BIGGLES
PRESSES ON
More Adventures
of Biggles and the Special Air Police
by Captain W.
E. Johns
9. BIGGLES LAYS A GHOST (Pages 161 –
170)
This story
was originally published in the DAILY MAIL BOY’S ANNUAL (1957) by Associated
Newspapers Ltd and ran from pages 3 to 10 in that book. I cannot find any differences between this
version and the version in Biggles Presses On.
“Biggles walked into his office at
Scotland Yard, tossed a sheaf of papers on his desk, dropped into his chair and
stared moodily at the spiral of smoke rising from his cigarette”. Ginger asks him “Now what’s the trouble?” and
Biggles tells him “The chief wants to know when we’re going to do something
about this ghost plane that’s giving pilots on the Paris run the heeby-jeebies”. (“Heebie-jeebies"
- note the slightly different spelling - refers to a feeling of nervous
fear, anxiety, or unease, often described as being "jumpy" or
"jittery". The term is an informal, Americanism, first
appearing in 1923 in the Barney Google comic strip by cartoonist Billy
DeBeck, who is credited with coining the phrase). Biggles told him he didn’t believe in ghosts
and the chief said in that case a number of perfectly good air line pilots are
liars. “It is a queer business,” put in
Algy. “The thing’s been seen five or six
times”. “Tommy Thomson of B.E.A. saw it
again last night, just after midnight, from the cockpit of a Viscount. I must admit that with ten thousand hours
logged he’s not the sort of chap to invent such a yarn”. (We are not told who says this –
presumably Biggles – it can’t be Ginger due to him asking a question). “What was the machine he saw?” asked
Ginger. “A Boeing B-17. The Flying Fortress. It carried American war-time markings” is the
answer. Tommy even took the name and
number and records show that that particular machine crashed in 1945, taking
off with a load of bombs, killing its crew”.
Biggles says “Now you can understand how this talk about a ghost plane
started. We’ve tackled some funny jobs,
but this is the first time we’ve been asked to look for an aircraft which
doesn’t exist”. Algy talks about a
couple of ghost planes from the First World War. There was the R.E.8 that landed itself on the
airfield at Cambrai with two dead men in it.
(There was a famous incident on 17th December
1917 where an RE8 aircraft, flown by Lt. James Sandy and Sgt. Henry Hughes was found safely landed with both crew
members dead inside, having been killed by the same bullet in a combat
engagement. The aircraft, which was a Royal Aircraft Factory RE8
- nicknamed 'Harry Tate' - flew for miles in a gentle, controlled descent
until it ran out of fuel, demonstrating the plane's inherent stability).
Algy then says “What about the machine Boelcke saw – one of ours. He could see no one in it. He followed it for miles, shooting until he
had no ammo left. Finally, still flying
straight, it disappeared in some clouds”.
(Oswald Boelcke - 19 May 1891 – 28 October 1916 - was a
WW1 German flying ace credited with 40 aerial victories. Boelcke is
considered as the father of the German fighter air force and of air combat as a
whole. He fractured his skull in a plane
crash after colliding with another German plane during aerial combat). Ginger has been looking at the papers that
Biggles had bought in and reading about the ghost plane. “This French pilot, Varlac,
says the machine turned suddenly and came straight at him. He put his hands over his face and waited for
the crash; it never came; when he looked up there was nothing in sight. When he landed he
had to be treated for shock”. “Could
this be some sort of reflection, old boy?
Mirage, if you see what I mean,” suggested Bertie. Biggles says the conditions have always been
the same when the ghost shows up. “It
must be a very particular ghost. It
requires a dark night, a low ceiling and a sky about half covered. Then, if it’s in the mood, it appears in the
same area at the same time – just after midnight”. Biggles’ tone of voice was still slightly
cynical. Bertie asks “Do the engines of
this winged spook make a noise or are they silent – if you see what I
mean?” “I wouldn’t know, but the answer
is probably yes, they make a noise,” replied Biggles. “I say that because when someone produces a
silent aero engine I shall no either I’m deaf or off my rocker”. Biggles asks his team to look into the
matter. “For a start I suggest you all
sweat through these reports, combing out anything that strikes you as being
worth following up. Muster the
facts. Then we’ll look at them, and
maybe someone will get an inspiration”.
