A snippet from Biggles and the Gun Runners. Biggles is down in the Sudd, hasn't eaten much for the past day except for some buffalo, is standing next to a plane that carried guns, is in danger of being shot by the local authorities (or by a chap who flatters himself that he is the local authority anyway), has a wounded man on his hands, and has just helped dig out a plane belonging to a pilot of the local air force.
To cut a long story short, the pilot promises to fly off and bring food and help for Biggles. As he prepares to leave, Biggles says:
"Before you go, have you any cigarettes on you?"
Not "Any chocolate or food in your plane?" or "Do you have any first aid supplies?" or even something along the lines of, "Can I borrow a gun?". Just, "I NEED CIGARETTES!"
Biggles, Biggles. You really need to watch your smoking. The previous chapters before this have mentioned "lighting one of his few remaining cigarettes" and other similar sentences of chilling peril.
I wish the pilot had said no. It would have been so interesting to see what Biggles would have done...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Would Biggles resort to growing his own tobacco, as Algy suggests in "Deep Blue Sea", if he was stranded on a deserted island?
ReplyDeleteLeave it to Biggles to think of the really important questions. Are there cigarettes? LOL.
Poor Biggles - he really does have it bad doesn't he!
ReplyDeleteIt makes one wonder if Jane and her smoking ban in his life was such a bad thing after all... :D
Should I then take it that JJ now approves of the union? There's still time to get the two of them back together...!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how one grows tobacco, to be honest! Seeds? Or some part of the tobacco plant?
Noooo!! That absolutely wasn't what I meant! (Jane's far more dangerous to Biggles' health than a cigarette any day of the week!)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how one grows tobacco either - especially if one was stranded on a deserted island and didn't have any plants.
Maybe if Biggles was desperate enough he'd try shoving a few ciggies in the ground and just add water... ;)
I particularly enjoyed Flies South when Biggles 'took out one of his three remaining cigarettes, broke it in halves, gave Algy one half, and then lighted both with the same match'.
ReplyDeleteI can so see Biggles trying to plant his cigarettes in the forlorn hope that one of them will grow in a cigarette tree (ready made for lighting!)
ReplyDeleteI too love that passage from Flies South, which is incredibly sweet of him. And Algy didn't even have to say anything for him to know that he needed a smoke as well.
Although...how come Algy didn't have any ciggies on him?
Perhaps Biggles had used them all already...? :) That scene in 'Flies South' is lovely. In fact, there are lots of lovely scenes in that book... and a good chapter-full of pure Algy action! The best kind of chapter, right Soppy? :)
ReplyDeleteOR! Perhaps Algy had his cigarette case confiscated by his mother?! My word Algy would be very grumpy if that happened! Could you see him feverishly trying to fan out the smell of cigarettes from the Mount St flat when his mother comes to visit? And then blaming the smoking all on Biggles!
ReplyDeletePure Algy action is wonderful. There aren't enough books with him rushing about being awesome before Johns cut him from the main plot of the books and left him at home with a drill-happy dentist and an order to mind the phones.
You're right, I can just see Algy rushing around trying to clear the smoke before his mother shows up, looking faintly disapproving, and trying to get Algy to go get married to some daughter of her friend's...
ReplyDeleteAA-Anything Algy related is always the best of anything :)
Wouldn't it have been easier to hire someone to answer the phones rather than always leaving Algy behind? He's a highly skilled pilot!
You'd think it would make more sense to take Algy along on adventures! Maybe Biggles gets frightened of loosing Algy in his old age and so posts him at home where he knows he'll be safe? Maybe it gives him a reason to come back from his latest crazy adventure? Maybe he's just being selfish?
ReplyDeleteYes - Algy IS a highly skilled pilot. He's a highly skilled everything else, too.... *swoons*
ReplyDeleteBoring but…. WEJ said that Biggles had to leave Algy at home because it was bad practice to have the commanding officer and the second in command both at the front line, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteSo Biggles needed Algy to be safe to take over if something happened to him…
Boring, boring, WEJ. Practically everybody would like more of Algy and less of … well the other favoured person...
Just read your Algy quote 'I'm not as mad as you are about curry'.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first indication we have that Biggles is mad about curry? My theory is that an Indian restaurant had just opened near WEJ and he had a new craze for curry so he decided that Biggles should also...
I hate to see what Algy would do if he was at home on the phones and news came in that something had happened to Biggles on whatever mission he had being sent on. *shock horror* It most certainly would not be anything remotely sensible or second-in-commandish...he wasn't exactly second-in-commandish when Biggles went off in Fails to Return.
ReplyDeleteSA, I think before the curry quote Biggles mentioned how he wanted to have a Malay curry as they weren't as hot as Indian curries (really? They taste the same to me.) Biggles then replies that he was brought up on curry (explains a lot, Biggles...)
What I'd like to know is how many cases Algy undertook - and solved! - on his own whilst Biggles, Ginger and Bertie were off adventuring without him.
ReplyDeleteThat phone had to ring SOMETIMES while they were away...
I feel there should be an undiscovered pile of manuscripts out there somewhere labelled: 'The Algy Files'....
(I bet Biggles hid them somewhere so Algy wouldn't steal his thunder .... ;) )
I'm hoping that one day I will go into my attic and find The Algy Files hidden in some dusty box.
ReplyDeleteIf I do, you'll all be the first to know. :)
Well...there is a sort-of Algy alone adventure in the Canon Type (Longer Works) section titled Algy Goes Alone. I posted it a while back so it may have escaped people's notice...
ReplyDeleteWhat?! A whole story with Algy in the lead role and I managed to miss it! I must be slipping!
ReplyDeleteOff to check it out with haste. thanks for the tip off. :)
Wow twelve whole chapters in one beautiful chunk - most chapters with Algy's name in the title - that's my reading sorted for the next couple of nights :D
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy it, JJ :)
ReplyDelete