BIGGLES INVESTIGATES

and other stories of the Air Police

by Captain W. E. Johns

8. THE BOY WHO WATCHED THE PLANES GO BY (Pages 153 – 184)

“Biggles sat at his desk, a little smile on his face as he perused three pieces of paper, pinned together, which had just been delivered from the head office”. “Something funny?” queried Ginger. Biggles shows Ginger something addressed to “Air Detective Bigglesworth, Scotland Yard, London”. There is a letter that reads “Dear Biggles, I have read about the things you do and I reckon something is going on here you ought to know about. Yours respectfully, Robin Stone. Aged thirteen”. Ginger says it can’t amount to anything. “What could a kid of that age know?”. (Johns then writes the following, clearly catering to his audience). “The answer might surprise you. It’s time you caught up with the new generation. The modern boy goes about with his eyes and ears wide open – and there’s plenty for him to see and hear that didn’t arise when we were his age. (Biggles and Ginger are different generations. In the book “The Black Peril”, the first edition clearly refers to the year as being “nineteen thirty-four” (Page 185). This is the first appearance of Ginger in a Biggles book and Ginger is described as a lad of “fifteen or sixteen years of age” (Page 42). So Ginger was born around 1918 at the earliest. We know from Biggles Learns to Fly that Biggles was born in 1899, so there is around 19 or 20 years difference in their ages). We don’t know what this lad may have seen, but he has obviously spotted something to make him suspicious or he wouldn’t have made the effort to write this letter. At his age one doesn’t write letters for the fun of it, particularly as they cost money to post. This boy has done what he thinks is the right thing to do. If he’s prepared to go to that trouble and expense it would be a poor return to throw the letter in the waste-paper-basket”. Ginger nodded. “I see what you mean. Pity he didn’t say in his letter what it was all about”. “There could be reasons for that. In the first place it might be a long story, too involved for him to put down in writing. It might not sound very convincing, and a boy thinks twice before perhaps making a fool of himself. This one is a country lad. You see where he writes from. Marsh Cottage, Shingleton, Suffolk. I’ve never heard of the place. Must be a village”. Biggles says the easiest way to find out what this is about is to go and see the boy. He asks Ginger if he feels like coming and when the answer is “Of course”, he tells him to bring the car round whilst he scribbles a note for the others to let them know where they have gone. There was no village of Shingleton, but the name covered a district of cottages scattered over an area as rural as could be found even in the thinly populated regions of East Anglia. They had to ask their way, but eventually they find Marsh Cottage. They see a woman and ask if she is Mrs Stone, then ask for Robin. Biggles says they are police officers and Robin wrote a letter to them hinting that he had something to report. The lady says Robin should be on his way home from school, a two mile walk away. Biggles asks if she has any idea why Robin wrote to them. “No; unless it’s something to do with planes. He’s got planes on the brain” says his mother. Biggles says they’ll go and meet him. “They soon see a rather small boy, a satchel over his shoulder, swinging his cap. “Is your name Robin Stone?” asks Biggles. “Er – yes, sir,” was the answer, after a brief hesitation. “The very chap I want to see. My name’s Bigglesworth. I’m a detective. You wrote me a letter – remember?” “Of course I remember. Have you come all the way from London to see me? Biggles says they have and asks to hear his story. The story is about a plane. Robin knows all the regular planes. A plane that was new to Robin came from out at sea and flew straight on towards an old windmill. It was flying really low and it had no marks on. Its wheels were down as if to land. It was a high-wing monoplane. It had a thick cockpit with two engines, one of each side, it wasn’t a jet and it seemed to have two tails. Robin saw the plane again “the same time Tuesday morning” and that was when he wrote to Biggles. The plane went over the wood and it dropped something. “Either that or a piece fell off it”. Robin didn’t go and see what it was, as there is a bull out with the cows. The cattle belong to a Mr. Werner who had grazing rights. The talk is that Werner is a bad-tempered man, who carries a stick and won’t let anyone on his land. Robin hasn’t told the local policeman as he hasn’t seen him and doesn’t suppose he knows much about planes. Biggles says he will go and look for what has been dropped. Robin asks to go as well. Biggles is concerned about the bull. “All right. But you be ready to run – and don’t tell your mother what you’ve been doing or she’ll be after me”. “I know when to keep my mouth shut,” declared Robin. They find the place and search and then Biggles puts a hand on Robin’s shoulder and says “I think you ought to be getting along home, now. Your tea must be ready”. He adds “Don’t tell a soul what you’ve told us, and don’t tell anyone we are here or what we’re doing”. Robin says “I understand. I promise. I hope I haven’t wasted your time”. When Robin has safely gone, Biggles shows Ginger the body of a man, half buried in the soggy ground. “It was that of a youngish man, fair and good-looking. He wore a suede jacket with a fur collar, corduroy trousers and sheepskin-lined ankle boots. On his hands were oil-stained gloves, but his head was bare”. Biggles says he was thrown out, he didn’t fall. He was already dead, having been shot through the back of the head from close range. “This is murder” says Biggles. The body could have lain there for years undiscovered, but it was seen to fall on Tuesday, the letter was posted Wednesday and now, Thursday they have found it. Ginger says the plane came in from the sea, why wasn’t the body dumped in the sea? Biggles nodded. “You make a point there. There must have been a reason for that”. Biggles thinks the man was either a pilot or air crew. “No man in his right mind would shoot his pilot unless