Biggles and the Plot That Failed

by W E Johns

  ‘I’ve had plenty of time to explore,’ said Adrian. ‘I know every hole and corner within a couple of miles.’ He was dunking biscuits in a beaker of meat extract which Ginger had prepared.

  ‘Take it slowly or you’re liable to get a pain in the tummy,’ advised Biggles. ‘There’ s no need to knock your pan out. We’re not in all that hurry. What were you using for food when we arrived?’

  ‘Well, luckily for me as it happened, we had unloaded some canned stuff for immediate use and that kept me going for a time. After a while I eked it out with dates from those palms you can see down there.’

  ‘They look pretty dead to me.’

  ‘Not quite. What few dates they manage to produce are tough going, I can tell you. I couldn’t climb the trees, so I had to make do with fruit that had fallen. It is dry and shrivelled, like old leather. However, they helped me to fill the cracks. I wouldn’t care to try living on dates indefinitely. At first, naturally, I was more worried about water.’

  ‘Yes. Where did you find water in a place like this?’ asked Biggles curiously. ‘It amazes me that there is any.’

  Adrian pointed. ‘It’s down there, at the end of the gulley. The cliff has a big cavity under it, almost a short cave, and the middle sinks into a fairly large but shallow pit. I can only imagine it’s seepage from above on the rare occasions when it rains.’

  ‘That can’t be very often, by the look of things,’ put in Bertie.

  ‘Anyhow, the great thing is, there’s water. By the way, I have an idea my little reservoir isn’t natural. It has an artificial look about it, as if the people who once lived here either dug the pit or enlarged a hole that was already there. At all events the place must have once been well used, although that may have been a long time ago.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Because round the water there’s a litter of broken pots and bits of tools that look as if they were made in the Stone Age. I’ve read — and I read a lot about the Sahara before I came here — there are such places in the desert. They’re known only to the Tuareg, who keep the places secret, because this enables them to move about where no one else can follow — after one of their raids, for instance.’

  ‘Does Sekunder know about this well?’

  ‘Not as far as I know. I found it after he’d gone.’

  ‘How on earth did you find it?’

  ‘That was a bit of luck. On my second day alone I was sitting here in the shade, trying to recover from the shock of what had happened, when some whitish animals appeared at the far end of the gulley. Buck of some sort.’

  ‘Oryx. We saw them.’

  ‘I couldn’t care less what they are. They did me a good turn. I kept dead still. They seemed to disappear into the face of the cliff. After a while, wondering what had become of them, I walked along. I wasn’t thinking of water, but the sight of some other living things beside myself gave me a spark of hope. They must have heard me, or winded me, and bolted. Their tracks took me to the water-hole. They knew all about it. They saved my life, because I don’t mind admitting that rather than die of thirst I had decided, when the worst came to the worst, to shoot myself.’

  ‘With what?’

  ‘My pistol. I had brought one in case of trouble with Arabs. I now had another idea.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘If I could stalk the deer I’d shoot one of them for food.’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘They’re pretty wary, but waiting by the water-hole I once had them in range. Then I couldn’t bring myself to shoot.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Adrian smiled sheepishly. ‘It may sound silly, but I remembered they’d saved my life. Then again, if they realized there was danger at the water-hole, they wouldn’t dare to come back to it; in which case, if there was no other water in the region, they might die the very death from which they’d saved me. What would you have done?’

  Biggles looked blank. ‘A lawyer would call that a leading question. I’ll answer it should the occasion arise. Have you finished eating?’

  Adrian grinned weakly. ‘I don’t think I can find room for any more, for the moment.’

  ‘And how are you feeling now?’

  ‘Fine. Ready for anything.’

  ‘Good. In that case you can tell us your whole story from the beginning, so that we shall know exactly how things stand.’

  ‘I’ll do that,’ agreed Adrian. ‘Everything went according to plan until we got here,’ he began. ‘No bother at all. What you could call a slice of cake. There was one little thing, though, although I thought nothing of it at the time. But I’ll tell you now while I remember it. We stayed at Siwa Oasis for three days. While we were there Sekunder went off several times on his own. He never told me what he was doing, and when I asked him he glossed over the question by saying he’d been making some inquiries about our route.’

