BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

15. THE PASSAGE (Pages 131 – 138)

“It was getting on for four o’clock in the morning, with the first tinge of grey dawn creeping out of the eastern horizon, when Algy appeared; by which time Biggles was slumped with his head between his hands from sheer weariness and his companion was sound asleep”. Algy reports that he wasn’t able to make personal contact with Marcel. He asks who Biggles is with and Biggles replies “The village cop. He’s on our side”. Algy says that Marcel caught a train to Amiens, to pick up the Paris express. Algy rang Amiens, but the train had just pulled out of the station, so he rang Marcel’s officer in Paris to leave a message for him the moment he came in. “I said it was vital that he should return here immediately as we now had definite information”. Biggles explains how he met the gendarme and that they could go into the chateau via the tunnel he had been shown. Antoine, the gendarme, now awake, says, when asked by Biggles, that he knows the way to the turret once they are inside, even though he has never been up to it. Algy is speaking in English and Biggles has only spoken to Antoine in French. Biggles asks Antoine if he understood what they were saying. “It turned out that he spoke very little English, only what he had picked up from British soldiers during the war, and that, as Biggles observed dryly, was not likely to be very helpful. So he had to go over the story again in French to make the situation absolutely clear”. Biggles ask Antoine his view of going in through the tunnel. “If we recover some of the money you will get promotion. If we find nothing we shall all get the cane for breaking in”. “We will go in,” declared Antoine. He chuckled. ‘Alors! (So!) This will be like the exciting days of the war. Tiens! (Hold!) What days they were. I will show you the way, messieurs. “So they set off on what was going to be a hazardous operation, Biggles with some trepidation, not on account of the danger, but because he knew that if it failed, for taking the law into their own hands they would come in for more criticism than thanks; from both sides of the Channel. Also he felt a little conscious that it was wrong of him to lead the friendly Antoine into such an adventure. Had he known that Bertie and Ginger were virtually under sentence of death it would have been a different matter. Then he would not have hesitated for a moment. But he did not know that, even though the signals had indicated that the situation was serious and urgent”. The entrance to the tunnel is blocked by some slabs of moss-covered rocks, which Antoine casts aside. Biggles lowers himself into the hole “to be greeted by the stench of wet earth, decaying vegetation and general corruption”. “The journey through the tunnel was an experience not easily to be forgotten”. “The tunnel was a horror. It was narrow. The floor was slush. The walls were coated with evil-smelling slime and water dripped from the roof just over their heads, presumably seeping from the moat. In places they had to stoop. At first the floor sloped steadily downwards, and at the lowest point they had to wade knee deep in water. After that the incline was upwards”. They arrive at a flat wooden barrier, which Antoine slides aside and they find themselves in a vault, a sort of ante-room of a much larger chamber. “The place had the atmosphere of a sepulchre”. Antoine takes the torch and they can now see there are in a great stone hall in the manner of a church. There are no guards. Biggles goes to the main front door and unbolts a small accommodation door so they have a line of retreat if needed. Antoine takes them to a narrow stone stairway that spirals upwards. Biggles takes the lead up the spiral staircase. “They spiralled anti-clockwise, from right to left, as is usual in ancient buildings. There is good reason for this. Defence. A swordsman guarding the steps would have his right arm free from obstructions to use his sword, whereas a man with a similar weapon coming up would find his sword arm impeded by the elbow coming in contact with the wall”. They pause for breath on the third landing. “From somewhere below came first a shout and then the rumble of men’s voices, distorted by the echoing walls. “Stand still,” breathed Biggles.