BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

7. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PARK (Pages 60 – 67)

“Ginger, wide awake now and with nerves alert, concentrated on his task, his eyes roving over the field from one side to the other for as far as he could see in the uncertain light. In particular he gave his attention to the direction of the house, from where, he thought, danger might possibly come”. From time to time, he can hear Biggles moving on the corrugated iron roof. Something dark and bulky approaches Ginger and he sees it is a buffalo. “Distorted by the half-light it looked enormous”. When it gets too near and stamps a foot and snorts, Ginger has no choice but to go up the ladder to get away from it. Biggles asks him “What the devil are you doing up here? I was just coming down”. Ginger explains the problem. As it starts to get light, they both find themselves trapped on the roof with the buffalo at the foot of the ladder. Then, “through the hush of dawn, from afar off, came the sound of an aircraft”. “Chopper,” Ginger said succinctly. Ginger suggests they pull the ladder up and lower it on the other side of the building. This they do and they are able to escape into the trees, but not before they have seen landing lights coming on in the shape of a letter L. They take the ladder with them and avoid the electric wire. From the trees, they watch a Land-Rover fast approaching the building from the direction of the house. The chopper comes up from the south and Ginger wonders if it has come from France. Biggles says it couldn’t have checked in at a Customs airport because “between here and the coast there isn’t one”. The helicopter touches down on the far side of the building where it can’t be seen. There is then the rumble of heavy sliding doors. Biggles had not been able to see through the frosted skylight on the roof, but he now knows that if he had, the building would have been empty. The Rover has come out to pick up the pilot. Biggles says they will learn nothing more tonight. “Agly (sic – Algy is misspelt on page 66 of the first edition. This was corrected for the later paperback editions) will wonder what we’ve been doing all this time”. Biggles and Ginger set off through the wood and using the ladder, go over the wall. They see the car and “they hurried along to it, to find Algy somewhat irritated by their long absence”. Algy says the chopper was travelling on a radio beam as he picked up a navigational aid whilst fiddling with the car radio. Biggles says “Let’s get home. We haven’t done so badly. I’ll tell you about it on the way”. The car moved off.