BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

9. A MESSAGE FROM GINGER (Pages 78 – 84)

Algy says “I must say I feel a mean sort of skunk, accepting a man’s hospitality in order to spy on him, particularly when it’s a decent fellow like Lord Malboise”. Biggles has the uncomfortable impression it was the other way around. “A neat little trap was set, baited with a bottle of sherry, and we stepped straight into it with both feet. It’s time I had my head examined”. Biggles says “our noble lord” knows the forced landing was no accident and that they have been to the park. The questions about Biggles shoes were because he wanted to see more “and I like a fool, showed him exactly what he wanted to know”. Biggles says he must have walked across soft patches of muddy ground round that building and left footprints. “He’s a dangerous man. It’s a mistake to under-estimate the enemy, but that’s what we’ve done”. Algy says he was shaken when Malboise said he thought he had seen him before. He must have seen Algy at the auction where Malboise bought the porcelain. Biggles observes that “Lord Malboise is certainly getting a lot of money from somewhere. All that rebuilding and redecorating that’s been going on must have cost a packet”. He can’t be getting it from the visitors, there were only three cars at the gates. “Say six people at five bob each. Thirty shillings all told (that would be £1.50 in today’s money) wouldn’t go far towards what he must have spent on the house. Biggles noticed there was an aerial on the roof of the house and it wasn’t a TV aerial. Biggles suspects when the chopper is out, “his lordship is in touch with it by radio”. Biggles asks Algy is he noticed anything odd about the wall round the terrace. The bricks were not of any standard size, they had been whitewashed and there was a brick missing at the corner of the top course. “Why should he run out of bricks? Why leave the job unfinished? What sort of workman was that?”. Algy wonders why a man in Malboise’s position should do anything crooked. “For money. Everybody’s after lolly. Or perhaps for the sheer hell of it. There are some queer people in the world and social position has nothing to do with it. Malboise may have been genuine when he put up that groan about ruinous taxation. He may have worked out a way of getting his own back on the government. He’s certainly got a lot of money from somewhere, so what has he to complain about?” Arriving back at the office, they find a note from Ginger. “Gaskin came through. Security van hijacked between London and Birmingham. Thieves got away with 50,000 in cash. We are taking action as you ordered. Ginger”. The message is timed five o’clock, which was just after they left the Park. Biggles says “it sticks in my gizzard that our noble lord may have been laughing up his sleeve at the way he led us up the garden path”. They decide to wait for Bertie and Ginger to return but by eleven o’clock, their continued absence means they must be in trouble. “There’s nothing we can do tonight, so we might as well get some sleep while we can” says Biggles. “Disturbed in mind they went to bed”.