BIGGLES INVESTIGATES

and other stories of the Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

7. THE CASE OF THE AMATEUR YACHTSMEN (Pages 117 – 152)

“The tenuous blanket of dawn-mist which night had spread over that part of the Atlantic known as the Western Approaches writhed and coiled as it was pierced by the lances of a new-born summer sun. It lifted, dispersing as it rose, so that in a few minutes it had vanished as completely as if it had never been to reveal the broad face of the ocean in its most tranquil mood. Air Police Constable ‘Ginger’ Hebblethwaite, flying at 5,000 feet, was glad to see it go, for he was bored with gazing into the empty blue void over his head or an apparently endless mass of cotton-wool below. He could now get on with his work, which on this occasion was not an ordinary routine patrol. He was looking for something”. Checking his position he finds himself beyond the end of his allotted beat and “a little concerned being so far from solid ground in a machine with wheels on its undercarriage, he turned about the retrace his track, at the same time exploring the atmosphere for Biggles, who was – or should be – farther west in the flying-boat amphibian ‘Gadfly’”. Ginger can’t see Biggles, but he can see various ships. “He had been convinced from the outset that his assignment was in the nature of a wild-goose chase”. Using the binoculars on the seat beside him, Ginger sees a motor-boat, a cabin cruiser and it strikes him as odd that it is so far out from land. The wake shows it is travelling fast and heading for the English coast at Devon or Cornwall. A line extended behind it showed it had started from a point in north-western France. Ginger loses height for a closer inspection and sees a dark object he takes to be a fishing-boat about a mile away. Could this be a rendezvous? “Which brings us to the operation on which he was engaged. There was really nothing extraordinary about it; and strictly speaking, it was not a matter for the British Air Police beyond co-operation in general terms between members of Interpol – The International Police Bureau. A robbery had occurred in France. A van carrying gold ingots to the value of nearly £100,000 (£100,000 in 1964 would be worth £1.7 million, adjusted for inflation, in 2024) had disappeared in transit between Paris and the port of Cherbourg. The van had been found abandoned. The gold had disappeared. So, of course, had the bandits. There was no clue”. The British Air Police was given the assignment of watching the English Channel for movements of a suspicious nature. “One the present occasion it had been Ginger’s turn, in an Auster, to watch for any sort of craft moving without any apparent reason between north-west France and the Devon-Cornwall peninsular”. Ginger’s interest mounts when he sees the motor-boat run alongside the fishing-boat. Such behaviour was at least unusual, if not suspicious. A police car can challenge a suspect vehicle and search it. A police pilot in an aircraft can only watch it. The two craft lay side by side for perhaps ten minutes, then the motor-boat headed back to France and the other set sail for either Devon or Cornwall. Ginger felt certain he had seen some irregular transaction take place. “Probably nothing to do with the gold which was the primary object of his mission. That was too much to expect”. Ginger knows he needs to be able to recognise his quarry if he saw it again. He swings low and, using his binoculars, he makes out a common white sail with two letters in white, one above the other. They were N and K. There was a number under them, too small to read. There was a small pointed pennant at the masthead, with a device on it, but he cannot make out what it is. Ginger flies back to the English coast and lands at R A F Lidcombe in south-west Devon. The production of his police pass and Interpol Carnet was sufficient to obtain the service he needed. He put through a call to Algy, on duty at Scotland Yard and reported the meeting of the two craft at sea. He then signed for the petrol and oil and was on his way back to the coast. He then spends some time searching for the boat in which he was interested, finding it close inshore against a rocky headland. He could see two men moving on the deck and a line of black dots on the water eventually tells him he can see lobster pots – or rather, the cork buoys that mark their position. Consulting an Admiralty chart, he makes out the headland to be Bull Head. With plenty of petrol, Ginger is able to cruise about until the boat sails into the little harbour of Poltruan (There is a real Cornish costal village called Polruan. Johns has added in the ‘T’ to make it fictional). He then set a course for home. The time was still only nine o’clock.

