Biggles Flies North by Captain W. E. Johns

Author:Captain W. E. Johns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

A One-sided Duel

To say that Ginger was flabbergasted would be to express his feelings only mildly. He was thunderstruck. For some reason the possibility of this development had not occurred to him, although he realised now that there was just as much reason for McBain to come searching for Sarton and Chicot, as for Wilks and Algy to come looking for them.

He turned to Biggles who was still staring at the oncoming machine with an expression of mingled chagrin and disgust. ‘He was looking for Sarton, I expect,’ he muttered.

Biggles nodded thoughtfully, ‘And we were kind enough to light a fire and show him where we were,’ he murmured.

‘He may still think we’re Sarton and Chicot.’

‘If he does, he’ll realise his mistake when he gets a bit closer,’ returned Biggles bitterly. ‘Hello – see that turn? He’s spotted who we are. It will be interesting to see what he does,’ he added. ‘He’ll hardly risk landing.’

Ginger did not reply. He was watching the movements of the Weinkel with a good deal of trepidation, for he felt that whatever McBain did – assuming that he was on board – it would be unpleasant.

That he was right in this assumption was soon made apparent. The Weinkel banked sharply, and putting its nose down, dived at the stranded Jupiter.

For an instant longer Biggles watched it. Then he let out a warning yell. ‘Lie flat.’

Ginger flung himself down just in time. Above the bellow of the Weinkel’s engines there came the vicious chatter of a machine-gun, and the line of the bullets could easily be followed by the splinters of ice and flecks of snow that leapt into the air in line with the machine.

As it swept past Ginger clearly saw McBain himself behind the gun, which he had thrust out of the side window of the control cabin.

A stream of belligerent imprecations from Angus made Biggles turn. ‘You hit?’ he asked anxiously.

‘Och, mon, not I,’ shouted Angus. ‘If I ever get ma’ hands on that—’

‘You keep down,’ shouted Biggles, seeing that the Weinkel was coming back.

Angus’s rifle cracked as the Weinkel roared past again, cutting a trail in the snow with its gun. Some of the shots went very near the prone airmen.

‘You’ll never hit him with that,’ Biggles told Angus. ‘He’ll hit one of us in a minute if we aren’t careful. We’d better scatter.’

The third time the Weinkel hurtled past the gun was silent. Instead, a small square object crashed down near the Jupiter; it bounced over and over and came to rest very close to the machine. Biggles started forward with the idea of finding out what it was, but before he could reach it, the Weinkel, which had swung round almost on its wing tip, was coming back. A signal light cut a flaming line through the air; it struck the snow very near the square object, and a sheet of flame leapt upwards.

‘It’s petrol!’ yelled Biggles. ‘He threw a can of petrol with the cap off. Now he’s fired it with the pistol.

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