NO REST FOR BIGGLES

by Captain W. E. Johns

XVI. CONCLUSION (Pages 158 – 159)

“There is little more to tell beyond one or two details about which the reader may be curious. The two aircraft, the Hastings and the Auster, flew to Accra, the British airport on the Gold Coast, where Bertie and Christophe were sent straight to hospital, and Biggles, before doing anything else, sent a radio signal to Air-Commodore Raymond, who came out as fast as a plane could bring him. Biggles gives him General Mander’s portfolio and it is passed on to the American Consul. Some time later Biggles had a letter from the General thanking him for recovering it. Bertie was only in hospital a couple of days, after which they all flew home. Christophe was in hospital for some time. Of what finally became of him nothing was known, beyond that fact that he was “taken care of” by the United States authorities – whatever that might mean. The dollar notes turned out to be fake, which explained why von Stalhein or his employers were prepared to pay high prices. As the money was worthless it didn’t matter how much they paid. The fate of Dessalines, Christophe’s partner, remained a mystery. He was never heard of again. If he was not killed by the conspirators when they seized the aircraft then he must have realized that the game was up and gone into hiding. Von Stalhein’s Hastings is found many weeks later by some natives less than a hundred miles from where it had taken off – in the French Sudan, to be precise. The Liberian Government, as was expected, denied all knowledge of the affair. It could have been the truth, for they volunteered the information that a number of foreign traders and commercial agents in the capital had disappeared suddenly. Some of these might have comprised the force collected to attack Christophe’s camp. But nothing could be proved. So ended the story of the missing machines. On the face of it, it was an extraordinary affair; but as Biggles pointed out, it was really no more extraordinary than other events in an age wherein the extraordinary had become the rule rather than the exception.