  ‘Did you believe this?’

  ‘I had no reason to disbelieve it. He had an advantage of me in that he could speak Arabic, or whatever language they use in Siwa, fluently.’

  ‘Tell me this before we go any further,’ requested Biggles. ‘It seems that Sekunder knew how to fly a plane. Did you know he was a pilot before you started?’

  ‘No. But you wouldn’t seriously call him a pilot; anyhow, not an experienced one. The first I knew about him having done some flying was when we were crossing the Mediterranean. He asked if he could take over for a bit, and as there was nothing for him to bump into I said yes.’

  ‘Weren’t you surprised?’

  ‘Very much. I asked him why he hadn’t told me earlier that he had had some air experience. He said he wasn’t a pilot. He had once taken a few lessons, but he had never qualified. From the way he handled the stick that was pretty obvious. I wouldn’t have allowed him to land or take off.’

  ‘But he got in a bit of practice.’

  ‘Yes, you could say that. I corrected his faults and taught him some elementary navigation. He seemed anxious to know how to handle the plane and now I know why. At the time I thought it was all to the good if, in an emergency, he was able to take charge.’

  ‘Did you come to any conclusion about his nationality?’

  ‘Seeing no reason why he should lie, I took his word for it that he was an Egyptian. After all, he’d worked for the Egyptian Archaeological Society.’

  ‘So he said.’

  Adrian’s eyebrows went up. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Your father checked up on that. They’d never heard of him.’

  ‘Why did he have to lie about that?’

  ‘Presumably to convince you that he was what he pretended to be — a qualified archaeologist. Never mind. Carry on. Sorry I interrupted.’

  ‘Well, as I was saying, we got here without trouble,’ resumed Adrian. ‘After leaving Siwa we headed south for about two hundred miles following a line of oases which we had been told were now dry. We didn’t land at any of them, having no reason to do so. We didn’t see a living soul all the way. Not that we expected to. No one travels in that direction. Finally we reached these hills, just as Sekunder said we would, striking them at the northern end of the range. We spent a little while exploring from the air, hoping to spot our ultimate objective.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘The tall pinnacle of rock at the foot of which an ancient king was said to have been buried. I’m sure Sekunder believed that tale, else why should he have come here?’

  ‘You didn’t see it?’

  ‘We saw plenty of pointed rocks, but the question was: which was the one we were looking for. We couldn’t go on using petrol, so we decided to land and continue the search on foot. I was a bit nervous about landing, although the ground looked all right. However, I got down okay.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘I put the machine in the best place I could find, a valley between two hills — not here, a bit farther along. We then unloaded our water bottles and some food, as much as we were likely to need for th
e next couple of days. I don’t mind admitting that when I saw what we’d taken on I was a bit shaken. It seemed hopeless to search for one particular rock.’

  ‘Was there any reason why you should decide to land where you did?’

  ‘Not really. It looked as good a place as anywhere. There were a few palms and some brushwood not far away, although everything looked dead. We thought there was just a chance of finding water, because there must have been some at one time, otherwise there wouldn’t have been any vegetation at all. I believe there were once several oases in these hills.’

  ‘I see. Then what did you do?’

  ‘We took a walk. I must say Sekunder was taking the business seriously. He was dead keen. Never complained of the heat or anything else. In fact, it was through him that we found the pinnacle and the tomb, just as they had been described.’

  Biggles’ voice rose in astonishment. ‘You found them?’

  ‘Oh yes. That was the following day. We started before dawn, in moonlight, and walked quite a distance. Then, as it was getting light, Sekunder had an idea. Instead of all this walking in and out and around the rocks, he said he’d climb the next hill to have a look round from the top. He went up. I waited. Presently I heard him shouting. He came down so fast that I thought he’d break his neck. He was really excited. He said he could see a tall, leaning spire of rock not far ahead. It must be the one. By this time the sun was up, but we hurried on, and there, lo and behold, it was.’

