BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK

Some unusual cases of Biggles and his Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

5. HORACE TAKES A HAND (Pages 85 – 97)

This story was originally published in the DAILY MAIL BOYS ANNUAL (1960) by Associated Newspapers Ltd and ran from pages 150 to 156 in that book. I found a couple of differences, just at the beginning of the story, between the original version and the version in Biggles Flies to Work.

“Following a rap on the door of the Air Police headquarters (the original version added “at Scotland Yard”) a uniformed constable entered. Looking at Biggles (in the original version this read “looking at Air Detective-Inspector Bigglesworth” These two slight amendments would just make it clearer that Biggles is a policeman for readers of the DAILY MAIL BOYS ANNUAL) he announced: “There’s a lad below, sir, asking to see you”. Biggles looked up from his desk. “Didn’t you tell him I was busy?” “I did, sir. But he says it’s important”. “Wouldn’t he tell you what it was about?” “No, sir. He says it’s a matter for you, personally”. Biggles sighed. “All right. Bring him up. Warn him if he's wasting my time …” The officer goes and returns with a youth of about fifteen whose general appearance caused Ginger, who with Algy was working at the filing cabinets, to turn away to hide a smile. “He might have been a character from a funny school story, although this was offset by an air of quiet self-confidence. He was fair, pale, small in stature but neatly dressed and well-groomed apart from a fringe of lank hair which, hanging over his forehead, made him look rather like a prize poodle. Blue eyes gazed at Biggles through large, steel-rimmed spectacles, without the slightest trace of nervousness as he advanced to the desk”. “Good morning, sir”, he began, in a clear well-spoken voice. “I hoped you would see me. You may be sure I would not have disturbed you had I not been in possession of certain information which will, I think, be of interest to you”. The boy introduces himself as Horace Wilberton of Woolsden Hall, Glensden in Devon (a fictional village), on the fringe of Dartmoor. His hobby is entomology and in pursuit of variants of local butterflies and moths he does a considerable amount of walking. On one such occasion he saw an aircraft land near a small remote wood. “The pilot got out carrying what was obviously a fairly heavy parcel wrapped in either a mackintosh or a waterproof sheet. With this he disappeared into the wood. He was in it for half an hour. He then came out, cautiously as it seemed to me from the way he studied the landscape, and flew off”. The machine was an Auster, registration letters G-AOSL. Horace says he paid no particular interest at the time and it was only when the incident was repeated in precisely the same condition a week later that he became suspicious. Biggles asks “What were the conditions?” “There was an unbroken cloud cover at about a thousand feet, as near as I could judge, for I do not profess to be an expert in such matters”. Horace says it is a very lonely spot, miles from any house or road and therefore seldom visited. Biggles asks if Horace looked for the parcel but he says “Not seriously. I called the place a wood but it is really a dell-hole about a hundred yards long so packed with trees and scrub, mostly gorse, that it’s hard to get into”. There is a heap of stones and rocks. “There’s a local legend about a hermit who lived there, ages ago. I saw the place once. It’s so overgrown with ivy and thorn bushes that you can’t see much”. Horace is able to confirm the dates of his sightings. “They were the eighteenth and twenty-fourth of August”. Horace has arrived by train and Biggles offers to fly him back to Devon as he wants to see the location. Biggles tells Ginger to come with him and he asks Algy to ring the Ops room and order the Proctor to be ready in half an hour, then check the ownership of the Auster. Biggles says “Come on, Horace, let’s get along and I’ll show you Dartmoor from up topsides”. Horace, who has never flown before, says he lives about ten miles to the east of Dartmoor prison. “Good. Then let’s go and have a look at it” says Biggles.

In a little more than two hours later the Air Police Proctor was cruising in clear weather over the broad expanse of Dartmoor. Horace is able to direct them and in due course Biggles lands and taxies close to the wooded dell. Horace points out where he saw the man go in. Biggles pointed at a large slab of rock that stood on edge near his feet. “That’s an unnatural position for a stone to fall. It couldn’t have got like that by itself. I wonder could it be a marker, a guide to an entrance. Let’s see”. Shielding his face with his arms Biggles thrust a passage through the outer scrub, presently to call; “Come on, There’s a path”. They follow a path down to the old Hermit’s hole which Horace says someone has rebuilt. There is a camouflaged waterproof sheet on top. Underneath, Biggles finds a pile covered with a mackintosh. Under that is a brown blanket. They also find an old suitcase on which has been stacked a quantity of tins and jars, all of foodstuffs, biscuits, canned beef, and the like. Moving the food, they open the suitcase and find a suit of clothes and an automatic pistol. Said Biggles: “In this country when going on a picnic it isn’t usual to include a thing like that”. Biggles finds the gun is loaded. He takes the clip of bullets “in case someone gets hurt”. They return to the Proctor and Biggles tells Horace not to mention this to a soul and on no account to go back there. Horace asks why. Biggles tells him he may be in danger. They are on Dartmoor. “Ten miles away there’s a prison for desperate criminals. Once in a while, usually in a fog, one makes a dash for liberty. With every road for miles patrolled within a few minutes it isn’t easy to get clean away; but if such a prisoner had a hide-out to make for, with food available, he could lie low for days until the weather cleared and a friend arrived in a plane to pick him up. That would rule out having to use the roads; or, for that matter, the danger of trying to get overseas in a ship. A plane could take the escaped prisoner anywhere”. They shake hands and Horace starts for home. Biggles and Ginger return to their headquarters.

Back at the office it was found that Algy’s enquiries had produced information that went far to confirm Biggles’ suspicions. The Auster was privately owned by a Mr. Carlo Costino who held a pilot’s licence and housed the machine at a club in Somerset. He also had a criminal record. Part owner with a brother named Luigi of a shady night-club in Soho, the two men had been sent to prison for peddling dangerous drugs. Carlo had received a shorter sentence than his brother and was no free. It was significant that both had been sent to Dartmoor. Biggles laid the facts before his chief. The sequel occurred a month later much as he had predicted. In one of the sudden fogs for which Dartmoor is notorious Luigi Costino made a dash for liberty and reached the carefully prepared hide-out only to find police officers, who had been warned, waiting for him. Two days later, when the fog had cleared, Carlo landed with the obvious intention of picking up his brother. He was arrested on the spot”. Luigi, believing his brother had tricked him, came out with the whole story. Carlo, he alleged, had formed an “escape” club to which friends of criminals at Dartmoor were invited to subscribe, the idea being that arrangements would be made to provide a hide-out until the aircraft could arrive to pick up the fugitive and fly him abroad. This ingenious plot might well have succeeded had it not been for a boy who went about with his eyes open and knew how to use his common sense. For the part he had played Horace received a letter of thanks from the Chief Commissioner of Police. But what pleased him still more, as he told Ginger later, was that he had been lucky enough to make his first flight with Biggles.