BIGGLES ON THE HOME FRONT

by Captain W. E. Johns

III. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS (Pages 41 – 51)

“The following morning, shortly after Ginger had returned from posting the letters to Algy and Inspector Gaskin and was having a cup of tea with Biggles”, Biggles is called to the telephone. Gaskin is on the phone, asking Biggles “Is that you, Walls?” Gaskin tips them off that the word has gone round that they pulled the Portman Square job. “It has even reached me”. Gaskin chuckled. “I had to pay for that information, too, to make the thing look natural”. Gaskin says he had a man at the Barn who followed them when they were being followed. “The fellow you saw was Greeky Stavros. You needn’t worry about him. He’s just a cheap spiv who does odd jobs like that for the bigger boys”. The call ends and Biggles tells Ginger “It seems we’re already in deeper water than we knew”. “We’re learning a thing or two about Gaskin’s regular line of country. I wonder who went to the trouble of having us shadowed”. Ginger says it must have been either Noble or Norman. Biggles is then called to the phone again. “Walls here,” he announced. “Who’s that?” The man at the other end ignored the question and he wasted no time in preamble. “You were trying to sell something last night,” he stated crisply. The man offers “two quid” for it. Biggles negotiates and they settle on three. Biggles is told to be under the big platform clock in Victoria at five to eleven (in the morning, although that is not said) on the dot. “Carry Picture Post in your left hand showing the word Post”. After the call ends, Biggles tells Ginger that it must be someone who doesn’t know them by sight. He thinks they want to check this really is Lady Fenton’s pendant, before negotiating for the stone. “It looks as if he might be after the emerald, either on his own account or acting for someone else. Either way he must know where he can dispose of the stone. He knows a receiver, although it doesn’t necessarily follow that it's the one Gaskin is after. But it could be”. Biggles keeps the appointment, whilst Ginger is assigned to see where the man goes. Biggles buys the periodical that was to identify him and stands below the clock. “A slight, dark, smartly dressed man of about thirty, with a close-clipped strip of moustache on his upper lip, who had been striding along as if on his way to catch a train”, stops abruptly and says “Okay. Let’s have it”. “The mount changed hands, as did three tightly folded one-pound notes”. “You staying on at the Clefton?” asked the man tersely. “For a day or two, anyway,” answered Biggles. The man is then off and away, and Biggles realises that he has only caught a fleeting glimpse of his face. “But one vivid impression remained. It was the tie the man was wearing”. Biggles goes and has a coffee then returns to the hotel. Ginger arrives half an hour later to report that man left by the Continental platform. The narrow street was “choc-a-bloc” with cars. He got into a black Mercedes and left. The number was KBX 919. Shortly afterwards “a chap came off the platform and started creating, saying his car had gone”. The chap told a policeman that there was a gap where he had parked his Mercedes when he left it there to see his wife off on the boat train. Biggles then realises the significance of the five to eleven meeting. “The boat train leaves at eleven. People leave their cars while they see friends off and they don’t come back until the train’s gone. The lad who met me must have marked the car he was going to take and so was all ready for a quick getaway”. Biggles says they can assume that the chap who took the car hadn’t got far to go, because it would not be long before the registration number was radioed to every police car. They go outside to find a public telephone. Biggles rings Gaskin at the yard to find out if KBX 919 has been found yet. After a quick check, Gaskin is able to confirm it was found at eleven twenty-five “against the curb at the west end of Piccadilly, on the Park side, about a hundred yards short of Hyde Park Corner”. After the call ends, Biggles asks Ginger if he remembers the buildings on the other side of the road there. He does. “The R.A.F. Club and the Royal Aero Club”. Biggles says the man who met him under the clock was wearing an R.A.F. tie. Ginger’s eyes opened wide. “He might have gone to one of the clubs to meet someone”. Biggles says “This needs thinking about. For the moment let’s go and have some lunch”.