BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK

Some unusual cases of Biggles and his Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

10. THE TRICK THAT FAILED (Pages 158 – 170)

This story was originally published in the DAILY MAIL BOYS ANNUAL 1958 (by Associated Newspapers Ltd) where it was originally titled “Dawn Patrol”. This story had to have its name changed to “The Trick That Failed” for inclusion in Biggles Flies to Work, otherwise it would have had the same name as the previous story in Biggles Flies to Work, which was also called “Dawn Patrol!” 

“Ginger stepped down from the cockpit of the Auster aircraft used for daily patrol work” (The original publication starts “Police Pilot Ginger Hebblethwaite stepped down … apart from that, I can’t find any other differences between the original and the book version”). In the Operations Room he tells Biggles “As six-five I was cruising on a course due west, keeping an eye towards the coast on the routine Kent to Devon run, when I heard London Airport Control in a proper flap. There was a fair amount of cloud drifting up so I’d tuned in to keep clear of cross-Channel traffic. I gathered some fool was barging about in a light machine right across the course of a Viscount coming in from Nice with a full load of passengers. They could see him on the screen but they couldn’t make contact to tell him to get out of the way. Either the fellow at the stick wasn’t fitted with radio, or wasn’t listening, or maybe his equipment was out of order. I don’t know about that, but the Control Officer was nearly in hysterics”. “So was the Captain of the Viscount, I’ll bet,” put in Biggles, sympathetically. Ginger grinned. “Probably a good thing his passengers couldn’t hear his language”. Ginger says he started looking for the intruder and saw him as he dodged from cloud to cloud “as if he was trying not to be spotted by anyone on the ground”. The machine was “a low-wing cabin monoplane painted grey”. Ginger didn’t get his registration but the aircraft looked like a Jodel D2. (There is no Jodel D2, that appears to be a fictional aircraft. There is a Jodel D.9 "Bébé" or the Jodel D.11, which was a popular two-seat ultra-light monoplane designed for amateur construction and use by flying clubs in France). Biggles says “French, eh. Forty-five horse Salmson radial engine”. Ginger replies “That’s it. One of the type the makers sell in complete kits for amateur construction”. Biggles says “What was he doing on our side of the Ditch, I wonder?” Ginger tells Biggles he tailed the aircraft and watched him land over at the New Forest, tucking the aircraft under some trees. Ginger then flew home to report. Biggles says “We’d better have a look at this to see what’s going on”. He pulled open a drawer and taking out an automatic pistol slipped it into his pocket. Ginger looked askance. “Do you think you’ll need that?” Biggles hopes not, but the man could be a smuggler or a criminal on the run. He tells Ginger to bring a gun as well, just in case. Biggles and Ginger then take Ginger’s Auster and fly to where the Jodel had landed. Biggles lands nearby and they find no one around. The aircraft is unmistakably a Jodel. It carries on the side of the fuselage the French nationality letter F. Biggles says “No use trying to guess where the owner has gone. All we can do is wait a while and see if he comes back”. Biggles tells Ginger to move their Auster as if the pilot comes back and sees it, he may take fright. Ginger takes off and then lands in a pasture about half a mile away. He walks back to rejoin Biggles. Biggles says that when Ginger was away, he ran up the engine on the Jodel, so this was no forced landing. “An hour passed. Two hours. Three hours”. “I’m going to run out of cigarettes,” remarked Biggles. “I didn’t expect to be away all day”. It was after three o’clock before the silence was broken by a woman’s laugh. Then a man’s voice spoke. “Bird watchers or a picnic party,” muttered Ginger, disgustedly. (Why “disgustedly”? What has Ginger got against bird watchers or people on a picnic?). Presently two people are seen, a man of about thirty and a girl in her late teens. They seemed to be in high spirits. They hear the girl say “I wasn’t expecting anything as romantic as this. A plane. How wonderful!” The man’s face appeared above the fuselage. He was good-looking in a florid sort of way, with an outsize blonde moustache. Biggles recognises him. “It’s Rosten, the R.A.F. accountant officer who skipped about three months ago with his station payroll. About £12,000. He must have got to France”. “And has come back to fetch his girl-friend” adds Ginger. Biggles confronts them. “Just a minute. Does this machine belong to you?” Biggles says he is a police officer and asks the man “Do you want me to say any more now?” The pilot’s face was ashen. “What – what are you talking about?” he blustered. “You know what I’m talking about, Rosten,” answered Biggles. The man turns to the girl and says “I’m sorry, darling, but would you mind leaving me alone with this man for a few minutes?” “I think you’d do better to go home,” Biggles advised her. “But what’s all this about?” cried the girl, looking from one to the other. “We’re going to Paris to get married”. “Flight Lieutenant Rosten already has a wife,” said Biggles. For a moment the girl looked as if she was going to faint. Then, recovering, she ran off through the trees. The moment she was out of sight Rosten whipped a revolver from his pocket. “I’m going to kill you for that,” he rasped. “Don’t be a fool,” retorted Biggles. “Why make matters worse by getting yourself hanged?” “Drop that gun, Rosten,” ordered Ginger, who, seeing what was happening, had come up behind him. Rosten throws his revolver on the ground. Biggles tells Rosten “You weren’t satisfied with the money you stole. You wanted to ruin an innocent girl as well. Who is she?” “Diana Fulvers” is the reply. Biggles recognises the name as the oil millionaire’s daughter. “Where’s the money you stole?” “In France, what’s left of it” says Rosten, who had bought the aircraft second hand in France. “Turn it in and you may get a reduced sentence,” advised Biggles. “But we can talk about that later. Let’s get along”.

“Rosten took Biggles’ advice and revealed the whereabouts of the stolen money, for which reason he was sentenced to only three years’ imprisonment. A week after the trial Biggles received two visitors at his office. Otto Fulvers and his daughter Diana. Their purpose was to thank Biggles for saving them from a painful experience, for the girl now knew the truth about the man with whom she had imagined she was in love, and with whom she might have left the country with tragic results to her future”.