BIGGLES PRESSES ON

More Adventures of Biggles and the Special Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

3. THE CASE OF THE SABOTAGED PARACHUTE (Pages 46 – 67)

“Biggles had barely settled at his desk in the operations room of the Special Air Police when the door was opened and Inspector Gaskin thrust his head inside. “Do you feel like a run down to the New Forest?” he asked abruptly. “Not particularly,” answered Biggles, frankly, “What’s it all about?” Gaskin explains that a “Bloke called Betts, dog breeder or something of the sort, says his son has found something he thinks we ought to see”. “He says bring somebody who knows something about aviation”. Betts won’t say what it is, but they can see it at his house, Dell Farm, near Sway. Biggles agrees to go and they take Ginger with them. As they drive down Gaskin says “It was the son who found the thing, whatever it turns out to be, and what some of these modern kids don’t know about planes ain’t worth knowing”. (Johns must have written that with a wry grin as various children had written to him over the year pointing out that “facts” he had written about planes were not in fact correct, particularly facts to do with the distance an aircraft could fly. Johns got round that by inventing fictional plane types). They arrive at Dell Farm and meet Betts. He explains that he did twelve years in the R.A.F., finishing as a flight sergeant. “I was a dog handler part of the time,” added Betts, “which is why I went in for dogs when I packed up”. Betts shows them “a bundle of white material” which is a parachute – or part of one. He shows Biggles the lines. “Yes, I see what you mean,” replied Biggles, slowly. “Those lines were cut”. Betts says it looks as if some poor blighter jumped not knowing that a kind friend had cut his cords. “The body would go straight down like a brick, but this piece might have been some time coming down, according to the height the machine was flying”. Betts says they are always hearing planes, day and night. Biggles feels the material and concludes it was not long on the ground. It was dry and Betts says they had two rain showers the day before. Betts’ boy Len was taking his pup out for walk about eleven at night and the pup ran into the woods. Len couldn’t find the pup but found the parachute. Len went out again early that morning to look for the pup. Biggles wants to speak to him, so Betts goes to fetch him. Biggles says that if the man who jumped out was flying solo, the plane would crash. As there had been no such reports, there must have been someone else “at the joystick”. “It’s the fact that this pilot hasn’t reported losing his passenger that makes the thing look ugly”. Gaskin says “If the rest of that parachute, with the body in it, is in the forest, it may take a bit of finding. We’d better get out a search party and start to look for it”. Biggles suspects someone else was in the forest that morning, hoping to recover the harness and perhaps hiding the body. Betts returns with his son, “a bright-eyed intelligent-looking lad of about sixteen”. Biggles asks him to show them where the parachute was found. Len explains he was looking for “Jim”, his pup and saw a man in a car stop and get out. “I noticed he lit a cigarette and threw the packet away. I was half a mine to tell him to pick it up. We’re always tidying up after these litter-bugs”. Len takes them to where he found the parachute saying “It’s a wonder the parachute didn’t get caught up in a tree”. “Had there been any wind that would probably have happened,” opined Biggles. Biggles asks about the car and the boy takes them a hundred yards and points out the cigarette packet. Biggles doesn’t want to start a full scale search as the newspapers will hear of it and so will the man. Biggles suspects he will come back. “The temptation to cover up what has happened will be irresistible. But if he learns that the police are looking for a body he’ll keep out of the way”. Biggles asks Len if they have a dog with a good nose. Len is sent to ask his father if they can borrow a trained Alsatian they are currently boarding for a gentleman who is abroad. Len returns with the dog and they get it to sniff the cigarette carton and dog merely takes them to the road. Moving to a place where the car stopped again, the dog picks up a scent and goes off, zigzagging through the trees. When Len stumbles on a root and the dog runs free, Len runs after it. “Ginger came next in the line of pursuit, followed by Biggles. Inspector Gaskin, who was a heavy man, brought up the rear, breathing heavily”. They catch up with the dog “barking furiously at a man who, with his back against a tree was keeping the animal at bay with a stick”. (“The man was keeping the animal at bay with a stick (page 54)” is the illustration opposite page 64). The man tells Len to call the dog off or he will shoot it. “Why don’t you keep that hound under control?” demanded the man, malevolently, with some justification. He was dark, of medium height and build, with a small black moustache; his age might have been between thirty and forty. He was well, almost immaculately, dressed, in town clothes”. “I’m sorry,” said the boy contritely. The man strides off. “I wonder if he was the man we were looking for?” said Biggles, softly, to Ginger, as they stood and watched him go. “That was the man I saw get out of the car,” volunteered the boy. They set off in the direction taken by the man. Ginger suspects he has a gun due to what he said. “I have an idea I’ve seen that face before, somewhere,” murmured Gaskin, looking puzzled. The man goes to a car, lights a cigarette, then gets in and drives off. “Ginger read aloud the number of the car, grey in colour”. (Cleverly, Johns does not tell us what it is). “Jaguar,” said Biggles. “That gives us something to go on. I’d say he was the man we were looking for. What else could he have been doing here at dawn if he wasn’t looking for something? He wasn’t here for a picnic, and naturalists don’t normally wear city clothes when they’re bird-watching, or bug-hunting, or something of the sort”. Biggles suggests leaving any body hunt for the time being and going back to the Yard to check up on the car and its owner. On the way back towards the house, the dog finds a scent and reaches a clump of bushes intertwined with brambles. The dog backs away, showing its teeth. “I’m afraid there may be something nasty here,” said Biggles. Len is sent home with the dog and Ginger finds a body, which is carried out to open ground. “It was that of a youngish man, dark-skinned. There was no sign of a parachute harness”. Biggles says “He’s the chap who jumped. He’s all broken up”. Referring to the missing parachute, Biggles says “It must have been taken away by the man who put him here, and covered him up”. Gaskin goes through the man’s pockets. “This feller’s a foreigner” he states, his opinion based on the cut of his coat. The pockets are empty. “The inspector had revealed a tattoo mark low on the left forearm. It was blurred as if an attempt had been made to erase it, but the one word of which it consisted could still be read. The word, in blue ink, was Destin”. “That tells us something, anyway,” said Biggles. “He’s French. At least, destin is French for destiny, or fate”. (I know where Johns got this idea from. In the April 1944 edition of ‘My Garden’, Johns talks about Sidi Freruch, near Algiers.  Johns remembers a holiday there with his wife where they stopped at the Hotel de la Plage, for food.  Johns talks about all the people he met and knew there, who became friends, including “Emile, Parisien apache, and a murderer to boot.  But, after all, he had only killed the man who made a pass at his wife, which is at least as pardonable as killing people one does not know.  Emile, with Fatalite tattooed across his forehead.  Where is he now?” he wrote). Ginger is sent to Betts house to call for an ambulance and stretcher to take the body to the morgue. “Biggles and Inspector Gaskin waited for an hour, discussing the case”. When a local sergeant arrives, he is asked at Biggles’ request to withhold issuing a description for the dead man for twenty-four hours, to give them a chance to make certain inquiries. They return to London and Biggles puts a call through to his opposite number in Paris, Marcel Brissac of the French section of the International Police Bureau.

