BIGGLES IN THE JUNGLE

by Captain W. E. Johns

IX. NEW PERILS (Pages 90 - 101)

With no fuel, they make the river by just gliding. “Algy afterwards swore that he heard the topmost branches of the trees scrape against the keel as the aircraft just crept over them, to glide down on the water; but that was probably an exaggeration”. They then find themselves adrift with no means to get to the bank. The machine increases speed. Ahead, the river plunges between two rocky hills; “they were not very high, but they were quite sufficient to force the water into a torrent that boiled and foamed as it flung itself against boulders that had fallen from either side. Already the Wanderer was prancing like a nervous horse”. Using spars, Biggles, Algy and Ginger fend the aircraft off the rocks for ten minutes and suddenly they are floating smoothly on tranquil water. Ginger then sees another set of rapids ahead, and Biggles dives overboard with a mooring rope and swims for the shore. When Biggles reaches a shelving sandbank, he can pull with all his weight on the rope and Algy and Ginger grab passing tree branches to stop their progress. “Who suggested this crazy picnic?” muttered Biggles sarcastically. “I did,” grinned Ginger. “Then perhaps you’ll think of a way out of the mess we’re in”. (These lines are misquoted in the write up on the back of the white Armada paperback edition from 1981 where it says “I did,” admitted a shamefaced Ginger. He wasn’t shamefaced. He was grinning). Ginger is asked to repair the fuel tank whilst, Biggles, Algy and Dusky go exploring the rapids further down river on foot to see how bad they are. Dusky smells fire and they find the remains of a camp. “In the centre of this area a fire still smouldered. Near it was a brown object, which presently he perceived was a human foot protruding from the debris. Flies swarmed in the still air. They then find a wounded native, still alive, but dying. The wounded man tells Dusky that they had been bringing up the petrol by canoe. They had made camp, but they had been ambushed and killed by Bogat’s men. The canoe with the precious fuel has been sunk in the river. Biggles concludes that Chorro would have tipped off the Tiger by pigeon post. Biggles hopes to salvage some petrol cans but Dusky warns of alligators and piranhas. Biggles says they will build a raft and they return to their aircraft to find that Ginger has finished the repairs. The sun is sinking in the west by the time a serviceable raft is built and moored to a tree ready for operations tomorrow. A commotion occurs in the jungle and many creatures appear to be fleeing. “What is it?” Ginger asks anxiously. “De ants are coming” answered Dusky. Our heroes flee to their aircraft and witness the ant’s column “which rolled like molten tar towards them”. “The noise made by the main body, the movement of countless millions of tiny legs over the vegetation, was a harsh, terrifying hiss, that induced in Ginger a feeling of utter helplessness. Biggles cuts the mooring rope, already black with ants and drops the anchor to hold them fast in weeds as the current near shore was not strong. Dusky says the column of ants might be a mile long and they watch them until dark “but it was some time later before the volume of sound began to diminish”. They go to bed and Ginger dreams of ants. The forest had taken on a new horror.