“It was some minutes short of noon when he walked into the office at Scotland yard to find Biggles and Bertie there, both having come in for food and a rest after four hours in the air. Algy had departed to continue the patrol”. Ginger reports the full details of what he has seen, Algy having left a note with the brief details because Ginger rang him. Algy had rang the coastguard but they had not called back. “Either they did nothing about it, or if they did, drew blank” says Biggles, adding “If the Excise people aren’t interested I don’t see why we should lose any sleep over it”. Biggles then takes a phone called. “Bigglesworth here” he says into the receiver. He then tells the others “Some senior coastguard official has just rung up the Air Commodore to request that in future the Air Police mind their own business”. When Ginger’s boat returned to Poltruan the customs officials searched it thoroughly and only found fish. They admitted they had been out in the Channel for a sail but only caught a few pollack. The said they’d seen nothing of a motor-boat. “That makes them liars for a start,” growled Ginger. Biggles says the boat is a small Dutch barge converted into a private yacht with an auxiliary engine. “It’s owned by a couple of London gents – whatever that may mean – keen amateur yachtsmen who are talking a holiday sailing along the south coast. They’ve been at Poltruan for a week. According to them they’re members of a well-known yacht club, for which reason they took exception to being questioned. They demanded an apology and, I’m sorry to say, got one”. “Well, blow me down!” breathed Bertie. Biggles went on. “I don’t care who they are. What I don’t like is the way we’ve been given the brush-off as if we were a bunch of interfering twits. That’s the thanks you get for trying to be efficient”. Bertie says “It would give me lots of joy if, we could prove some of these johnnies were wrong and we were right”. Biggles says “they adopted a high and mighty attitude as their best defence. Crooks can be pretty slick at that sort of thing”. Biggles says if they have lobster pots at Bull Head, they will be back their either tonight or tomorrow. “I’ve a good mind to run down and have a look at these amateur yachtsmen”. They decide to go by car, a five hour run, and stay overnight. “In ten minutes, with the emergency cases of small kit held in readiness for urgent occasions, they were on their way to Poltruan”.

They arrive at the little Cornish port just after seven, finding it crowded with holiday-makers. “They would have struck the same conditions at any seaside town, large or small. Having with some difficulty found a place to park the car, they made their way to the harbour”. Ginger points out a towering mass of rock farther along the coast. “That’s Bull Head”. Biggles sees the boat they have come to look at as they stroll around looking at the various craft that lay alongside the concrete barrier that is the harbour. It is a Dutch barge of shallow draught, built of massive timbers to stand up to the battering of the North Sea, converted into a yacht and called “Scamperer”. “The chief objects of interest were the two men – presumably the so-called ‘gents’ – who lounged, smoking pipes, by the companion-way. Both were of early middle age and dressed for the part; polo-necked jerseys, linen slacks and rope-soled canvas shoes”. Biggles sees a lone fisherman and engages him in conversation. They talk about lobster fishing. Biggles says he thought Bull Head was good for lobsters. “No better than anywhere else. It’s a dangerous place” says the fisherman, adding “The caves are dangerous too”. The fisherman explains the Head is a honeycomb and people have been cut off and drowned there in the past, “trying to find the old smugglers’ way through the Head. There’s always been a tale it’s possible to get right through the Head from one side to the other, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it”. Biggles asks “What’s that old Dutch barge doing here?” He finds out it has been there for a week. Goes for a cruise when there’s a breeze. Mr. Trelawny is one of the owners of the boat and his partner’s name is Pennington. Trelawny has told the fisherman his family lived near there and he was born there. Biggles asks where he can hire a boat. “I can handle a boat, so I don’t need anyone with me. I’d like one with a motor”. He is directed to see Harry Trevethin and his boat the ‘Puffin’. Biggles then tells Ginger to slip back to the car and get the torch from the front panel. Biggles goes and hires the boat for use immediately, for a run along the coast past Bull Head and back, offering to pay in advance. The owner is slightly