BIGGLES SEES TOO MUCH

by Captain W. E. Johns

10. ACTION IS PLANNED (Pages 88 – 95)

“Bertie drove the car some distance from the village until, coming to a lay-by in the usual high banks to allow vehicles to pass, Biggles ordered him to stop. “This’ll do”, he said”. Bertie tells his story and tells Biggles that Tom is dead. Biggles stared. “Dead!” Biggles asks Bertie if he thinks Tom was murdered. “I’m convinced of it. He didn’t talk to me like a man who was contemplating suicide. He was cold sober, so I don’t see how it could have been an accident. He left me to go to his new quarters, nowhere near the cliff”. Biggles was silent for a moment, his lips in a hard line. “The murdering hounds,” he breathed. “Now we shall have to get them”. Bertie tells Biggles that Brunner says he’s let our rooms, so we shall have to get out. “We’ll see about that,” muttered Biggles cogently. Bertie says that as he was bringing Algy here, they met “that perishing Daimler” and followed it to ….. “Portwin Cover,” put in Biggles. Berties is surprised that Biggles knows. They saw the boat the men went to, but couldn’t get close enough to see the name on it. They then followed the Daimler back to Penlock Grange. “Biggles nodded. “Fair enough. Now I’d better put you right in the picture by telling you what happened to Ginger yesterday and to me last night”. He went on to relate the story of what had happened at Penlock Grange, which included the conversation he had overheard at the porch”. (Strange, you would have expected Ginger to have told his own story as he was there, rather than Biggles relay it). Biggles speculates that the Brunners “must be making a thousand quid a trip in this racket. What we haven’t got is evidence that would stand up in court”. Biggles says the two men in the boat will be taken out and switched for two illegal immigrants. They might be waiting on a boat or an island. Biggles suggests that Algy and Ginger fly out and try to pick up the boat from Portwin Cove to see where it makes landfall. With this in mind, Biggles drives them all to Morven aerodrome. Biggles says he will then go and collect his kit from Mrs. Cator and apologise for not turning up last night. Bertie and Biggles will then return to “The Fishermen’s Arms” in Polcarron as their suitcases are there. “You haven’t forgotten we’ve been kicked out?” reminded Bertie. “We shall see about that,” replied Biggles in a hard voice. “A hotel can’t do that sort of thing and I shall tell Brunner so in no uncertain terms”. The plan is put into action and as Biggles and Bertie drive into Polcarron, they are stopped by a police constable who tells them that the inquest on Tom Draper is to be the day after tomorrow. Arriving at “The Fishermen’s Arms”, there is a confrontation with Brunner, who tells them he wants them out. “That’s where you’re wrong,” stated Biggles. He took a pace nearer to Brunner and looked him straight in the eyes. “Let me tell you this,” he went on frostily. “If you don’t already know it we have some powerful friends, and if I have any more trouble with you I’ll have your licence withdrawn. Think that over and stop throwing your weight about with me. Apart from anything else we’re under police instructions to remain here in order to be on hand, if required, to give evidence at the inquest in two days’ time on your late barman. We know why he left here and our story many not be the same as yours”. Brunner does not answer. “We shall be down for lunch in five minutes”, concluded Biggles. They went up to their rooms. “At the top of the stairs Bertie faced Biggles with a doubtful expression. “Here, I say old boy, you piled it on pretty thick. Why tell him as much as you did?” “I told him nothing he didn’t know, or suspect,” returned Biggles”. Bertie warns he could do them mischief, but Biggles thinks that unlikely as two more sudden deaths in the village would be too much of a coincidence.