Biggles And Algy Working Together

I don't think we see enough of those lovely moments where Biggles and Algy work together to achieve something spectacular. "The Prize" (Biggles of 266) is a great example of this, and for those who think that Algy is the crazy one of the pair, well, a brief read of Biggles of 266 should change your mind: Biggles is crazy. More on that later.

"The Prize" starts with the squadron detailed for propaganda work. And then Wilks comes over (for no reason whatsoever other than to wind Biggles up) and says that his squadron is doing the propaganda thing as well and of course Biggles immediately decides that this is a competition (Life isn't a race, Biggles, although admittedly you were much more fun in WWI when you were young and easily riled up and not old and boring and leaving your best friends behind).

In order to achieve his goal (and win a gramophone from Colonel Raymond, who isn't really helping the situation), Biggles gets Algy to help him. I like this conversation where Biggles is convincing Algy to help him:

"Wait a minute--let me finish. That's where you come in!"
Algy frowned. "Me!" he exclaimed. "So I'm in this, am I?"
"You wouldn't like to be left out, would you?" murmured Biggles reprovingly.
Algy regarded him suspiciously.
"Go ahead!" he said. "What do you want me to do?"

I love the arrogance of Biggles, and his certainty that Algy will help him--You wouldn't like to be left out, would you?--(If I were Algy, I might have just said, "Well, no...")

Biggles, obviously, wins the gramophone, and everyone asks him how he did it. I like how Biggles gives credit where credit is due:

"But I am going to tell you, because it is only fair to Lacey, whose assistance made it possible."

I love when Biggles calls Algy "Lacey". It's just adorable. It's sweet. (It's less sweet in a later story, "War in Hot Blood", where Biggles asserts, "I don't know. I saw [a plane] going down in flames, but I didn't know whether it was Wilson or Lacey until I got back." To be fair, he was upset when he said it, but still...)

So the gramophone is won and Wilks is invited to dinner. Algy, surprisingly, is not present at dinner (hopefully he had something to eat beforehand, poor boy), and it turns out that he is protecting the new gramophone from 287 pilots who have planned to steal it. Biggles wades into the fray, the gramophone is saved, and all is happy. Brilliant story.

Biggles and Algy are once again partners in crime in the next story "Humbugs", and this is where Biggles' craziness is starting to surface. His tactics are a bit extreme for a prank, even going so far as to fly a captured Hun plane behind the British lines and having Wilks' kit flown out to the Huns, but the story itself is light-hearted and entertaining, although there is one grating moment when Biggles "summons" Algy with the brief command: "Algy! Come here! I want you." (Oh, yeah? And what did your last servant die of, Mr Bigglesworth?)

I find it amusing that Wilks has a weakness for humbugs (the sweets). It just serves to show how young the boys all were. Wilks couldn't have been much older than Biggles, and in many ways, both of them really are just schoolboys. (Wonder what Biggles had a weakness for? Ice cream? Chocolate?)

Biggles' craziness continues in "The Turkey", one of the most memorable WWI stories (the most memorable, of course, has to be "The Boob", for obvious reasons). I find it funny that Biggles' sole solution to any problem is to get into his Camel. There is also this endearing bit where Algy says,

"I wish I knew which way he'd gone. If I did I'd follow him to see that he doesn't get into mischief."

Loyal Algy. *Big heart* The best kind of Algy.

"War in Hot Blood" shows Biggles' sensitive side--and Algy's protective side, which we see at the very beginning when Algy rushes into the mess and tells everyone that Biggles is angry. There is a shared moment with Mahoney a few minutes later where Algy grimaces and shrugs his shoulders (I can so see this in my mind), and there is a mini loyal-Algy moment where Biggles lays out a plan and Algy right away says he's going with Biggles, as we would expect.

We get a healthy dose of Algy in "Reprisals" (poor thing, getting dressed down by the horrible Bitmore) and more of Biggles' trademark craziness (where did he even get the uniforms of a major and a colonel????) Nice collaboration with Mahoney, by the way.

Overall, Biggles of 266 is a great and entertaining read, despite its grim moments. Algy fans will be happy to know that more than half of the stories contain at least one mention of Algy, and also one mention of Mark Way as well, if your edition happens to contain "The Pilot Who Lost His Way".