"'You taking up star-gazing?' said a voice. It was Algy's.
'I should be if there were any to gaze at. You ought to know, at your age, that they only come out at night,' replied Biggles coldly.
'You'll be boss-eyed staring up that way,' warned Algy. 'Do you expect to see something, or are you just looking into the future?'
'That's it,' agreed Biggles.
'What's it?' asked Algy.
'I'm looking into the future. I can tell you just what you'll see up there in exactly three and a half minutes' time.'
'You're telling me!' sneered Algy. 'You mean a nice blue sky!'"
--"The Thought Reader", Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter
Oh, Algy, Algy, Algy. If only you'd stayed lovely and sarcastic like this and not gotten all serious and responsible and everything. Look how cool and carefree you were in WWI.
This is one of my favourite stories, partly because of the way it opens with Algy/Biggles banter, and then more as (Major/Colonel, forget his staus then) Raymond joins in. To say nothing of the way it ends when Raymond congratulates Biggles as 'Sherlock'!
ReplyDeleteIt so nice to read these early stories and see how young and unserious he was back then. In the Air Police days he never has time for banter.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to believe Algy ever got dull or serious - W.E. Johns just forgot to record all the fun stuff in the later books! Algy is still being pretty facetious and fun in lots of the WW2 stories,dancing with Bertie, impersonating cab drivers and pretending to faint when he hears some of Biggles news.
ReplyDeleteHe's still untidy too - Biggles has to tell him to smarten up in 'Delivers the Goods'. Can't see all that changing just because he joined the air police!
Oh, I do hope that that's the case! I would hate to think Algy lost his fun side after WWII. Which book did he become a cab driver? I don't remember ever reading that?
ReplyDeleteAnd in which book did he pretend to faint when he heard some of Biggles' news? I don't remember that either.
ReplyDeleteOur Algy seems to have many hidden stories. Was this all in the Air Police era? I'm so intrigued now!
ReplyDeleteSorry - didn't mean to confuse anyone- maybe it's just my reading of the stories!The cab driver bit is that lovely bit in 'Swastika' where he impersonates the manner of a cab driver while rescuing Biggles from a sticky moment - how cool do you have to be to fool around at a moment like that?!
ReplyDeleteThe pretending to faint is from 'Sees it through' they are after some documents and have just lost/crashed three planes trying to retrieve them. Algy thinks the mission is accomplished and all they have to do is push off back home when Biggles tells him they've lost the papers yet again and have to go back for them. Algy screws up his face staggers and leans weakly against the nearest tree.(I took it that he was pretending to faint - maybe he wasn't even pretending!After all he had just escaped a crash landing poor thing!)
Ah--I see what you mean.
ReplyDeleteI also see that I will have to put "Sees it through" on my wish list. Poor Algy!
Sees it Through is one of the very very best :-)
ReplyDeleteHave to get it then :)
ReplyDeleteI've just read 'Sees it Through'. Algy was probably faint from hunger!
ReplyDeleteWe all knopw how Algy likes his meals.Ginger had to go and steal some grub. One fo my favourite books because none of them really seem to lose their sense of humour.
Will everyone stop making me want to get this book! I've just read the biggles.info summary and I'm checking the eBay listings now. Might get it for a Christmas present to myself or something, if prices aren't too high.
ReplyDelete