BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK

Some unusual cases of Biggles and his Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

8. A ROUTINE JOB (Pages 126 – 141)

This story was originally published in the BOY’S OWN PAPER – Volume 84, Issue 3 in December 1961 by BPC Publishing Ltd and ran from page 28 to page 31. There are significant omissions in the original version, as mentioned in the summary below, when compared to the fuller version in Biggles Flies to Work. No doubt this is due to significant editing of Johns original story at the BOY’S OWN PAPER.

“Air Commodore Raymond pushed across his desk, towards his chief operational pilot, a small blue and white packet. The seal had been broken. “Take a look at those,” he requested. (In the original version, the starting sentence had been “Air Commodore Raymond of the Special Air Police pushed a small blue and white packet across his desk towards his chief operational pilot). The seal had been broken. “Take a look at those,” he requested”. Biggles looked inside the pack. “Cigarettes. What’s wrong with ‘em?” “Take one out”. Biggles complied, and raised the cigarette to his nose. “Reefers, eh. Marijuana?” “Marijuana, hashish – call it what you like, it comes to the same thing”. “What about it? Surely this is a nut for the Dangerous Drug Squad to crack”. “They’re working on it, of course. More important that the distribution of the stuff is to find out how it’s getting into the country. That’s were the traffic will have to be nipped. There’s a suggestion that is might be coming in by air so I’ve been asked to cover that angle”. “Where did this packet come from?” “Do you remember, a fortnight ago, a lad named Blake being murdered in the Lambeth Road? He was stabbed outside a coffee bar called Pepe’s Place”. “I thought you’d picked up the kid who did it”. “Quite right. Boy of seventeen named Reeves. These were in his pocket. As you can see, the packet is one short. Reeves says he smoked it the night he did the killing. (For a story written for “children”, this is quite an adult theme – and very topical today when problems with drugs and stabbings are far worse).

He was cocky enough at first, but when the effects of the drug wore off, and he learned that Blake was dead, he changed his tune and talked plenty”. “Did he know the effect reefers could have?” “He was told they’d make him feel brave”. Biggles nodded grimly. “They seem to have done that. Did he say where he’d got this murderous stuff?” “He says he bought the packet in Pepe’s Place from a man he didn’t know. Never seen him before. Describes him as a little well-dressed fellow of about twenty-five who spoke with a slight foreign accent. That’s the best he could do. He swears he’d never smoked one before. Tried one as an experiment. It seems he had a grudge against Blake over a girl, and when he left the bar he followed him and stabbed him. Didn’t mean to kill him, of course. Swears his didn’t really know what he was doing”. “Could be true. How much did he pay for this packet of death-dealers?” “Two pounds”. (£2 in 1961 is worth £39.07 in 2025). “That was cheap”. “Cheap enough to make the possibilities all the more serious. If some rat is going round flogging reefers at two pounds a packet we can expect more trouble”. “I take it you haven’t found this dope peddler?” “We have not. If he saw Reeves’ photo in the papers, realizing what he'd done he may have gone into hiding. He’s probably only a small-time retailer, anyway. What we want to know is where he got this infernal stuff and how it was brought into the country. These packets weren’t made here. The laboratory thinks they’re French”. (There is then a large section, amounting to a page in the book, which does not appear in the original version). Raymond goes on to say that if the drugs were bought in France for a pound a packet, ten packets of twenty would make a ten pound profit but “Who in his right mind would chance a long prison sentence for ten pounds?” Biggles and Raymond discuss the fact that any person making the trip to France too often without a valid reason would raise the suspicions of customs and the fact that a search round the clubs has yielded two empty packets. (All of this does not appear in the original version). The Air Commodore then says “We have got to assume this accursed stuff is being imported in dangerous quantities”. Raymond thinks it is more likely to be coming in by air rather than by sea. “A light aircraft would make nothing of a thousand packets, and that would show more the sort of profit dope runners expect”. “I’ll see what I can make of it,” said Biggles getting up.

