BIGGLES SEES TOO MUCH

‘If Biggles had not taken a quiet holiday on the Cornish coast, a highly professional gang of smugglers might never have been brought to book. As it was, a slight suspicion about a shark-fishing expedition led Biggles, helped by Ginger, Bertie and Algy, to make discreet inquiries in the area, especially about Julius Brunner, the owner of an expensive Daimler, and his activities in shark-fishing and hotel ownership. Although the crooks were skilful and ruthless, they found only disaster waiting for them on one of the smaller islands in the Channel, where they had fled with Biggles in hot pursuit’.

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published July 1970

TITLE PAGE – Page 1 – This page has a brief summary of the story

CONTENTS – Page 5

PREFACE – Page 7 – A half page about how incidents so trivial can have unforeseen results

1. A SMELL OF FISH (Pages 9 – 19)

This final book opens, as usual, with Air-Detective Inspector Bigglesworth, “better known to his friends as Biggles, senior operational pilot of the Special Air Squad at Scotland Yard”, going to the office of Air Commodore Raymond. Raymond asks Biggles about his recent holiday at Polcarron (a fictional village in Cornwall), a place recommended by Raymond. Raymond asks Biggles if he managed to give his brain a rest. “I’m afraid I’ve been running at full revs for so long, that I find it difficult to throttle back to dead slow”. Biggles says he saw some men go sea fishing, but the men who came back were not the same men. It gave Biggles cause for thought and he says “There had been cases of illegal entry into the country. You may remember on one notable occasion some coloured gentlemen, without papers of any sort, were found wandering inland from the south coast. They were unable, or refused to give any account of themselves, where they came from or how they had got ashore. They were popped in the nick, and subsequently deported. Naturally, certain newspapers raised the question, how long had this sort of thing been going on and how many unwanted immigrants had slipped into the country by the same method? It was pointed out that this could be a danger to everyone”. Biggles says there could be a lot of money in the transport of human freight. (What would Biggles and Johns have to say about illegal immigration today?!). Biggles says shark-fishing trips out to mid-Channel could do a lot of mischief if one of them “was a wrong ‘un”. Biggles says he has no interest in shark fishing, “I’ve seen all the sharks I ever want to see”, but after breakfast, having nothing else to do, he was in the habit of going down to the quay and getting comfortable on a wooden bench where he would chat with the locals. He got friendly with one call Sam Pretty, an “old salt”. One morning, a powerful-looking motor-boat came in, a sort of cabin cruiser, and meet four men who got out of a chauffeur-driven Daimler. They went out to sea. Sam said the best sharks were found about twenty miles out in the Channel. After lunch, Biggles had gone back to the bench and he saw the same boat return. The four men who got off were not the same men. At least one was different as he had a beard. Biggles clearly remembered the four who boarded were clean shaven. Biggles didn’t get the number of the car or the name of the boat as he only got round to thinking about it after both had gone. Biggles says the boat could easily have meet, by appointment, another craft from the French coast and you can’t expect the coast guards to photograph or fingerprint all people who go out on boat trips. Biggles thought he recognised one of the men who came ashore. He had a limp. Limpy Logan was a gunman who had been shot in the leg in a night-club brawl in Soho years ago. He was imprisoned for five years for hijacking commercial lorries and eighteen months ago he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs and was never caught. Biggles thinks he got abroad and now thought it was safe to return. Biggles asks Raymond “How many villains have got in and out of the country the same way. “It’s a safe bet that this is a two-way traffic” he tells Raymond. Raymond says something will have to be done about it and he asks Biggles to think about it and come up with a suggestion. Raymond tells Biggles to extend his holiday in Polcarron and keep his eyes on the harbour and his ears to the ground for local whispers. Biggles asks to take someone with him. Raymond opines that an aircraft won’t be much use and Biggles tell him that on the contrary, it will essential to watch a boat from the air. Biggles says they mustn’t tell the Coastguard or Customs Service yet, otherwise the gang may get to hear or it and take precautions. Biggles says he will get organised.