he was able to take over control himself. I can’t see a man pushing a body out of a plane and at the same time keeping it under control. I’d say there were two other men in that plane”. Biggles thinks the plane was flying low to keep under the radar. The only machine that Biggles can think of that fits Robin’s description “is the new job being developed at the Wolfschmitt Works in East Germany”. Biggles sends Ginger to drive to the nearest town, Sandstreet (a fictional town), which he thinks is about twelve miles away, to report to whoever is in charge. “Don’t mention Robin. Say we were following up a clue involving air smuggling – which is true enough – and this is what we found”. They will need an ambulance and some stretcher bearers. Biggles sits and waits by the body. After the best part of an hour, he hears a strident bellow and he hastens to the edge of the wood. From there he sees the bull. “Where had it come from?” Biggles sees a van with tall sides, too far off to see the number plate, painted dark green. With the bull at a safe distance, Biggles returns to the body and sees three vehicles standing, an ambulance and two cars. Men were getting out and Ginger led them up and introduced Inspector Carlow and Sergeant Brown. Biggles speaks with the officers and they discuss the case. He tells them he intends to fly over tomorrow morning, following the route of the plane to see if he can see anything. He will look for the plane, possible landing grounds and wheel tracks in the grass. Biggles asks the inspector if he will come with him on the flight and they arrange to meet at five-thirty in the morning in the field where they are. Biggles will be in the police helicopter. Ginger tells Biggles he has seen Robin. He was watching from a distance. Ginger told him they had found what fell off the plane, but didn’t say what it was. Ginger told him to go home and watch for the plane. If he saw it again, he was to run to the nearest phone and tell them. Ginger gave him their number. Ginger said they might fly over in the morning and if they did they would circle his house so he’d know it was them. Biggles says they had both better carry guns in the morning. The following morning at the appointed time, the air police helicopter lands and finds Inspector Carlow and Sergeant Brown waiting. The inspector says there was nothing in the pockets of the body. They found the bullet in the skull and the clothes were apparently German. Biggles says he can’t take both of them, but he won’t fly fast. He suggests the Sergeant follows them by road. Biggles says he intends to fly out to sea, then fly in following natural landmarks, such as the windmill. If he sees anything suspicious, he will land and have a look at it. The inspector looked worried. “I’ve no warrant”. “Don’t let that worry you. If everything is as it should be no reasonable man would complain about the police doing their job. Only a man with something to hide, or be afraid of, would be likely to object. And by the way, as the man we’re looking for has already got a murder on his hands, we can expect him, if we’re lucky enough to find him, to be really nasty. Remember, he carries a gun”. Biggles got in and took over the controls. Ginger sat beside him and the inspector sat behind. The machine first headed out to sea, then turned inland, over a pile of shingle and in line with the windmill with the wood between them. That took it near the back of Robin’s home and Ginger nudged Biggles when he saw a small figure in the garden, face upturned. Biggles smiled but all he said was “We shall have to give him a joy ride one day”. The aircraft flew at a height of never more than four hundred feet. They see a red brick farmhouse. “That’s Werner’s place,” said the inspector, from behind. “There’s a green cattle truck in the yard,” added Ginger. “By thunder! And there’s the thing we’re looking for,” snapped Biggles. The last thing he expected was to see the plane standing in the open. Yet there it was, near the farmhouse, with it’s airscrews flashing, which could only mean it was about to take off. Biggles lands the helicopter within fifty feet of its nose to prevent it taking off. “Come on, Carlow,” Biggles shouted as he opened the door and jumped out. Simultaneously two men sprang out of the other plane. Biggles announces they are police officers. One man runs and Ginger chases after him. The other pulls an automatic from his pocket and fires. Biggles jumps aside and draws his own automatic and raps out “Drop it”. The man seeing that his companion was struggling with Ginger on the ground, threw down the pistol. The inspector snaps handcuffs on his wrists and tells the man “You’ll be sorry you did that”. The police sergeant arrives and gives Ginger a hand, putting handcuffs on that prisoner as well. Biggles opens the cabin door of the aircraft and finds a man bound and gagged, lying on the floor. “Great Scott!” gasped the inspector. “It’s Werner, the farmer”. Werner is freed and says the men was taking him to Germany. The inspector shows Werner an after-death portrait of the murdered man and asks if he knows him. “It’s my son”. He looked at the two prisoners. “You devils!” he grated. Then he sank down with his face in his hands. “Said Biggles quietly to the inspector, “You’d better give him time to get over it. He can tell you all about it later. There’s no immediate hurry. I’ll leave it to you”. The inspector asks how Biggles got on to this business and Biggles tells him about Robin Stone at Marsh Cottage. “Well I’m damned! Why didn’t he tell me?” says the inspector. “And if he had, what would you have done about it?” challenged Biggles. “You get me there,” confessed the inspector frankly. “Nothing. I’ve plenty to do without listening to the tales of little boys”. Biggles says he promised Robin to let him know the outcome of his information and he might as well do that now whilst he is on the spot. “I have an idea that the reward he’d enjoy more than anything would be a joy-ride in an aircraft. If I’m right I’ll give him one. He’s earned it”. “It was hardly necessary to say that Robin got his joy-ride. Instead of looking up, he found himself for the first time looking down”.

