BIGGLES INVESTIGATES

and other stories of the Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

3. THE LONG CHASE (Pages 43 – 68)

“From five thousand feet, under a sky almost clear of cloud, the twin streams of traffic on the Great North Road looked like colonies of ants on the march, one heading north, the other south”. (The Great North Road would become the M1 which is 193 miles long. That was opened between 1959 and 1968 and this story would have been written well before the book publication in October 1964). “Biggles, testing new long-range two way radio equipment which had just been installed in the Air Police Auster ‘Autocrat’ (a real aircraft), paying no attention to what was going on below, continued a widening circle over outer London. Bertie is wearing earphones beside him and he tells Biggles that reception is as clear as a bell. “I’ve just been listening to Ginger, speaking from Gaskin’s office. He’s been giving me a running commentary on a big wages snatch outside a bank in Hampstead”. Gaskin is in a radio car and he is hot on the trail of the bandits, who are in a red sports car. They have been travelling faster than road blocks can be set up. There are two bandits, reports Bertie. “They wore stockings over their faces. They can afford to take risks, knowing they’ll be for the high jump if they’re caught. They shot and killed a policeman who saw the raid and tried to stop ‘em”. “The devils!” says Biggles. “We may be able to do something to help. A sports car being chased by a police car shouldn’t be hard to spot. Keep in touch with Ginger for the latest news. Tell him what we’re doing. Ask him to relay everything Gaskin says”. Biggles dives for speed and is soon down to two thousand feet. The villains turn off the main road at Baldock and head east on the A505 for Royston (genuine locations). After a long silence, Biggles is told that Gaskin has lost them and they are away in a plane. Gaskin has found the red car – a stolen Jag. – up a lane. Two men with a suitcase have run across a field to a plane with its engine running. The only description of the plane is that it is a white or silver monoplane flying north. Biggles asks Bertie to get a met. report on the weather farther north via Ginger. Flying north, and glad to have a full tank of fuel, Biggles spots an aircraft against cloud dead ahead. Bertie asks “How are we going to know if it's the one we’re after?” Biggles replies “We shan’t know till it touches down somewhere. I shall be with it. The one we want will have the money on board”. “You’re not forgetting these johnies have guns. They’ve already shot one copper so they’ve nothing to lose by shooting another”, Bertie reminds him. “We’ll deal with that situation should it arise,” answered Biggles grimly. Biggles says they will tell Ginger their position from time to time and “Gaskin can make what use of it he likes”. In due course, Biggles says he thinks the plane is going to East Scotland as the pilot is following the A1, and has taken the right fork at Darlington. Durham and Newcastle slide away below. Biggles tells Bertie that he thinks the “chap in front has spotted us in his reflector. He’s realized we’re following him and is trying to run us out of petrol”. Biggles says “If that’s his idea he’s on a loser. Unless that machine has some extra long-range tankage he’ll be out of juice before we are”. “With our extra tank we should be able to outfly him. We’ll get him at the end”. They cross the Firth of Forth and soon approach the Cairngorms. (Johns used to live near the Cairngorms when he lived at Pitchroy Lodge, Grantown-on-Spey, Morayshire, Scotland). They are soon north of Aberdeen. Biggles tells Bertie to give Ginger their position. “All I can say is I think we’re somewhere over Morayshire”. Biggles says he will probably refuel at Dalcross, in which case, if they sleep anywhere, it will be the Station Hotel, Inverness (a real hotel, but now called the Royal Highland Hotel). “We’ve stayed there before so they know us”. The aircraft they are pursing dives for a small hole in the cloud-layer. Biggles is only a few hundred yards behind but the hole closes before he gets there. He finds another hole and dives through that. Bertie sees the aircraft low. “At widely spaced intervals black patches of curiously geometrical patterns marked what were obviously Forestry Commission plantations”. “By gosh! He’s low,” says Biggles. “He can’t be going to land there. What the devil does he think he’s doing?” Biggles asks Bertie to pinpoint the place on the map. “Note those two small pools on the other side of the road”. The plane they are chasing then gains height and changes course to fly due north. Biggles sees a big field with a windsock. “Must be a private airstrip. Watch him”. Bertie says “We shall look a pair of twits if we’ve chased an innocent aircraft five hundred miles”. The plane lands and three men get out, without any luggage. Biggles lands and taxes up to the other machine. He tells Bertie he is going to search the machine. “There may be trouble. If there is it should be enough to tell us all we want to know. Honest men would co-operate. I haven’t come all this way to be put off by some footling argument”. Biggles and Bertie go up to the three men “who, with drinks in their hands, stook waiting at the door of the cottage. One was young, in the early twenties, and, wearing an R A F tie, presumably the pilot. The other two were of an entirely different type, middle-aged and thickset, with hard expressions and calculating eyes”. The pilot asks, jokingly, “Are you the chaps who have been on my tail all the way from England?” Biggles says “That’s right”. He establishes they are at North-East Highlands Flying Club. Biggles says they are air police officers and he asks to look over their machine. The pilot grinned. “Go right ahead”. He says his name is Murdo Duncan, an Ex-Flying Officer (Johns was a Ex-Flying-Officer as well, not a Captain), from Inverness. Bertie searches the plane but finds nothing. “Biggles did not show any chagrin he may have felt. “Sorry you’ve been troubled,” he said evenly”. The pilot asks what they were looking for. Biggles says “A serious crime was committed in London earlier in the day and the crooks got away in an aircraft”. “How much money was stolen?” asks the pilot. “I didn’t say anything about money. A police officer was murdered. We’re looking for the thug who killed him”. Biggles spoke with his eyes on the pilot’s face. Biggles says they will be getting along and will probably go to Dalcross for petrol, then Biggles and Bertie leave. Biggles tells Bertie that he would wager it was the getaway plane. He says the pilot’s face changed colour when he was told a policeman had been murdered. “He was prepared for robbery, but not for murder”. Biggles says he could have asked them a lot more questions but he thought it better to let them think they had fooled them.

