Part 17 (1/2)

Chapter 16.

Biggles Takes Over Ginger walked on down the hil behind Biggles. His face was white with pa.s.sion.

'The swine,' he muttered incoherently. 'The unutterable swine. Can you beat that? They'd shoot two women because. . . .'

'Take it easy, or you'l have people looking at you,'

warned Biggles. 'Let's stop here for a moment and calm down.' He halted by the sea wal which, from a hundred feet above, looked down on the little harbour.

Bertie joined them. He, too, was pale and his eyes glittered frostily. 'That's a bit steep,' he muttered.

'Absolutely vertical, in fact.'

Ginger nearly choked. 'Oh for a Lancaster,' he grated. 'I'd fan this place flat.'

'And kil a lot of perfectly innocent people,' said Biggles bitingly. 'You're out of control, get back on your course.'

'If Henri hears about this he'l give himself up,'

averred Bertie.

'Let us hope that he doesn't hear about it.'

'In which case,' rejoined Ginger harshly, 'Jeanette and her mother wil be shot by this viper Gordino.'

'Oh, stop bleating,' snapped Biggles. 'They aren't shot yet, and we've ample time to do something.'

'Do what? What can we do? Now that notice has been posted, the Rue Mariniere wil be watched by the police to make sure that Jeanette and her mother don't try to get away.'

Biggles lit a cigarette and flicked the match over the bal.u.s.trade. 'You're working yourself into a sweat and the mascara is running out of your hair down your face,' he observed. 'Wipe it off-unless you're trying to camouflage yourself as a zebra.'

'Okay-okay. But what are we going to do?'

implored Ginger.

Biggles jerked his thumb towards the old vil age of Monaco, on the far side of the harbour. 'You see that rock over there?'

'Yes.'

'You see the castle on it?'

'Of course.'

Biggles turned and pointed to the east, where, at no great distance, the coast of Italy jutted out into the sea. 'There's a town there cal ed Ventimiglia,' he said casual y. 'About seven hundred years ago a lad named Francis Grimaldi lived there. One day he woke up feeling very much as you do now. You see, the bloke who lived at the castle here at Monaco, a skunk named Spinola, had pinched his girl and locked her in the tower. Grimaldi didn't stand and swear-or if he did there's no record of it. As soon as it was dark he put his knife in his belt, coiled a rope round his waist, and rowing up to the rock, he scaled the cliff. Slitting the throats of people who were foolish enough to ask him where he was going, he went along to the castle, where, in the main hal , Spinola was guzzling wine with a party of pals.

Grimaldi locked the door and set the place on fire.

With his rope he rescued his girl, lowered her into the boat and returned home. So they lived happily ever after. You may have noticed that the street through the Condamine is named Rue Grimaldi.

Now, the point of my story is this. If Grimaldi could do a show like that and get away with it, in comparison our job of fetching Mrs and Miss Ducoste from the Rue Mariniere looks easy-don't you agree?'

Ginger grinned sheepishly. 'Sorry. Go ahead.'

'Of course, we can't just drop what we came here to do, so we shal have to try to do both,' resumed Biggles. 'Let's get organized. It means breaking up the party. Bertie, I shal have to ask you to get al the gen about the aircraft. Go and see Francois and find out what he knows. I shal want you to tel me how long the machines are here for, how they are moored, if they are guarded, and so on. You've got an hour to do it in. In one hour from now be at the corner of the Bou des Moulins, where Mario dropped us just now. We'l pick you up there. If we're delayed, wait. Got that?'

Bertie nodded. 'Absolutely.'

'Fine. Get cracking.'

Bertie turned away. 'See you later.'

'And now what do we do?' asked Ginger anxiously.

'For a start, instead of looking like a couple of tramps, we've got to get ourselves up to look like important people-Italian officers, for instance. Yes -that should be easy. I can see quite a lot of troops bathing in the harbour, and more are going down.

Let's join them.'

Ginger stared. 'Are you crazy?'

'Possibly, but I hope not,' answered Biggles.

'We're not actual y going to bathe, of course; pleasant though it would be, we've hardly time for that. But the idea gives us a perfectly good reason for taking off our clothes. See those two officers going down with towels? They're just about our weight. They'l probably be in the water for half an hour. When they dive in the drink, we'l dive into their uniforms.'

'And then?'

'We'l go up to the Chez Rossi, get Mario to turn out his blood-wagon, proceed to the Rue Mariniere, and arrest Madame and Mademoisel e Ducoste. We shal then return to Castil on, taking the ladies with us, col ecting Bertie on the way. Of course, it may not work out quite as smoothly as that, but that's the general idea.'

'Okay, let's get going.'

As they walked down the hil Ginger asked, 'If we can get these uniforms, what happens if anyone speaks to us in Italian?'

'We just act as if we didn't hear 'em,' answered Biggles calmly.

Biggles calmly.

The first part of the programme worked out so easily that Ginger found it hard not to smile. The two Italian officers joined the crowd of bathers on the quay and started to undress. Biggles and Ginger, taking up a position near them, fol owed suit. The Italians dived into the sea. Biggles and Ginger walked forward and dressed in their clothes. There were not fewer than a hundred Italians dressing and undressing at the time, and in such a crowd it was a simple matter to effect the change without comment.

It was al done in less than five minutes. Without undue haste they turned away and walked up the hil .

'Whatever happens, it should take those fel ows quite a while to work out that their togs have real y been pinched,' remarked Biggles. 'It wil probably be the last thing they think of. They'l suppose their kit has got mixed up with other people's.' Biggles returned the salute of two more Italian soldiers going down to bathe.

n.o.body spoke to them. n.o.body appeared to take the slightest notice of them, which, as Biggles pointed out, since n.o.body knew them was a reasonable expectation. It would be sheer bad luck if they were accosted by an officer senior to themselves, although they were only lieutenants.

They reached the Chez Rossi without trouble, and found Mario in the kitchen, was.h.i.+ng dishes. He nearly dropped one when Biggles and Ginger walked in through the side door.

'It's al right, Mario, don't get excited,' said Biggles quietly. 'Madame Ducoste and her daughter are to be arrested as hostages if Henri doesn't give himself up. We've got to get them away before that can happen. The only place we can take them is Castil on, and the only way we can get them there is in your ambulance. Get it out. Then al you have to do is drive us straight to the Rue Mariniere-that is, if you want to get your princess out of the country.'

' Si-si, signor Si-si, signor.' Mario nearly fel over himself in his haste to get into his uniform tunic, which he had only just taken off. It was hanging behind the door. From time to time he muttered and shrugged his shoulders as though he found it hard to keep pace with events.