“The whole strange affair was explained the following day when Biggles and Ginger saw the inspector in his office. Yet, in view of current events in Europe, it may not have been so remarkable after all. Mr Werner’s story, which was unquestionably true, was this. He was a German who had been granted political asylum in England. Before that he had lived in East Germany where he had been an engineer engaged on Space Research. He had defected to the West, changed his name and settled in Suffolk where he had started a new life as a farmer, or, more correctly, a stock breeder. The only person on the Continent who knew his address was his son, who had elected to remain in Germany because he was engaged to be married to a young woman there. This son, who was a test pilot at the Wolfschmitt Works, had managed to keep in touch with him. He had been under pressure to reveal his father’s address because the East German authorities had been anxious to bring him back to continue his research work. Seeing trouble ahead, he had recently let his father know that he was considering coming over to join him. The secret police must have got wind of this, although the rest must remain conjecture. It seemed that two government agents, one of them a pilot, had got into his confidence with the object of getting his father’s address. They must have suggested that they should all escape together, using one of the new Wolfschmitt aircraft. The scheme worked. The three of them had flown over together. After crossing the coast, Mr Werner’s son must have revealed his objective, thus signing his death-warrant. The two agents, having got the information they wanted and having no further use for him, had shot him and thrown his body overboard”. The two agents, pretending to be friends of his son had then tried to persuade Mr Werner to return to East Germany and when he refused, they resorted to force. Werner had driven the bull to the field in the hope of escaping but the agents went with him and he had been forced at pistol point to return to the farm. “It only remains to be said that murder was proved against the two agents and they paid the penalty”. “So a rather dismal story ended. Thanks to the boy who watched the planes go by the Air Police were once more able to justify their existence”.