  ‘What was?’

  ‘The tomb.’

  ‘Was it as conspicuous as that?’

  ‘There was no mistaking it. It couldn’t be anything else but a tomb. A mound like the dome of a church built of hand-cut stones fitted so tightly together that you could hardly see the cracks between them. Inscriptions had been carved on the rocks. I’ll show it to you presently if you’d care to see it; then you’ll understand better than any description I can give you. Not only are there inscriptions, some sort of writing, on the tomb itself, but on rocks all over the place. They may be the tombs of ordinary people. There’s one hill covered with them. Some are just holes in the rock. You can see the skeletons and mummified corpses inside. I tell you, at some time a lot of people must have lived here. And this was not all I found.’

  Biggles smiled. ‘You must have been busy.’

  ‘Don’t forget I’ve been here for close on a couple of months, and as I couldn’t get away I’ve had nothing else to do except explore.’

  ‘What else did you find?’

  ‘An emerald mine.’

  Biggles’ eyes opened wide. ‘You found — an emerald mine?’

  ‘I think so. In one of the hills, not far from the tomb, a big hole, a tunnel in fact, has been driven in. Wondering what it was, I had a look inside. I didn’t get far. I came out a lot faster than I went in. It was crawling with snakes. More snakes than you ever saw together in your life. All the snakes for miles around must have collected there when the place went dry. Don’t ask me what they live on — unless it’s the mummified corpses in the cemetery.’

  ‘Never mind the snakes. What makes you think the place was an emerald mine?’

  ‘Because of the mound of muck outside. It had obviously come from the hole. It glitters with tiny slithers of green crystal. Moreover, there were grooves in the rocks round about as if someone had been polishing something. Take a look at this.’ Adrian put a hand in a pocket and produced a piece of semi-transparent rock that shone with a curious translucent glow. ‘What do you make of that?’ he inquired.

  Biggles took it and held it up to the light. He nodded and handed it back. ‘I’m no expert on this sort of thing, but I’d say that’s a piece of emerald, badly flawed.’

  ‘I found it on the dump outside the tunnel,’ said Adrian, as he returned it to his pocket.

  ‘We’ll have a look at this place presently,’ decided Biggles. ‘For the moment carry on with your story. I’m anxious to hear how Sekunder reacted to the discovery of the tomb.’

  ‘He doesn’t know anything about the emerald mine. I found that some time after he’d gone.’

  ‘I gathered that.’

  ‘And here’s something else I found.’ Again Adrian fished in the pocket of his shorts and now produced a string of beads the size of marbles. They were metal — yellow metal. ‘Feel the weight of that,’ he invited. ‘I’m sure it can only be gold.’ He dropped the necklace, for that clearly was what it was, in the palm of Biggles’ outstretched hand.

  ‘Where did you find that?’ asked Biggles.

  ‘It was round the neck of some skin and bones in one of the holes in the cemetery hill. Here, apparently bodies don’t decompose. They get dried out, kippered, by the dry heat.’

  ‘That’s gold all right,’ said Biggles, handing back the ornament.

  ‘There must be more where that came from.’

  ‘No doubt. I wouldn’t bother about it at the moment. You’ve heard the saying, where there’s smoke there’s fire. My version of it is, where there’s gold there’s trouble. Go on with your story. What happened after you and Sekunder found the tomb?’

  CHAPTER 7

  ADRIAN IS OBSTINATE

  Adrian continued his story. ‘From that time Sekunder’s manner began to change, as if he had something on his mind. I can’t describe it in so many words. He turned — well, peculiar. He hardly looked at me. He didn’t say much. What he did say was, it would be impossible to open the tomb without tools, and no easy job even with them.’

  ‘Hadn’t you brought tools with you?’

