BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN

by Captain W. E. Johns

V. A SIGHT TO REMEMBER (Pages 57 - 68)

Biggles hadn't been hit but he had tried to land between two trees and the wings absorbed most of the shock. Biggles thinks it will be a walk of about 12 miles to get back to the base but believes the enemy camp must be there otherwise they wouldn't have air protection. He says a search party will be sent out and rather than do the expected and get away, Biggles wants to stay and see who comes. The cameras are retrieved and then Biggles and Ginger hide high up in a tree. After two hours, two figures dressed like themselves arrive in the clearing. These are two genuine Korean traders. When they stay for a meal by the wreck, a party of wild horsemen arrive "of such wild and picturesque appearance that Ginger's eyes went round with astonishment". One is a European and the rest Asiatics "with brownish-yellow, slab-like faces, and narrow slanting eyes". Ginger took them to be Mongolians or Tartars. One of these is a huge, cross-eyed Mongolian, who flourishes a whip with several tails, each with knots at intervals. This man proceeds to give the two Koreans a severe whipping. Ginger is horrified. "That any man could inflict such barbaric treatment on his worst enemy would have been a thing to marvel at, but that he should so treat two inoffensive merchants who had done him no injury of any sort was simply beyond his understanding. Clearly, the man was not human". "The flogging only ended when the two miserable Koreans lost consciousness, or died - Ginger did not know which". The European having examined the wreckage of the aircraft, the party then leave taking the bodies of the Koreans with them. No search is made for anyone else so it would appear that the Koreans were taken to be from the aircraft. Biggles and Ginger take the camera film and dump the heavy cameras. They then set off back to their base using two bamboo,s about eight feet long, to probe the area in front of them so they don't fall into any pitfalls.