BIGGLES
IN AUSTRALIA
by Captain W.
E. Johns
VIII. THE OPPOSITION STRIKES BACK (Pages 85 – 93)
“Later, after a good and satisfying
meal, eight o’clock saw Biggles, by himself, making his way through the scented
tropical night to the harbour, rubbing shoulders with as strange an assortment
of humanity as could be found in any port on earth, east or west”. Biggles finds a public house “where the
customers appeared mostly to be Europeans – or part-European”. Biggles goes in for a drink and gets chatting
with the locals. He mentions the lugger Matilda
and asks what has happened to her. He
finds out it was sold to “that Dutchman Boller”. “Leastways he said he was a Dutchman but I’d
say he was a German” says the customer Biggles is talking to. Biggles is told that “Boller’s working
something up the Daly”. Boller is
described as “a big fellow with a black beard”.
Biggles then speaks to a man called Taffy Walsh and finds out more about
Daly Flats. Walsh tells him “It’s away
up the top of the river; if I remember right, above where the Daly swings north
towards Arnhem Land. If you want a spear
in your gizzard that’s the place to go”.
“Are you serious? You really mean
the blacks are bad?” queried Biggles, genuinely surprised, for he had supposed
that dangerously hostile aborigines were a thing of the past”. “Not all of ‘em; but them as are bad are as
bad as they make up. Keep out o’ the
country. That’s my advice”. Biggles returns to the airport and it is past
10.00 pm when he reaches it. Walking
past the hangers, Biggles notices an object that appears to be moving, but
freezes as soon as the moon appears. As
Biggles approaches the Otter, he notices that this object, a hump, appears to
be closer than he had originally thought.
As he reaches the cabin where his friends are, the object has closed the
distance even more and is now flattened on the ground. Thinking it is an animal, Biggles steps
towards it. “What followed occupied not
more than three or four seconds of time.
The object, as black as night, leapt up.
An arm went back, and Biggles realized for the first time that it was a
man. Seeing that something was about to
be thrown, he ducked instinctively.
Almost simultaneously something swished over his head and struck the
hull of the Otter with a crisp thud”. (“Something
swished over Biggles’ head and struck the Otter with a crisp thud” is the
frontispiece illustration of the book).
Biggles’s reaction to the attack was to dart forward to seize the
assailant; but the man twisted, and turning, raced away across the turf at
fantastic speed, dodging and leaping in an extraordinary display of evading
tactics. Pursuit was obviously
futile”. Biggles whipped out his pistol
but doesn’t fire. Biggles finds a
triple-barbed spear in the hull.
Alerted, the others come out and Algy finds a petrol
soaked rag. It appears the man
was going to burn the planes. “Well,
chase Aunt Lizzie round the haystacks!” exclaimed Bertie. “This black warrior stuff is all news to
me. I thought Australia was civilized –
if you get what I mean”. Biggles takes
the spear and goes and sees West. He
returns to inform the others that West says the spear “comes out of Arnhem
Land”. “He told me this top corner of
Australia used to be called the triangle of death on account of the ferocity of
the natives. Even today, with native
reserves and all that sort of thing, they’re not to be trusted. That goes for the half-civilised blacks who
work up the Daly for the white planters”.
Biggles says somebody sent the man to attack them. Biggles decides that tomorrow he and Ginger
will go down to Broome in the Halifax and speak to Bill Gilson. He asks Algy and Bertie to go in the Otter to
see if they can spot the Matilda to see if it is heading for the mouth
of the Daly River. They now have to keep
a guard on their aeroplanes, so Biggles takes the first watch.