It was, in fact, a second hand one bought for the operation, a small, brown, pigskin, drum shaped receptacle with a handle on the lid, holding a few small pebbles. “During this operation Bertie had found it hard to keep a straight face, with such dignity did Ginger play his part as the Princess he was supposed to be. Indeed, he made a smart, good-looking young woman. A bath, with a little colouring matter in the water, had toned his skin to the right shade of café au lait to suggest the Orient. Two-inch heels had given him that much extra height and a touch of lipstick completed a transformation that would have deceived Bertie had he not known the truth”. Bertie takes the shortest route to the North Circular Road and then turned up the A.1, the main road to the north. (Most of the M1, which runs from London to Leeds, opened between 1959 and 1968 so this should have been the M1 when this was written?). Ginger says “Well, how did I make out?” and then Johns adds a note in brackets “To save possible confusion we had better call him Ginger”. “Jolly good” says Bertie, “You would have fooled anyone”. The plan is to stop at Stamford, at a three-star hotel called ‘The George’. (This is a real hotel that still exists, just north of Peterborough and about halfway between London and Leeds. I suspect W.E. Johns stopped here often as between 1944 and 1953, Johns lived in Scotland and would travel to London, by road, on business). “The Rolls covered the 90 miles to Stamford, in Lincolnshire, without any trouble, and glided to a halt at the front entrance”. Bertie opens the door for Ginger, who walks into the hotel, leaving her jewel case on the seat. Bertie’s Rolls had been followed in by a dark blue Mercedes. Just inside the hotel entrance, Bertie looks back and sees the driver of the Mercedes step quickly to the Rolls, unlock the door, presumably with a duplicate key, pick up the jewel case and walk away with it. “Bertie was amazed at the speed and facility at which this was done”. The driver gets into his Mercedes and speeds away. At the same time a light Bedford van pulls alongside the Rolls effectively preventing it from being moved. Bertie asks the driver to move and he is given a package. When Bertie opens it, it is a thick wad of ten pound notes. “The thief assumed he had changed his mind and had agreed to co-operate”. Bertie goes to see Ginger and tells him their plan has worked. Ginger tells Bertie “The crooks will realize you’ve double-crossed them. They won’t be pleased about that”. The money Bertie got is “probably stolen notes” Ginger tells him. “An hour later the Rolls was cruising back down the road to London, Ginger looking forward to getting out of his disguise, which he found uncomfortable, and into his own clothes”.