reluctant saying “It’s getting a bit late” but Biggles says he will be back before nightfall. Ginger returns and he, Biggles and Bertie get in the boat and set off. As they pass the Scamperer, they see a third man join the two on deck. Ginger asks if the business of putting lobster pots down was a blind. “Could be, particularly as that old salt hinted that lobstering was now really a waste of time” says Biggles, adding that Trelawny, one of the two men, is local and would know all about the caves. They approach Bull Head, a blunt nosed cliff about a hundred feet high projecting fifty or sixty yards into the sea. Hundreds of gulls are there and they can see the caves, mostly at water level. “The boat, with its steady phut-phut-phut, went on to the far side. They see the six cork markers of the lobster pots. Ginger wonders why the men dumped their cargo there, if in fact they did. Biggles speculates they may had had an accomplice radio them from ashore if he spotted the Excise men, or they may have been suspicious of Ginger’s plane. Biggles says they don’t need to explore all the caves, just those above the high water mark and anything hidden shouldn’t be far away. Biggles drops Ginger and Bertie off and says if either of them need the torch he will give it to them. Most caves are short, but the extent of one of two gave support to the tale that it was possible to go through to the other side. At the end of half an hour, just inside the caves had been explored and nothing found. Biggles is surprised to find nothing. “After all why did they come here if not to put something ashore?”. Ginger wonders if they have caught any lobsters and that gives Biggles an idea. Biggles pulls one lobster pot up and finds it empty, with no bait in it. The next one is heavy. “Feels like a bally octopus” says Bertie. It is full of gold bricks. “This must be the stuff stolen in France” says Biggles. “The rest must be in some of the others”. In ten minutes they have hauled up the others, two more pots contained gold bars. Biggles wants to catch the men returning to collect the gold and suggests they hide the gold in the cave, “Bury it under some of the muck and nip back to Poltruan for help. There are at least three men in the gang. They may carry guns. If so, trying to arrest them with our bare hands in a place like this would be asking for trouble”. There is an urgency as “The Scamperer may come round the Head at any moment”. “A quarter of an hour of feverish activity saw the gold thrown into a depression a little way inside the cave and there covered with seaweed and any other rubbish that came to hand. By the time the job was done the tide was within inches of the lip of the cave”. Ginger then hears something. “Sounds like voices”. Bertie says “The blighters are coming this way, through the cave from the far side”. Ginger goes to get into their boat, but Biggles says sharply “Wait! The Scamperer is just coming round the Head” adding “This means trouble”. Biggles asks “Ginger, do you think you could get that way to the top?” indicating the sloping face of the cliff. Ginger is willing to try. His instructions are to stop any car, get to a phone and call the Yard. “Say we need help, urgently”. Two men appear at the mouth of the cave, one is Trelawny, the other a stranger. “What the hell are you doing here?” asks Trelawny. “We’re admiring the sunset” returned Biggles evenly. The Scamperer then comes up with Pennington and another man onboard. “What’s going on here?” inquired Pennington curtly. “You tell me,” invited Biggles, lighting a cigarette. “I had no idea the place was so popular”. There was a long uncomfortable pause. Then Pennington, frowning, went on: “Have you been interfering with our lobster pots?” “What would I do with raw lobsters? I like my lobsters cooked” says Biggles. “How long are you staying here?” “I hadn’t thought about it. Never mind us. We shan’t get in your way”. A piece of rock clatters down and Trelawny asks if someone is up there. Biggles says it’s a friend of his taking a short cut home. “He had some urgent business to attend to. We were in no hurry”. The four men look at each other. “Their predicament was obvious. They couldn’t proceed in front of witnesses with what they had come to do; nor could they for the same reason discuss openly a situation for which they must have been unprepared. As for Biggles, he was simply playing for time”. Pennington goes to one of the lobster pots with the gold in and pulls on the rope. “This is where the balloon goes up,” breathed Bertie in Biggles’ ear. Pennington’s expression changes as the weight tells him the truth. “There’s nothing here" he says. “Are you sure it’s the right one?” said