“It was nearly nine o’clock when Biggles, having landed at Dalcross and made arrangements for refueling, arrived at the Station Hotel, Inverness, in a taxi. There had been no suggestion of flying back to London that night”. At the hotel, they find a message from Ginger waiting for them. He is flying Gaskin up and will join them there. At dinner Biggles tells Bertie he laid a little trap for the villains. By telling them he was going to Dalcross, he thinks they will try to ascertain where they are and he has arranged for a phone call to be made to him if inquiries are made at Dalcross about them. Biggles says they must have dropped the suitcase overboard and in order to find it again they must have dropped it near an unmistakable landmark. “I fancy I know the one they chose. We’ll have a look. We shall need a car”. Biggles thinks they will wait until daylight to recover the case. Bertie is sent to hire a four-seater, “something with horses in its engine” and he returns with a Vanguard. (The Standard Vanguard was a car produced by the Standard Motor Company in Coventry from 1947 to 1963). Biggles says they had better wait for Gaskin “or he’ll be peeved” (meaning annoyed or irate). “There’s no hurry. We can’t do anything in the dark”. A page calls Biggles to the phone and Biggles returns to confirm that a man rang the airport to ask if an Auster of their registration has landed there and was it still there. “It was well after eleven when Inspector Gaskin, with Ginger and a sergeant named Green, walked in. All were in plain clothes”. Gaskin says that the young constable the villains shot was friend of his, who he had persuaded to join the Force. “Inside a year and he’s shot dead. I shan’t rest till these devils swing –”. (The last hangings in the UK were in fact on 13^th August 1964. This book was published in October 1964 but the story would have been written when hanging was still the punishment for murder). Biggles explains the current situation to Gaskin. Biggles says he saw the plane flying low and there can only be one possible explanation for that, as it had to then gain height to reach its objective. “Duncan, the pilot, was born in these parts. He must know the country. That plantation fills the requirements. It’s near a road; not far from the landing ground; and it’s an unmistakable landmark”. Biggles says he has been checking the map and its about twenty miles from where they are. The plantation they want is marked by two small pools of water. Biggles suggests they go to the plantation and wait for the crooks to arrive, which should be soon after daylight. Both Gaskin and Sergeant Green have guns. Gaskin says “I’m taking no chances with gunmen who are already wanted for murder”.

“On any night of the year a Scottish Highland moor is not the most cheerful place in the world. At two o’clock in the morning, under a lowering sky, it presents a melancholy picture indeed – peopled, according to local legend, by kelpies and other mischievous spirits”. Biggles parks up and switches off all lights. They all get out and Ginger is then sent to park the car off the road, being careful not to get bogged down. They find seats on an old rabbit warren and Biggles warns Gaskin against lighting his pipe as a match will be seen for miles. “It was a long time before the first pallid streak of light appeared in the east to announce the approach of another day”. Biggles positions everyone. Gaskin is impatient. Biggles tells him “This is a cat and mouse game. We’re the cat”. Gaskin becomes convinced the men are not coming and goes to search the wood. He returns empty handed. “Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack. It’d take a month o’ Sundays to do that jungle properly”. Suddenly Biggles hears a car and it roars up and comes to sudden stop: Two men get out. The pilot isn’t with them. It took the bandits twenty minutes to find their loot. Presently they appeared with one carrying a suitcase. Gaskin rises up and confronts them. “The man with the case dropped it with a vicious curse and in a flash had whipped out an automatic”. Biggles flings a handful of sand in his face. “The gun spat, and from the way the detective flinched Biggles knew he had been hit. Before the bandit could fire again Gaskin had pulled out his revolver and shot him. The man folded up and went down on his knees”. The other man backs into the trees shooting wildly, but Ginger grabs the arm with the gun and Sergeant Green grabs the man in a bear hug then punches him in the chin “with a crack like a pistol shot”. “The man went over backwards as if struck by a charging bull. He lay still”. Biggles asks Gaskin where he has been hit, but Gaskin says it has just nicked his cheek. The man who had shot him was holding a shoulder, “cursing luridly”. Gaskin tells Green to “Get the bracelets on ‘em”. Biggles says they had better get to a doctor. Gaskin looks in the suitcase and says “All complete”. “So ended a chase that had started in the south of England and ended in the north of Scotland”.

“Little more needs to be said. The bandit Gaskin had shot soon recovered, but to no purpose, for after their trial and conviction both men paid the maximum penalty for the murder of the police constable. Habitual criminals, with records of violence, they had no real defence. Ballistic experts were able to prove that the gun which had killed the policeman was the one carried by the man who had wounded Chief Inspector Gaskin. When arrested both men still had in their pockets the stockings they had used in the raid to cover their faces. What happened to the pilot of the getaway plane was a mystery never solved”. Duncan had gone, presumably in his plane and Biggles was of the opinion that rather than risk a charge of murder he had abandoned his associates and fled abroad. “A month later, the remains of an aircraft were washed ashore on the Dutch coast, the machine obviously having been forced down in the sea either through engine failure or shortage of petrol. The body of the pilot was never found and nothing more was heard of him, so it seems likely he was drowned”.