BIGGLES ON THE HOME FRONT

by Captain W. E. Johns

II. THE BAIT (Pages 25 – 40)

“It was on the afternoon of the third day following the illuminating discussion on jewel thieves that Ginger walked into Biggles’ office with a peculiar smile on his face”. He tells Biggles about another jewel robbery that is reported in the Evening News but Biggles already knows all about it. Biggles say somebody took a handbag from a car parked outside the house of Lady Fenton and it contained some jewels, the most important of which was a magnificent emerald pendant. Biggles says he organised it. The story is false; there is no Lady Fenton as far as he knows. There isn’t even an emerald. Biggles has a very good imitation of one in a genuine gold setting – three dolphins pursuing each other, head to tail. It is bait to hook a crook. Biggles intends to speak to someone inside the Barn and he needs to let them know he is in the same line of business. He is hoping to get the name of a reliable fence. The crooks need to read about the theft to explain how he has the swag. Biggles got the fake emerald from a pawnbroker, who had had it for years. The fake emerald has now been prised out of the genuine gold mount. Biggles tells Ginger “A description of the jewel has been issued and it will be supposed, I hope, that if I have the mount I also have the stone. I would have preferred a genuine emerald, but obviously that was out of the question. A real stone of this size would cost thousands, and I might lose it”. Biggles didn’t think much of Gaskin’s scheme of just standing around the Barn just waiting for someone to let something slip. He thinks the crooks will now wonder who did the job and how was it done. He now intends to take steps to let the crooks know it was him who did the job. Biggles goes to the Barn and takes Ginger with him. “In view of what Gaskin said about codgers it might be a good idea if I had one”. Biggles tells Ginger that Algy and Bertie have started on the case from a different angle, checking up on all cross country flights, particularly night flights, made over the last couple of months by privately-owned light planes. Biggles tells Ginger “Our job here begins and ends with aviation and I’ve no intention of being side-tracked into the ordinary work of the Yard, about which we know little. We’ll begin tonight by seeing in the flesh some of these crooked customers at the Barn. I shall, in fact, be one of them, having just come out of Pentonville”. Biggles says that for the purpose of this operation his name will be “Ted Walls”. He tells Ginger, “Don’t forget that and called me Biggles, in case my name means anything to them. You can keep your own. It’s as good as any”. Biggles says they need to wear their oldest clothes, and shirts that aren’t too clean as to look prosperous wouldn’t fit. They also need to find new lodgings. “It would hardly do to be seen going home to a rather expensive flat in Mount Street (which really is in Mayfair, London). That might arouse too much curiosity, particularly if it was learned that the occupants of the flat worked at Scotland Yard”. “We’ll take a couple of old suitcases with our small kit and book rooms at one of those cheap little hotels in Gillingham Street, near Victoria”. At eight-thirty that evening, Biggles and Ginger take a taxi to Gillingham Street and book two single adjoining rooms in the Clefton, one of the cheapest of the several small hotels such as are always to be found near big railway stations”. They then go to the Barn, “an establishment of some size, certainly a lot larger than Ginger expected. It was a modern type of building, having, as they learned, been rebuilt between the wars, and wore that appearance of prosperity that suggests efficient management”. In the Barn, it is not long before Ginger spots Swell Noble, leaning against the bar talking to Gus Norman. “Presently his roving eye picked out the gun-carrying Mike Sullivan, sitting by himself with a glass in front of him. (“Presently his roving eye picked out the gun-carrying Mike Sullivan … (see page 32)” is the illustration opposite page 30). “Soon afterwards, however, Toni the Needle came in and joined him. Biggles suggests that Ginger tries to listen to their conversation, but when he sits near, they stop talking at once. He then drifts away and rejoins Biggles and notices that they are talking again. Swell Noble is “slim, of medium height, clean-shaven, with regular features and the figure of an athlete, immaculate in a dark suit”. He is talking to Gus Norman, “in his early twenties, carelessly dressed in grey flannel trousers, a check sports jacket and suede shoes. He wore his fair hair rather long, and carried plenty of flesh, without being actually fat. He could have been good-looking in a rather effeminate way”. When Swell finishes his drink and leaves, Biggles, followed by Ginger, goes up to Gus Norman and says “I believe you’re Gus Norman”. Biggles says he was described to him by a person known to both of them, Stony Stoneways, who said he could find Norman there. Biggles says he has a message from Stony as they were in the same “hotel”. “The message was to say you might be seeing him sooner than you expect”. Biggles discretely shows Gus the gold mount and says “You might know somebody who could do with this”. Norman’s face remained expressionless. “I wouldn’t know what to do with that”, he said, his eyes flashing round the room. Gus initially asks Biggles “Where’s the rest of it?” but then says he is not interested. “Sorry,” said Biggles. “I was only doing what Stony suggested”. He went back to his seat. Biggles tells Ginger that he must have recognised the mount from the description given out and they have planted a seed. They need to wait and see if it bears fruit. Norman finishes his drink and leaves. Half an hour passes and Norman returns. Five minutes later Swell Noble comes in. Norman points out Biggles to Swell Noble. Noble comes over and talks to Biggles. “I hear you’ve been talking to a friend of mine,” he said cheerfully. “Stony Stoneways”. “I’ve never seen you here before, Mr. -?” “Walls. Ted Walls. I’ve never been here before,” stated Biggles, truthfully. Noble asks if Biggles still has the thing he showed Gus. Biggles shows him the gold mount. When Biggles tells Noble that he has the rest of it on him, Noble says “You’re dangerous company. Too dangerous for me” and he leaves to rejoin Norman at the bar. After a quick drink, both Noble and Norman leave together. Biggles and Ginger leave after a minute or so and walk to Shaftesbury Avenue. Biggles tells Ginger, he thinks they are being followed. They board a bus, as does another man. They leave the bus at the top of Vauxhall Bridge Road to walk the short distance to Gillingham Street. The man gets off at the same stop. Biggles and Ginger go into their hotel and the man walks past on the opposite side of the street. In their room, Biggles is pleased that they know he has the emerald and they know where he lives. He wants to write to Algy to let him know where they are and also let Gaskin know where they are. They daren’t go near the Yard themselves. “I think we might as well turn in”.