Trelawny, from the cave, “Try another”. Pennington tested the next pot. “Empty”. Pennington takes out an automatic and points it at Biggles. “Come on. What have you done with it?” Biggles affects surprised innocence. “What’s all this about? Done with what? How many lobsters did you expect to find?” Pennington says you poached our pots and took what your found in ‘em”. Biggles says “You’re making a hell of a fuss over a few perishing lobsters” and invites him to look in their boat. Pennington searched their boat but finds nothing. “In his frustration Pennington looked ready to commit murder” he eventually says “You know damn well what it was. Gold”. Biggles smiled broadly. “Gold! In lobster pots? Is this some kind of a game? Treasure island stuff. You’ve come to the wrong place. You should try the Caribbean”. Biggles then says “I’m going home. The chap at Poltruan from whom we hired this boat is likely to raise an alarm, supposing we’re in trouble”. Deep dust had in fact dimmed the scene. Ginger had been gone a good half-hour. “You’re not going anywhere till you tell us what you’ve done with it,” swore Pennington, venomously. “Maybe someone put it in the cave,” suggested Biggles. “That’s an idea. We’ll soon settle that.” Pennington and his companion jumped ashore to join the others. “Biggles was amazed. This of course was what he wanted, but he could hardly believe his ruse, to get them all ashore, had worked so easily. He could only suppose that anxiety had made them careless”. “To appreciate what followed, the position of the two boats must be explained. The Puffin, being first on the spot was lying almost flush with the entrance to the cave. The Scamperer, almost touching her on the seaward side, was practically holding her there”. Biggles caught Bertie’s eye and winked at him. He then picked up the boat-hook and pushed it hard against the face of the rock. The Puffin moved out, taking her heavier consort with her. The gap widens to a couple of yards. Berties starts the Puffin’s engine. Trelawny seeing what was happening jumped for the stern of the Puffin as it moved slowly away and he fell in the sea. He was going to swim for the Puffin, but when Bertie pointed the boat hook at him, he changed his mind and made back for the cave. “Now for the fireworks” said Biggles. A gun flashed and several shots hit the boat. Splinters flew but no harm was done. Biggles and Bertie were flat on the floor. Biggles tells Bertie to get on the Scamperer and throw him a line and he will then tow her away with them. Ashore threats turn to pleadings for rescue as the water was rising in the cave. “We can’t leave ‘em to drown” said Bertie. “They won’t drown, don’t worry” replied Biggles. When the Puffin turned the end of the cliff, they see a cutter travelling fast towards them. Aboard were several men, police and coastguards in uniform. “What’s happened?” questioned a uniformed inspector. “Biggles explained in as few words as possible”. Biggles offers the inspector the Scamperer so they have two boats to cover both sides of the caves, in case the men try to get out that way. Biggles says there are four men and some, if not all, carry guns. He tells the inspector that the gold is about ten yards in on the left. Biggles leaves the customs men to it, while he returns Mr. Trevethin’s boat. When they get into harbour they find Ginger waiting with Mr. Trevethin, Ginger having missed the boat that had gone out to help.

“That really concludes the case of the amateur yachtsmen. It was revealed subsequently that they were engaged in a little quiet smuggling and then became involved with an international gang. “It was the old story of petty pilfering leading to serious crime”. Trelawny’s defence was that he and his partner had been blackmailed into doing what they had done; but, as was pointed out by the prosecution, this, if true, would not have been possible had they not already broken the law. (Although Pennington pulls the gun, it is not clear who attempts to murder Biggles and Bertie by shooting at them as they get away by boat). Trelawny had been suspicious of Ginger’s aircraft circling and hence the hiding of the gold in the lobster pots. “Of the four men who came to collect it under cover of darkness, two were members of the big gang. They had been waiting at Poltruan for the Scamperer to come in with the gold on board. They had then gone to fetch it in two parties, one by sea and one through the caves. The Air Police were given full credit for the way they had handled the affair. “It only remains to be said that all four men received long terms of imprisonment. The Scamperer was confiscated, and the gold returned to its rightful owners”.