BIGGLES AND THE PENITENT THIEF

by Captain W. E. Johns

2. A TALE OF INFAMY (Pages 16 – 26)

“Where were they making for” inquired Biggles. “America, where Raulstein reckoned there’d be no difficulty in selling the jewellery. But there was one thing, for all his planning, he hadn’t taken into account. None of ‘em really knew how to handle a ship”. Three days out they ran into heavy weather and then after a three day storm and fog, the engine packed up and Grant couldn’t fix it, so they drifted. In a nasty sea and with no land in sight, Tommy came up from below and saw Raulstein push Grant overboard. Tommy told Darris, who was at the wheel, and asked him to turn about and he was just told to “Forget it”. Darris added “He was no damn use to us”. Tommy felt that he was likely to be the next to go overboard, but he was useful as he was doing the cooking. “He kept his mouth shut and his eyes open; and he took care to keep well clear of the rail”. The next night the yacht ran aground on a rocky island, which turned out to be an uninhabited island called Marten Island off the coast of Labrador, Canada. The three remaining men managed to get ashore in the dinghy, with Raulstein carrying the jewels in a canvas bag. They found an empty log cabin on the island, with full provisions. “Everything set out as it a shipload of castaways was expected”. “Of course, they were dreaming,” put in Bertie. “Not a bit of it. The stuff was really there. There was a stove. They lit it and sitting at the table had the first square meal they’d had for weeks”, said Miller. “Then they woke up,” guessed Bertie, smiling. Tommy reckoned the island was about three miles long and a quarter of a mile across at the widest part. It was mostly rock but with fir trees and bushes, hilly round the outside, but the middle was flat. The only living things they saw were bird and foxes, the ones with dark hair and grey tips known as silver foxes. One morning, Lew Darris told Tommy that he had seen Raulstein hide the jewels during the night in a knoll on the edge of the cliff. Darris points out where they are hidden under a heap of rocks. Darris suggests that he and Tommy murder Raulstein to “Get him before he can get us”. Tommy pretends to agree. When he gets a chance to be alone, Tommy goes and finds the jewels and moves them to a foxhole by the trees and kicks some loose earth over it. Tommy returns to find Lew and Raulstein talking. Lew goes to pick up a poker and as he does so he drops a gold ring with a large diamond on it. Raulstein accuses Lew of theft and shoots him dead on the spot. Tommy thinks he will be murdered as well but Raulstein growls “Let this be a lesson to you. This is what you’ll get if you ever try to double-cross me”. Tommy helps Raulstein throw Lew’s body off a cliff into the sea, but not before he, Tommy, has put the diamond ring in his pocket. Raulstein goes to check the hidden jewels and finding them missing, curses Lew to hell and back. It doesn’t occur to him that Tommy has moved them. They are looking for the jewels when a motor-boat arrives from the mainland. In it is a man called Angus Cambell, who is a silver fox farmer. He has the island on lease from the Canadian government and he comes over to the island to put meat down for the foxes on occasion. He built the cabin and laid in stores because the weather was tricky and sometimes storms can strand him there for days or weeks. He has no problem with the two castaways helping themselves to his food and says they had done the right thing. Campbell offers to take the two men to the mainland as winter was coming and it may be months before he returns. Realising that it would be suspicious to want to stay, Raulstein and Tommy both go off with Campbell. “Leaving the swag to be collected at some future date?” asks Ginger. “That was the idea. Raulstein, of course had no suspicion that Tommy knew where the stuff was; and Tommy wasn’t saying anything” says Miller. On the mainland, they go to Campbell’s house. Tommy slips away in the morning and gets a lift to the nearest town. From there he got to Newfoundland. Tommy pawns the ring that Darris had dropped and gets two hundred pounds, keeping the ticket so the ring can be redeemed. This money pays for his fare home by trans-atlantic plane. Tommy returns home and tells his father what has happened. He has no idea what has happened to Raulstein. Miller looked at Biggles anxiously. “Do you believe the story, sir?” Biggles says “I believe every word of it”. “No man in his right mind would think up such a fantastic tale and expect to be believed. In fact, it would need a vivid imagination to think out such a yarn. A liar, trying to put over a string of lies, would invent something simple, less complicated, more plausible. That’s why I believe it”. Biggles says he is going to put the whole matter before his chief and leave any decision to him. Miller says Tommy is at his address and Biggles jots the address down. The time was now nearly two o’clock. (That’s 2.00 am. Miller arrived at 10.00 pm, so it would appear that he has spent some four hours telling this story(!)). Biggles asks Miller if he thought that Tommy might be let off if he hands the jewels over. “Something like that, sir”, admitted Miller. “Well, I can’t make any promises on that score,” Biggles replied. “As I said at the beginning, we don’t make bargains with crooks, although, if they turn Queen’s Evidence it can make a difference”. Biggles says to Miller “Now you’d better get along home. I’ll see you to the door”.