BIGGLES AND THE NOBLE LORD

by Captain W. E. Johns

17. THE FINAL RECKONING (Pages 148 – 152)

“It only remains to be said that in one respect, to Biggles’ annoyance, Marcel was wrong. The helicopter was not found, in spite of Marcel’s conviction that there would be no difficulty about this. In fact, there was no report of it ever being seen again. Where it went, or what became of it, had to remain a matter for surmise. It certainly did not return to England, at all events not to Brindon Hall, for the first thing Biggles did on landing was to have a close guard put on the place. So where it went had to remain a mystery that up to date had never been solved, although it remained a subject for discussion on both side of the Channel for some time”. Marcel thought it went down in the sea or crashed in the Pyrenees. On landing in England, Biggles went straight to his Chief, Air Commodore Raymond and told him the whole story. A search warrant was issued for the house and a considerable amount of stolen property, was found. At Brindon Hall, Inspector Gaskin informs Biggles that they can’t find any gold bullion, adding that the stuff they found in France has been moulded into small bricks. That rang a bell with Biggles and he asks for a hammer. Biggles goes to the low, surrounding, whitewashed wall, where it appears to be unfinished and loosens a brick. “Feel the weight of that” he tells Gaskin. Biggles takes out his penknife and cuts a nike in the brick and the cut gleams gold. Inspector Gaskin was still staring goggle-eyed. “We’ll have a drink on this” (and that is the last line Inspector Gaskin ever speaks in a Biggles book. He is referred to in the two later books but doesn’t speak). “It only remains to be said that the discovery of the gold compensated Biggles for what he thought was a failure, or at any rate an unsatisfactory affair, in that the ringleaders had escaped. Being only human, it may have flattered the vanity he often criticized in others, that he had been able to find what the regular police had overlooked, and might never have found”. Today, Brindon Hall stands empty, the animals having been dispersed to other establishments. Biggles, in his heart of hearts felt some consolation in the fact that Clarence had not been taken into custody. “A man who had served his country so well during the war deserved a better fate than to spend the best years of his life in prison”.