BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK

Some unusual cases of Biggles and his Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

6. BIGGLES LEARNS SOMETHING (Pages 98 – 110)

This story was originally published in the BOY’S OWN PAPER – Volume 83, Issue 8 in May 1961 by BPC Publishing Ltd and ran from page 16 to page 19 in that magazine. I found quite a few differences, as mentioned in the summary below, between the original version and the version in Biggles Flies to Work.

“Come in, Bigglesworth. I want you to look at this”. The speaker was Air Commodore Raymond (in the original version there is the added words “head of the Air Police” which are not in the book). Biggles is shown an enlarged photograph. “Looks like a high angle shot of a race crowd. I mean horse racing. You can see a bit of the track in the background” says Biggles. “Quite right. Recognize anyone?” asks Raymond. “No. Can’t say I do. Wait a minute, though. That type with a beard looks like Plaudet, the French artist wanted by Paris for being mixed up in the Algerian trouble. We had a note about him from Interpol” says Biggles. “That’s the man”, confirms Raymond, “Andre Plaudet. One of those irresponsible youngsters who for reasons best known to themselves have taken sides with their country’s enemies. He was involved in a café brawl and got away after shooting two gendarmes”. Raymond gives Biggles an official photo of a head and shoulders portrait of the man and Biggles is able to confirm “It’s Plaudet all right. What’s he doing here?”. Raymond says “Never mind what he’s doing. What I want to know is, how did he get here? He didn’t come in through any regular port of entry, sea or air, or he’d have been spotted. He’s on the wanted list”. Biggles ask who took the picture and he is told that the B.B.C. were televising and after the programme someone rang up to say they had seen a criminal wanted by the French police. The B.B.C. gave Scotland Yard a private view of the film and the photograph is a ‘still’ from it. Biggles says it doesn’t make sense to him for a man hiding to walk about in a public place like the members’ enclosure at a race meeting, right in front of a T.V. camera. Biggles says “I take it you’ve sent for me because you think he may have got a pal to fly him across the Channel”. “It could happen” says Raymond. “His pal could drop him off at some out-of-the-way place”. (The words “out of the way” are all hyphenated in the book, but not in the original version). Raymond and Biggles discuss the situation. Plaudet would need a member’s badge to be there and why did he go to Ascot? The photo was taken on “June seventeenth” (in the book, but in the original version it was expressed as “June the seventeenth”) and now the police are watching every race meeting on the assumption that if he went to one, he will go to others. Biggles asks if Raymond would mind if he told Marcel Brissac. “I’d like to get more details about Plaudet’s habits – gambling, drinking, and so on”. (In the original version in the Boy’s Own Paper, the word “drinking” was removed, so it just read “gambling, and so on”). Raymond has no objections. Back at his office, Biggles rings Marcel and tell him the news. He asks for details of the man they are seeking. Biggles then tells his comrades the result of the phone call; that “Plaudet never gambles. He’s never been to a race meeting in his life. He doesn’t drink”. (The line about drinking is in the original version, even though Biggles didn’t ask about that in that version of the story). “In that case what was he doing at Ascot?” asked Ginger. “I wouldn’t try to guess,” answered Biggles slowly. “I’ll speak to Inspector Gaskin about it”. Gaskin tells Biggles he is sure that Plaudet hasn’t been to any other race meetings as the police are keeping watch for him. Biggles asks when the next meeting is at Ascot and Gaskin tells him “Ascot Heath. Two days. July fifteenth and sixteenth”. (It’s the same in both versions – no “the” between the month and date this time).

Time passes and nothing is seen of the elusive Frenchmen. Biggles goes to see Gaskin again and is told there is a racing tomorrow at Newmarket. They talk about going up and Gaskin asks “I suppose you’ll fly up?” “Fly?” Biggles looked hard at the Inspector’s face. “Is there some place I can land?” Biggles is surprised to hear the answer that “There’s all the room in the world at most race courses. You’re behind the times, my lad. The middle of the average race course is as big as a small airfield. I’ve seen as many as a dozen planes parked on a race course”. Biggles was looking at the Inspector with an extraordinary expression on his face. “The deuce you have. (The line “The deuce you have” does not appear in the original version). This is news to me. Of course, being all internal civil flying I wouldn’t hear about it. I seem to be learning something. You’re right; I shall certainly fly to Newmarket tomorrow”. Back at the office, Biggles tells Ginger “In practically every illegal flying operation we’ve uncovered, the culprit, as one would expect, has made his landings in some quiet country field; wherefore one assumes that to be normal behaviour. Be funny, wouldn’t it, if a crook was smart enough to realize that and go to the other extreme by landing in the middle of a crowd of ten thousand people”.