“Nightly for a week the Air Police Auster had hunted the haunted area
above the Weald of Kent without catching sight of the ghost, although, to be
sure, the conditions had not been identical with those prevailing on the
occasions of the manifestations”. On the
seventh night, with Biggles and Ginger on the watch, Ginger lets out a
yell. “There it is! Behind you!”
Biggles turns and they see a big aircraft climbing across the face of a
cloud a quarter of a mile away. As the
plane reaches the extremity of the cloud it “disappeared as utterly as a pebble
dropped in a bowl of ink”. Both Biggles
and Ginger agree it was an American Fortress.
Ginger thought it seemed to bend as it left the cloud. Ginger radios the airport to see if there was
any other blip on the radar and the answer is that there is no other machine
than their one. Biggles begins to circle
in the Auster and then glide to another cloud-mass. “I can see it,” snapped Biggles suddenly,
turning on a wing tip and putting his nose down for speed. “It’s gone again,” he muttered savagely. “It seemed to burst out of the cloud and come
straight for us; then, as if the pilot had spotted us, it turned away and
vanished as if it had dissolved into thin air.
Am I going crazy? Did you see
anything?” Ginger replies “Only a light
on the ground. A queer blue light,
brilliant”. Biggles says he’ll do a long
glide and he asks Ginger to pin-point the light on the ground if he sees it
again. Ginger said tersely: “There it
is? No, it’s gone. But I’ve got the spot”. “Good,” acknowledged Biggles. “I have a feeling that we’re more likely to
find the answer to this riddle on the ground than in the sky. I’ve had enough for one night, anyway. I’m going home”.
“The following morning saw a police car
cruising along one of the many quiet roads that cross the Weald of Kent. Presently, Ginger, who was surveying the
landscape, said: “This is about the spot.
I marked the junction of this S bend with the lane that cuts across it
from north to south. There’s a pond in
the corner”. Biggles says “In that case,
if the light was being shown from a house, it can only be this one we’re coming
to, on the left. There isn’t
another”. The house was a pretty
old-fashioned cottage, or perhaps two cottages knocked into one. On the far side of the lawn a young man was
doing something with a tarpaulin which obviously covered a thing of some
size. They speak to him and Biggles asks
“What on earth have you got there – a gun or something?” The young man laughed. “Nothing so hideous. It’s my latest toy, one which, I hope, will
revolutionize the film industry”. The
young man (we are never told his name) goes on to say that it is “A long
range 3-D projector for open-air cinemas.
People will be able to sit in their cars quite a distance away and see
the show. Like the modern searchlight my
projector throws no beam – just the picture.
Of course, it can only work at night”.
He goes on to explain that he has been experimenting with it when the
weather is co-operative and as he hasn’t got a screen, he has been using the
clouds. He has been projecting an old
piece of newsreel some friends in the industry let him have. Biggles asks “Has it never occurred to you
that you might be frightening people in the clouds to death? I mean air pilots. The young man stared. “No.
Why should an aeroplane frighten them?
They see plenty”. “But not the
one you’re showing. You see, it doesn’t
exist in reality. It was destroyed years
ago. Its crew perished with it, which
gives its reappearance a somewhat sinister aspect”. “How dreadful. Do you know,” said the young man seriously,
“I never thought of the possibility”.
Biggles explains they are police officers investigating the phenomenon. “I am most frightfully sorry. Have I broken the law?” Biggles says he didn’t think the young man
had and he suggests that he either buys a screen or notifies aerodromes of the
nights he proposes to launch his ghost plane in the sky. “I’ll certainly do that,” agreed the young
man. “Sorry to have caused trouble. Come in and have a cup of coffee”. “Thanks,” accepted Biggles. “Ghost hunting is dry work”.