NO REST FOR BIGGLES

by Captain W. E. Johns

III. GRIM REVELATIONS (Pages 30 – 42)

“Ginger was right in assuming Biggles’s astonishment when he saw the colour of the occupants of the jeep. No other thought occurred to him than his plan had gone adrift, and either he had landed in the wrong place or by an off-chance these black troops had arrived on the scene before the people responsible for the forced landing”. “However, the mention of Colonel Rayle soon showed him which way the wind blew”. He could only hope they would think they had attacked the wrong plane. Biggles’ chief worry was Ginger, in view of the remark about the bad characters in the bush. It had obviously been made to deter him from attempting to escape. The jeep drives through the jungle for about half a mile before reaching a large compound, fenced with barbed wire. There are a number of huts built in the native style with native materials. “One, of frame timber with a verandah, was large, and constructed with a gabled roof in European fashion. This, he supposed, was the headquarters”. Biggles notices that on the far side of the compound a small piece had been portioned off, also with barbed wire. There was a fair-sized hut in it. Biggles sees several white men who appear to be dressed in rags. One waves and Biggles waves back. It is clear the men are prisoners. Biggles gets out of the jeep and is searched. “He protested as a matter of course”. The gun taped to his leg is not found. Biggles is then taken into a crudely furnished room. Behind a trestle table, “sat a man, a negro. Conspicuous on the wall him was a picture, a cheap framed print. It was a portrait, a garish study of a black man in uniform”. Biggles recognises the man in the picture as Christophe of Haiti, (Henri Christophe – born 6 October 1767, died 8 October 1820) was a key leader in Haitian revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti). He was sometimes called the Black Napoleon. “A pure-blooded negro, born a slave, he had by his own efforts raised himself to the position of Dictator on the great island in the West Indies once owned by France”. The man behind the table says in a pronounced American drawl “You know him, huh? He was a great man”. “If his greatness is to be judged by the number of murders he committed, then he was a giant,” stated Biggles, drily. The man says that the man in the picture was his great-great-granddad. “Biggles made a quick appraisal of the man in front of him. He was about fifty, tall and powerfully built; but his expression was not that of a simple, native-born African. It conveyed too much self-confidence, and behind it, Biggles knew, was a personality to be reckoned with. It was significant that the man, instead of plastering himself with gold braid like his aide-de-camp, wore a plain linen boiler suit with no other decoration than five stars on the collar”. Biggles is asked about Colonel Rayle and says he has never seen him in his life. Biggles asks “How far am I from the nearest British official?” “A long way,” was the reply, given smoothly. Again, Biggles is told the “woods around here ain’t safe for a white man”. Biggles asks for an escort but he is told that the men are needed here. Biggles is told to take it easy for a day or two and then he is asked his name. “Bigglesworth”. “As Biggles name was on the log-books in the aircraft it would have been pointless, possibly dangerous, to prevaricate. He could see no reason to, anyway”. Biggles is taken to the prisoner’s compound where a group of white men converge on him. He knew one of them. It was Wing Commander Tony Wragg, the chief pilot of the lost Hastings. When they are alone, Wragg tells Biggles that with their group is an Austrian called Bruno Hollweg, who claims to be a naturalist, but they think he is a spy, placed amongst the prisoners to listen to their conversations. Tony then introduces “General Homer Mander, U.S. Army, and his three secretaries. Then followed two members of the Hastings’ crew: Sergeant Norton, navigator, and Corporal Penn, radio operator”. Biggles asks about the whereabouts of Vic Roberts, the second pilot but he is told that Roberts has been killed, along with a man named Laxton, Tony’s L.A.C. steward (Leading Aircraftman). They were speared to death trying to escape. “That puts this business in a very different light,” said Biggles grimly. “At least it sets our clock right in one respect. They’ve no intention of ever letting us go, knowing that we’d report the murders”. “Christophe didn’t do the killing – oh no,” sneered Tony. “He was emphatic in pointing that out. Vic and Laxton were killed by wild men in the bush over whom he’s no control – so he says”. Hollweg had spotted the two escapers blackening themselves with charcoal to look like natives, and then he disappeared. “We reckon that he squealed”. Tony says that Christophe is the man Biggles met and he “Aims to set up his own empire in Africa”. General Mander says that Christophe was never born in Africa as he knows the States as well as he does. The General’s portfolios were taken from him and the “this whole idea is hooked up with the gathering of secret information”. Biggles says “This doesn’t sound like a negro racket. Have you never seen white men around here?” Biggles thinks white men are behind this. “They’re using the blacks, and keeping under cover behind them. How did Christophe know about General Mander and the plane he was on? How did he know about me coming this way? Don’t ask me to believe that a black upstart in the wildest part of Africa maintains a world-wide Intelligence Service”. Biggles establishes how the other aircraft was forced to land in the same way he was. He asks about the two other machines and is told “Christophe says he heard a rumour of two machines having engine trouble and trying to land. They both crashed and were burnt out. Christophe, of course, doesn’t admit that he had anything to do with it”. Biggles is asked if he knows what made the aircraft engines cut out. He says “No. But I do know this. The anti-aircraft device that’s being used here was never the invention of a coloured man. How did Christophe get hold of it? That isn’t the only question. What’s he using for money to pay these fancy troops of his? He may be ambitious, but ambition alone isn’t enough to support a racket of this size. There’s somebody more powerful than Christophe behind it”. Biggles asks the men if they know what happened to their aircraft as it wasn’t on the airfield when he landed. They don’t know. The General asks to speak to Biggles in private and he tells him that when they saw him arrive, Wragg said “That’s Bigglesworth of the Special Air Police”. “Was Hollweg present when he said that?” asked Biggles, quickly. The General thought for a moment. “I don’t remember seeing him. He could have been”. When Biggles confides in the General that he is investigating this business, the General confides in Biggles that “When I left the States a year ago our top scientists and engineers were experimenting with a new device – use the old hackneyed phrase secret weapon if you like – that would alter a ship’s course and, when necessary, cut its motors dead”. The General thinks that Christophe must have got his hands on it and is now aiming to use it to set up a black empire of his own. They stop talking when the Austrian, Hollweg comes along. “He was a black bearded, black haired, little man of perhaps forty, with a permanent expression that was almost a smile; but a lack of humour in his eyes suggested that this was more forced than natural. Two men of Biggles’ recent escort come forward and one says “Dat new man Biggsfort. De General he want talk to Youse”. Biggles remarks softly to the General. “If Christophe didn’t bring this bunch with him from the States they must be Kroo boys from the coast, where they’d pick up the language loading and unloading ships”. The General nodded grimly. “Bad lot wherever he got ‘em. Watch how you go”. “I’ll watch,” promised Biggles.