Biggles and the Plot That Failed

by W E Johns

  ‘What else did you think I was going to do with you?’

  ‘I thought you’d take me home with you.’

  ‘For sheer brass face you’d shame the devil himself,’ rasped Biggles. ‘Why should I clutter myself up with a dirty little crook?’

  ‘But you can’t leave me here to die,’ pleaded Sekunder.

  That’s what you did to Adrian, isn’t it? Pah! you make me sick.’

  ‘He can come home with me,’ offered Bolzana. ‘There is a spare camel.’

  ‘That would mean abandoning your drill,’ Biggles pointed out. ‘This trip has cost you enough already. I can’t carry your drill, but I could give you a lift home if you’re in a hurry to get back.’

  ‘Thank you, but I can make my own way home. I know the desert. I can’t afford to lose my camels.’

  ‘As you wish. In that case I’d better take Sekunder with me. I can put him off at Siwa. That would enable you to take your drill.’

  ‘I shall do better travelling alone than with a sick companion.’

  ‘Much better, I’d say, than with a man who might murder you on the way for your camels,’ said Biggles harshly. ‘If that’s settled we needn’t waste much more time here. We’d better make our own arrangements.’ He glanced up at the now darkening sky. ‘I shall leave tomorrow at dawn.’ He looked down at Sekunder. ‘You understand that?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’ll be coming with me.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Then that’s about all there is to say,’ concluded Biggles.

  Bolzana offered Adrian the necklace that had been found in the tomb. ‘Take this for a souvenir,’ he said.

  Adrian accepted it, saying: ‘Not that I really need a souvenir to remind me of this hideous place and what happened here.’

  Such was the unusually tame ending of an unpleasant case which was really outside Biggles’ normal duties, one which at a certain period promised to be both difficult and dangerous. Little more need be said about it. As Biggles remarked at the time, all he wanted to do was go home and forget it. And this in fact is what happened.

  At first dawn the next day, having seen Mr Bolzana on his way (he, in Biggles’ opinion, being the only redeeming feature of an unsavoury affair), the plane was brought nearer to the tomb and Sekunder helped aboard. He was still sick, and looked it, but not, Biggles suspected, as ill as he pretended to be. He was more sorry for himself than for anything he had done.

  The Merlin took off and, as there was no reason to go to El Arig, headed straight for Siwa. Biggles flew low, and circled, over the Oasis called The Fountain of the Sun, low enough to make out the charred remains of Adrian’s little plane. He did not land.

  ‘That’s no use to anyone,’ he told Adrian. ‘Take a last look and call it a dead loss.’

  He landed at Siwa. There, with small ceremony, Sekunder was put off to make his own arrangements. Without a word, and without once looking back, he walked away and mingled with a little crowd of interested Arab spectators. Nothing more was seen of him.

  A short hop took the Merlin to Marsa Matruh, on the coast, where the first thing Biggles did was send a signal to the Air Commodore to say he was on his way home, with Adrian, to save Brigadier Mander any further anxiety about his son. After some refreshment had been taken, the machine was refuelled before crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. The following evening it reached England. Adrian, after thanking Biggles and his crew for what they had done, and promising to see them later, went straight on home to meet his father.

  Biggles, with Bertie and Ginger, also went home, for a bath, a change into warmer clothes and a much-needed square meal. The next morning, none the worse for their adventure, they were in the office at Scotland Yard. Leaving the others to tell Algy about it while helping him to catch up on arrears of work, Biggles reported to his Chief who, after a glance at Biggles’ face remarked: ‘You look as though you have been out in the sun. Pity you couldn’t have brought a little home with you. We could do with it.’

  ‘I’ve had all I want, and more, for some time to come,’ answered Biggles.

  ‘Sit down and tell me about it,’ invited the Air Commodore.

  After Biggles had done so the Air Commodore said: ‘Don’t go far away. Brigadier Mander has just rung me up to say he will be looking in some time today to thank you personally for what you’ve done. It wouldn’t surprise me if he expresses his thanks in something more substantial than words. He’s very grateful.’

  ‘I think Adrian will take my advice until he has had more experience of the sort of people there are in the world,’ said Brigadier Mander, later. ‘He’s told me all about this rascal Sekunder and apologized for questioning my opinion.’

  ‘At all events, he’s had a lesson he’s not likely to forget in a hurry,’ stated Biggles.

  THE END