BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

4. NOT ACCORDING TO PLAN (Pages 30 – 41)

As they drive back to London, they keep up the pretence, with Bertie driving as chauffeur and Ginger sitting in the back. “Upon such slender threads can life depend, for had Ginger travelled in front he might not have been alive to see the end of the journey”. The time was nearly four o’clock when it happened. They were driving back to Scotland Yard at a leisurely 40 miles an hour when a small open sports car came up from behind at speed. Pulling alongside, two shots are fired at Bertie who ducks and manages to avoid being hit. The sports car then speeds off. Said Ginger: “By gosh! They weren’t long finding out they’d been tricked”. In all the drama, no one got the number of the car. Returning to Scotland Yard they find Biggles, Algy was not there. “How did it go on, chaps?” inquired Bertie. (Not sure why he is using the plural, as he is only addressing Biggles). Biggles says he made a mucker of it. Ginger mentions he is still a little shaky from shock and Bertie explains the attack upon them. Biggles says “I have made the mistake of underestimating the enemy, that’s the simple truth of it”. Biggles saw the theft and followed the Mercedes but was soon in trouble. He says he should have used a faster car and were it not for some hold-ups and road repairs, he would have lost the car. Just after leaving St. Neots, the thief in the car threw the jewel case to a man standing beside the road and that new man was then “away in a chopper”. “It was a small machine I couldn’t recognise from below. Without a fuselage all helicopters look alike”. “It caught me napping. I was ready for almost anything but not for an aircraft,” stated Biggles frankly. Biggles thinks they may have feared road blocks being set up, hence their plan. When the pilot of the helicopter saw that he had been tricked, he gave orders for Bertie to be taught a lesson. It must have been done by radio. While they are talking, Algy arrives and catching the end of the conversation, he says that he saw a helicopter this afternoon losing height when he was down in Sussex. Algy explains that he was following the auctions and went to one held today where some early French porcelain in the form of two cherubs holding a dish was being sold. It was like the other half of a pair with one that had been stolen. It was sold at auction to Lord Malboise, full name Baron Roger de Malboise, and he paid twelve thousand five hundred pounds for it. (That would be worth £182,000 in 2024). Algy says “Well, naturally, I thought I’d drawn a blank. A peer of the realm was hardly the sort of man to engage in crime”. Lord Malboise lives at Brindon Hall in Sussex and Algy decided to go and have a look at the place, as he was cruising around looking for the place, he saw the chopper losing height and disappearing behind trees. Brindon Hall has a high brick wall, tall iron gate and a lodge. “Standing at the gates, with an assagai (it can also be spelt assegai with an ‘e’) in his hand was a coloured gent all dolled up like a Zulu warrior: leopard skin kaross, a black cowhide shield with white bars across it and a black ring on his head”. The Hall is also a zoo and you pay “five bob” (five shillings or 25p after decimalisation) for a ticket. You leave you car at the lodge and are driven up to the Hall in a Land-Rover. Algy saw some African buffalo though the bars of the gate. “I lost my interest in zoos after seeing animals where they should be, where they belong” Algy adds. Biggles wonders if there is more to it. “A herd of buffalo would be a good way of discouraging burglars – of any other sort of trespasser, for that matter”. Biggles wants to look at the place, but before he does, he decides he will fly over the estate and look from the air. “This noble lord may have thought of a good way of preventing lunatic teenagers, out for a giggle as they call it, from barging about all over his property; but he can’t stop an aircraft flying over it. Let’s go home. I’m sure Ginger must be itching to get those togs off and look more like himself”. (Yes – Ginger spent the whole of this conversation dressed as an Indian Princess).