Biggles returns to his own office where his three assistant pilots awaited him and he explains the job. “We’re shown a big haystack and told to find the needle”. Biggles decides to start by having the team check up on all forms of civil flying “in the hope of getting a line”. He will start by going through the register of all privately owned machines. The team are told to divide the country into three sections and work the clubs. “You know the drill. Check log-books for night flights, and any other flights of long duration”. Biggles says that after dark he will work the night-clubs and coffee bars in the hope of spotting the man, or one of the men, selling the stuff to kids. “I shall borrow that packet of doped cigarettes from the chief, put a few ordinary brands in it and flash it about to encourage the drug peddler to try to sell me more. If I can find one of these wide boys he may lead me back to the headquarters of the gang”. “So (the word “so” is missing in the original version) the Air Police went into action on a task that promised to be more monotonous than exciting. And that for three days was what it proved to be. Every evening Algy, Bertie and Ginger either returned home or rang up with the same report. Nothing doing. Not a clue, nor a hint of one. Biggles went through the list of private owners with a fine comb, but almost without exception could rule out every one as beyond suspicion. By night he “hung about in clubs and coffee bars, specializing on those in the region where the murder had been committed”, (in the original version this sentence just read “By night he roamed the region where the murder had been committed”), often exposing the blue and white packet that held the drug-loaded cigarettes”. On the fourth night, in Pepe’s Place Biggles gets a lead. A “seedy-looking individual of about twenty, carelessly dressed in a Teddy-boy outfit” asks him if he has a cigarette to spare. “You wouldn’t like these, mate,” answered Biggles, in a not unfriendly tone of voice. “They’re special. I have to smoke ‘em for my throat”. “Same as you,” was the smiling reply. “I know all about it. I’ll buy one off you. I’m out of stock. Can’t think what’s happened to Birdie. It must be close on three weeks since he looked in”. Biggles gets chatting with the man and discovers that “Birdie” is a nickname for the man who sells the cigarettes, due to the tie that he wears, which is blue with little white birds on it. Birdie told the man it was safe to ask anyone wearing his old school tie. “All you have to say is, ‘got a fag to spare, chum’ – and Bob’s your uncle. Now give us a smoke”. ("Bob's your uncle" is an idiom commonly used in the UK that means "and there it is", or "and there you have it", or "it's done". It is believed to relate to Conservative Prime Minister, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3^rd Marquess of Salisbury – or Lord Salisbury – appointing his nephew, Arthur Balfour as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887, an act of nepotism, which was apparently both surprising and unpopular. Whatever other qualifications Balfour might have had, "Bob's your Uncle" was seen as the conclusive one, ‘Bob’ being a shortening of the name Robert). Biggles handed over a reefer. “The speaker dragged on the cigarette, inhaling the smoke with obvious relief and satisfaction”. (This is interesting as Biggles said earlier that he was going to put other brands in the packet. It clearly is the real thing as there is no complaint it wasn’t). Continuing to chat, Biggles finds out that Birdie told the man he can always get plenty of the doped cigarettes. They part and the man says if you see Birdie tell him I was looking for him. “What name shall I say?” asks Biggles. “Charlie. He’ll know who you mean”. (The name does not appear in the original story here. “If you see Birdie tell him to hurry up with some more stuff” is the original line). “He did not follow the man, realizing he was merely a local fellow who was using the drug, nothing more. The men Biggles wanted were those selling the stuff, not those buying it", but he now had something definite to look for. “By morning he had made fresh plans. These were to call in Algy, Bertie and Ginger and, having told them about Birdie and the special tie, give them fresh assignments. He himself would spend his evenings in Pepe’s Place. Bertie and Ginger were to watch from the police car. Algy was to remain in the office, by the phone, in case help was needed”. It was three days before Birdie appeared in the coffee bar. There was no mistaking him. It seemed that others were waiting for him, too, and Biggles watched several packets of the doped cigarettes change hands before the man said he had no more but would fetch some. When Birdie leaves, Biggles follows him and after a bus ride he goes to an expensive looking block of flats in Mayfair. (Biggles lives in Mayfair himself. Johns often tells us that Biggles lives in Mount Street, Mayfair.). “A Rolls Bentley was parked outside”. (This is a fictional car. There isn't a car called a "Rolls Bentley"; it is a combination of two distinct brands, Rolls-Royce and Bentley, which were once owned by the same company but are now separate, with Volkswagen owning Bentley and BMW owning Rolls-Royce). Biggles goes to the car to note the cars registration and a police officer appears from the shadows to tell him to keep his hands off it. Biggles follows him to the next lamp post and shows the officer his authority (in the original story this is expressed as ‘his Air Police authority’) and learns that the car belongs to a Mr. Torini, who owns the club at the corner. The policeman says “he’s asked me to keep an eye on his car when he leaves it parked outside his flat. That’s only week-days. He goes away at week-ends. Got a little place in the country, he once told me”. “Did he say where?” “No. That’s Mr. Torini, just coming out with another man”. Biggles looks and sees Birdie talking to a stoutish man in evening dress. Presently this man got into the car and drove off and Birdie walks away. Biggles returns to Scotland Yard and finds the others waiting for him. He tells them what he has discovered. Biggles says that the next time Torini goes away for the weekend they will be behind him. Birdie can be picked up at anytime as he is only a peddler. “To break up a dope ring you’ve got to hit it at the top, not the bottom”.