“The following day, a little before noon, Biggles, with Ginger beside him, landed the Air Police Auster aircraft on Newmarket Heath, close to two planes that were already parked there”. Biggles speaks to an official wearing an arm band, apparently there to see that the machines were not tampered with. The official tells Biggles that one plane brought Sir Francis Ringle, the whisky magnate and the other belongs to Captain Woodside, the Irish trainer. A grey-painted helicopter approaches, which, Biggles is told, is Baron du Fornier, who often pops over from France. Gaskin joins Biggles and Ginger just as the aircraft touches down. Biggles tells Gaskin “If my guess is right Plaudet’s visit to Ascot had nothing to do with horses. He simply used the course as a landing ground, and the television camera just happened to catch him as he walked through the enclosure on his way out. If that’s right, someone is operating a nice little racket running a cross-Channel shuttle service for crooks”. Gaskin asks who has just landed and Biggles tells him it’s Baron du Fornier, a race-horse owner. Gaskin recognises the man as he gets out. “Baron my foot,” growled Gaskin. “That’s an old customer of ours known in the jewel trade as Sharky the Card. We wondered where he’d got to. He always was a gambler. Imagine the nerve of it. Lives in Frances and comes over here for a day’s racing. I’ll take care of him. You carry on”. Biggles goes to look at the pilot who has remained reading in his seat. He returns to tell Ginger “It’s our old friend Laxter. You remember the ex-R.A.F. type who was one time was acting as second pilot for von Stalhein”. (I am not aware of another story with an ex-R.A.F pilot called Laxter working for von Stalhein. There is a Verney Laxter in BIGGLES ON THE HOME FRONT (1957), but he dies at the end of that book and it doesn’t feature Von Stalhein. Von Stalhein appears in a total of 20 Biggles books, namely:-

BIGGLES FLIES EAST (1935) - BIGGLES & CO. (1936) - BIGGLES SECRET AGENT (1940) - BIGGLES IN THE BALTIC (1940) - BIGGLES DEFIES THE SWASTIKA (1941) - BIGGLES SEES IT THROUGH (1941) - BIGGLES TAKES A HOLIDAY (1949) - BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN (1950) - BIGGLES WORKS IT OUT (1951) - BIGGLES FOLLOWS ON (1952) - BIGGLES IN THE BLUE (1953) - BIGGLES FOREIGN LEGIONNAIRE (1954) - BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA (1955) - NO REST FOR BIGGLES (1956) - BIGGLES TAKES CHARGE (1956) - BIGGLES BURIES A HATCHET (1958) - BIGGLES IN MEXICO (1959) - BIGGLES AT WORLD’S END (1959) - BIGGLES TAKES A HAND (1963) - BIGGLES LOOKS BACK (1965).

There was an ex-R.A.F pilot who flew for von Stalhein in BIGGLES WORKS IT OUT (1951) but his name was Dick Canton. He is the person with the gun sneaking up behind Algy in the pilot’s seat on the cover of the original first edition of the book. If anyone can tell me there is another story with a Laxter in, then please let me know!). Ginger asks Biggles if he thinks von Stalhein is behind this racket but Biggles says “No. The money would be chicken-feed to him”. Biggles is reluctant to arrest Laxter as he would only get a fine for landing outside of a Customs airport. He’d “rather take a chance to pick up some bigger game”. Then Biggles sees Plaudet arrive. “The man we’ve been looking for all along. Apparently he’d decided to go back to France”. Biggles thinks it would save a lot of time and trouble on extradition if Plaudet was arrested in France. He sends Ginger off to phone Air Commodore Raymond and warn Marcel Brissac that Plaudet is on board a “Sud-Ouest Farfadet Gyroplane, registration F-WBKL”. Biggles will follow them in his Auster and radio the course as soon as he has it. “The rest can be imagined. It all worked out as planned”. Biggles follows the helicopter to France and transmits the course information by radio to Police Headquarters in Paris. Nearing the coastline of northern France, a Morane aircraft lines up with Biggles’ Auster and Marcel Brissac tells Biggles through the earphones that he will take over. “Biggles turned round and flew home, satisfied with the result of his day’s work but not entirely happy that such a breach of air traffic regulations could have occurred without being suspected. It had obviously been going on for some time”. As he told his chief later: “The trouble is, there are so many choppers cruising up and down the Channel these days that we can’t watch all of ‘em”. “Don’t let it worry you,” consoled the Air Commodore. “Gaskin collected Sharky. Marcel has come through to say Plaudet and Laxter were picked up on a field in Normandy, so you shouldn’t again be troubled by that particular racket”. “But it shows what can happen,” grumbled Biggles. “Of course. We always knew that. That’s why we’re here,” concluded the Air Commodore, smiling. (The ending of the story is truncated in the original version, no doubt to fit onto the page rather than run over by a few lines. After Biggles says “we can’t watch all of ‘em”, the story finishes with “Don’t let it worry you,” consoled the Air Commodore. Plaudet and Laxter were arrested in Normandy”.)