“As Biggles told his staff when, back in his office, he called Marcel at the Surete, he was doubtful if his inquiry would produce results; so he was more than a little surprised when the information Marcel gave him exceeded anything for which he could have hoped”. Marcel not only knew the man, but was looking for him. “His name was Raoul Dubroc, born in Tangier of a French father an Arab woman. He had been a criminal all his life. He joined the Foreign Legion to dodge the police, and it was during his period of service that, in a fit of depression, he made the silly mistake of branding himself with the tattoo mark, which nothing would remove. Later he had deserted, gone to Paris and become involved with a gang suspected of smuggling arms through Tangier to the terrorists in Algeria. It was on this charge that he had been arrested, but on a promise to reveal the name of the leader of the gang, who he had said owed him money, he had been given certain liberties under which he had taken the opportunity to escape. The French police had been hunting high and low for him". “You didn’t hunt high enough,” said Biggles. Gaskin reports the car belongs to Louis Brand, who runs a night club in Soho. The car is registered to an address of Dawfield Manor in Hampshire. Biggles remembers that Sir Roy Wilton used to live there and owned a plane, so the place must have an airstrip. “He was killed in a crash in Africa about two years ago, on a big-game hunting trip”. “Looks as if Brand must have bought the place” says Gaskin. “Gun-running can be profitable when it comes off,” said Biggles pointedly, telling Gaskin that if he acts fast he may find the bottom half of the parachute at the Manor and if it fitted the top half they could ask him to explain how he came to have it. Biggles says “According to Marcel, Dubroc fell out with his boss over money. He was going to squeal and the gang either knew that or suspected it. On the pretence of getting him out of France they picked him up in an aircraft and dropped him overboard”. Biggles says that if they have an aircraft at Dawfield Manor they will want it out of the way and if it came by night it will leave by night. If they set off now, they can get there before dark. Ginger checks if Brand is registered as a pilot but he isn’t. Biggles says there is a pilot in the picture somewhere. He asks Algy and Bertie to come with them and he asks Ginger to take the skeleton keys. Gaskin says he will follow down in his own car with a spare man.

