Having given our airmen this information, the girl declares,
"But I will not [marry him]; I will die by my own hand first," she whispered fiercely.And what does brilliant Biggles, master of the suicide hotline, say?
"Oh, don't do that," replied Biggles awkwardly.Biggles. What a brilliant and completely-not-helpful thing to say! He promptly follows this up with:
"What can we do about it, anyway?"Oh, Biggles, Biggles. *Face palm*. No wonder you told Algy sobbing women were more in his line. See how Algy deals with the situation:
"You shall come with me, senorita," declared Algy. "I--"To which Biggles hurriedly cuts in with:
"Not so fast, laddie, not so fast," broke in Biggles, and then to the girl: "Why not run away? I mean, there are horses and railways and things?"So many things wrong with this reaction. First, the implication that it is okay to run away from something one doesn't want to deal with; second, the not-my-problem attitude (so unlike our boy!) of inviting a young girl to run away on horses and railways "and things" (clearly Biggles has never run away in his life; he lacks experience); and third, how is Algy ever going to have any sort of romance in his life if he can't help out damsels in distress or flirt with a president's daughter every once in a while?
I think Biggles ran away from school to join the RFC so he has experience of running away successfully. Consider this as selfless sacrifice to stop Algy getting mixed up with a minx, as requested by his Mother all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if what Biggles did would be called running away? His father and brother were after all fighting the war so were unlikely to have time to spare for him, and I think I read in Biggles Goes to School (or somewhere) that most of the boys were going off to war without finishing school anyway, so in a way what Biggles did was pretty much just decide that he was going to do it, and then he just went! I don't think he was actually running away from anything.
ReplyDeleteNot sure Algy would agree with the selfless sacrifice! He was very disappointed when the girl left without saying thank you the next morning.
This is a prime example of Biggles out of his depth. Had he seen the girl being abused by the hated suitor he would have known what to do. And although he did run away to join up it wasn't running away in the true sense. Running away implies running FROM something - Biggles was running TO the war.
ReplyDeleteI think Biggles just didn't know what to say, poor chap. By then, Algy had probably had no end of experience with girls, in Monaco playing tennis, on his friends' yachts, and who knows where else :)
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing Biggles out of his depth with the weeping girl in this story... I could just imagine his insides curling up with horror at the situation when she burst into tears. Facing EVS down the wrong end of a gun - one thing - dealing with an emotional female and, well he just wouldn't have a clue. Options:either run for the hills or call in the cavalry aka hide behind cousin Algy and only comment on the proceedings from a safe distance...
ReplyDeleteAlgy clearly wasn't daunted one bit. I think he fancied himself as a white knight galloping to the rescue:
"You shall come with me Senorita!"
(AH! *sigh* What female in her right mind wouldn't turn weak at the knees...!?)
I agree with FB that Biggles wasn't running away from something but to something, and I doubt that he'd have to worry too much about trains "and things" as it must have been easy to get where he needed to get to join up (I'm thinking of how easy it was for Thirty and Rip in Rescue Flight).
ReplyDeleteAnd obvious Biggles has never had any problems with not wanting to marry someone (in fact, one might even say that he wanted too much to marry someone...)
Biggles really isn't good with female interaction--in And Co he admits that he doesn't understand females (another brilliant Biggles moment).
And JJ, hands off! He's MINE *warms guns*
Note to Soppy:
ReplyDeleteBut you keep letting people shoot him! I think he'd be safer with me...! *Ducking back down behind parapet*
I don't LET people shoot him. It just...kind of happens...
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