  ‘Yes. But not expecting anything like this, and in any case we were limited by weight to what we could bring. All we had was a pick, a spade and a light crowbar. These of course were still in the plane. Naturally, we didn’t hump them around with us. Sekunder said he’d go and fetch them. I said I’d go with him to share the load, but he was so insistent that there was no need for us both to go, that rather than argue about it I let him have his way.’

  ‘How far were you from the plane at this time?’ asked Biggles.

  ‘I’d say a bit over a mile.’

  ‘Had you any suspicion of Sekunder’s intention?’

  ‘Of course not. I thought he was behaving strangely, but I put that down to excitement over finding the tomb. Not for an instant did it occur to me that he would go off on his own, leaving me here. I, too, was all steamed up over what looked like being an important discovery.’

  ‘I can understand that. Carry on.’

  ‘Well, Sekunder went off, leaving me at the tomb. I was copying some of the inscriptions in my notebook when I heard the plane start up. I was surprised but not in the least alarmed, supposing that Sekunder had decided to bring the plane nearer to the place where we would be working. I wasn’t happy about that. Knowing he was ham-fisted, I was afraid he might do some damage. However, I hadn’t long to worry about that, because the next thing I heard was the plane taking off. I ran out into the open and there it was, already airborne, not coming in my direction, but flying away from the hills. I could hardly believe my eyes. For a moment I thought it must be accidental; that in taxiing he had opened the throttle too wide and let the machine run away with him. But when it continued to fly straight on, climbing, till it was out of sight, I knew it was no use trying to fool myself. He’d gone — deliberately. When it dawned on me what that meant, I felt sick. By leaving me here alone, with no hope of getting away, he had murdered me just as surely as if he had shot me. In fact it would have been kinder to shoot me instead of leaving me to die a miserable death from thirst. Can you imagine a man doing a thing like that?’

  Biggles nodded. ‘I can. Such people exist and there’s a word for them.’ He lit a cigarette. ‘You thought you were doomed?’

  ‘Of course. Wouldn’t you — in a hell on earth like this? What could I do?’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘My mouth was as dry as a chip from shock, so first of all I had a drink from my water-bottle and did some hard thinking. Then,
when I had recovered somewhat, I walked back to the place where the machine had been parked to see if the stuff we had unloaded was still there. Not, as I soon realized, that it would make much difference. It would only prolong the agony. Well, the stuff was there. Apparently he had gone off in too much of a hurry to bother with it. When I had sorted the stuff I reckoned that the food, a few cans and some biscuits, would, if I was careful, last me a week.’

  ‘It didn’t occur to you that Sekunder might be coming back?’

  ‘I was sure he wouldn’t be coming back for me. Everything pointed to a deliberate plot to get rid of me. I could manage for a little while on the food, but what was more important was water. We had unloaded one petrol can for immediate use, and that was now half-empty. I was already thirsty — here, as you know, one always is thirsty — and I could have emptied the can at one go. In fact I contemplated doing that. By conserving it — well, it might see me through a couple of days — not more. I kept myself under control and just had a sip. Then, remembering this place, which we had walked through, I brought everything here where there was some protection from the sun. That’s about all. You’ll believe me when I say I didn’t get much sleep that night, knowing what was in store for me.’

  Biggles smiled sympathetically. ‘Yes, I can believe that.’

  ‘I did a lot of thinking,’ went on Adrian. ‘I reached one decision. When I came to the end of my water I would shoot myself. As I sat watching the dawn break, I had what turned out to be the biggest slice of luck any man ever had. Some animals appeared at the far end of the gulley. You say they are oryx, and I shan’t argue about that. At first they meant nothing to me, but when I realized what their presence implied, I saw a ray of hope. They couldn’t live without water any more than I could. By showing me the water they solved my major problem. There were two others. The first was food. You must have noticed a few palms. They’re not all dead — not quite, although I imagine it won’t be long before they are. Some still bear a few dates. I couldn’t climb the trees, so I had to make do with what had fallen. They were dry and shrivelled and made pretty tough chewing, but they helped out my daily ration. I managed to knock down a few by throwing rocks, but that was arm-aching work. No wonder the Arabs keep lean if that’s what they live on.’