“It was dark by the time the police cars found Dawfield Manor”. Biggles drives past the entrance and parks under some trees down the road. They make their way to the Georgian Manor, in grounds which have long been neglected. They see a large open field, that was obviously the landing ground used by the original owner. There are several outbuildings and Biggles opens one using the skeleton keys. “They went in, to be greeted by the unmistakable reek of an aircraft, of oil and doped fabric. The torch sliced a wedge of light in the darkness. The beam struck an aircraft and moved down the fuselage to the French registration letter F”. (This is the picture on the cover of the book). Ginger recognises the type as an Aubert Cigale- Major, a four seater, with upward hinged doors. “You mean, there’d be no difficulty in pushing him out,” said Gaskin. “We don’t know that he was pushed out,” reminded Biggles. “He may have got scared and jumped, thinking he was going to be bumped off, although obviously he wouldn’t do that if he knew his brolly had been tampered with”. Biggles says the pilot of this machine is still in the country and probably in the house. Moving on to the garage, they unlock it and find the Jaguar car. In the boot is the bottom half of the fatal parachute. With it, is a French identity card in the name of Dubroc, and a notecase containing money. Gaskin says “Brand’s going to find it hard to explain how these things got here. Let’s go and hear what sort of lies he can dish up at short notice. He’s in for an awful shock”. Gaskin’s man covers the front door and Algy and Bertie remain on guard outside the back door. The others go in the unlocked back door. There is a “foreign-looking man” in the kitchen. He goes for a gun but Biggles has him covered and Ginger disarms him. Gaskin handcuffs him. “I no understand,” stammered the man. “You will,” growled Gaskin. The prisoner is handed over to Gaskin’s man. They then continue into the house and enter a room where they can hear two men talking. “One was the man they had seen in the forest. They other was younger, a short, slim swarthy type, black-haired, dark-eyed”. “What’s this?” Brand demanded loudly. Gaskin says they are police officer from Scotland Yard making inquiries about a body found in the New Forest. He explains how half a parachute was found near it and the other half was found in Brand’s car. “Brand must have known he was cornered, but even so, it is unlikely that any of them were prepared for his explanation. Ginger could only conclude that it was calculated to clear him of murder, although it would leave him open to a less serious charge”. Brand admits he was in the plane but says Dubroc jumped of his own accord. He says that Dubroc himself had cut the cords. “I saw him do it. I can only think the one he cut was intended for me, but Leroux here, in handing them out, must have got them mixed up”. The man named leapt to his feet. “That’s a lie. I never touched the parachute. Don’t you try to blame this on me”. This man is the pilot of the plane. He says Brand changed them over. The pilot says Brand asked him to pretend the plane was out of control and then shout to Raoul to jump. Brand says that is all lies. Leroux says that Brand was a German paratrooper. The two men are taken away and the house checked for any other occupants. Back in London, Marcel has arrived and he recognises Leroux. “The truth of what happened on the fatal night was never proved, for Dubroc was dead and the statements of Brand and Leroux conflicted, as each laid the blame on the other. They agreed on one point. It was Dubroc who had cut the parachute, so as it could be argued that he died by his own hand the charge of murder was dropped”. Leroux said that Brand often parachuted down to avoid any mishap with the plane landing and expected his men to do the same. Brand had with him a large sum of money on the night. It was payment for an arms shipment and later found in the house. Leroux believed Dubroc planned to murder Brand for the money by cutting his parachute. Brand saw this and switched parachutes. Brand was then faced with the task of finding Dubroc’s body to avoid any police investigation. Documents in the house showed Brand dealt, not only in arms, but also drugs and foreign currency. He went to prison for fourteen years. Leroux was extradited to France to face a charge of treason. He broke down under questioning and the rest of the gang were picked up.