“It was seven o’clock and broad daylight when the Bentley, with Torini alone at the wheel, left London, followed by two police cars. In the first were Biggles and Ginger. In the second, a special radio car, tracking them, was Bertie. Algy had remained in the operations room to take signals. He was also in radio contact with a car of the Dangerous Drugs Branch which was following the others at a distance, taking its course from messages sent out at intervals by Bertie”. They follow the car to a lonely heath-like area on the south coast. The Bentley turns into a picturesque old black and white cottage, looking as if it might once have been a public house, (the line about it once being a public house is not in the original version) which stands back from the road and is half hidden by an orchard. In front lay the Channel, with a few big ships in sight on the horizon. To left and right undulating chalk cliffs, with here and there a narrow beach of shingle. Biggles, Ginger and Bertie all wait and then they hear the unmistakable clatter of a helicopter. It is a French Alouette. (The Aerospatiale Aloutte II – Alouette means “Lark” in French – had company designations SE 313 and SA 318 and was a French light helicopter originally manufactured by Sud Aviation and later by Aerospatiale. It was the first production helicopter powered by a gas turbine and was a widely used and popular with operators, with over 1,300 rotorcraft eventually being constructed between 1956 and 1975). The machine dips below the top of the cliff then swings back out to sea, soon to disappear in the haze. Biggles runs to the edge of the cliff and sees that almost opposite the cottage, a section of cliff has broken down and two figures are descending to the beach. A dark object is being washed towards the pebbles. Ginger is sent back to call Algy and give him their position and get the Drugs Squad car there as quickly as possible. Ginger is then told that after he has done that, he is to go to the cottage and disable the Bentley’s ignition. Biggles tells Bertie that if they jump the men too soon, they could pretend ignorance and say they found the parcel lying on the beach. The parcel is carried to the cottage and taken inside. Time passes and then a man appears and puts two suitcases in the Bentley. He returns to the house. More time passes. The Drug Squad car arrives and the suitcases are searched. As expected, they were found full of cigarettes in blue and white packets. The police then go to the door and knock. It is answered by Torini. Biggles spoke. “The game’s up, Mr. Torini. We know all about it. Your car’s out of action and the reefers are in it. If you’re wise you’ll come clean. That aircraft that brought the stuff here. Where is it based?”. Torini says it is from Marquise, between Calais and Boulogne in France. Biggles returns to their cars and messages Algy to say “The birds are in the bag. Contact Marcel Brissac in Paris and tell him that a dope-running aircraft, a helicopter which I believe to be an Alouette, has either just landed or will shortly be landing at Marquise. Say we’ll be obliged if he’ll take steps to keep this bird in a cage for a little while. I’ll send him details shortly”. Biggles turned to the others. “That seems to be the lot. Charlie (whoever edited Charlies’ name out earlier in the original version has forgotten to do so here as this line is in both versions) and those reefer-smoking smart boys at Pepe’s Place will have to learn to manage without their poisonous weed. Let’s go home”.