PROLOGUE
I. Murder on the Main
There was a soft creaking of blocks and tackle as. the two ships, Rose of Bristol and Santa Anna ,. stirred uneasily on the gently heaving ocean. The. ropes of the grappling irons that held them in a fast. embrace grew taut, slackened, and grew taut again;. it was almost as if the Rose shrank from the contact. and strove to escape. But the steel hooks in her. gunwales held her fast.
II. The Curse
III. Time Marches On
CHAPTER I AN UGLY CUSTOMER
Through the fog-frosted glass of his attic window. Dick Denver stared with unseeing eyes at the. muddy water of the River Thames as it surged. sullenly through the grey November murk towards. the sea. Only fifteen years of life lay behind him;. how many lay ahead he did not know, nor did he. care, and the despondency of his mood was reflected. in his thin, pale face.
CHAPTER II THE DOUBLOON
Dick led the way jubilantly, for it was not often. that he was treated to a free meal, and in a few. minutes they were all seated round a marble-topped. table with their feet on a newly sawdusted. floor. The place was fairly full, sailors and water-men. forming the bulk of the customers, and the. air was blue with tobacco smoke, but no one paid. any attention to them as they took their places in. a quiet corner.
CHAPTER III THE LETTER
Dear Dick,
CHAPTER IV BIGGLES MAKES A PROPOSITION
There was a full minute’s silence after Biggles. stopped reading, a silence broken only by the faint. rustle as he unfolded a little yellowish slip of paper. that had been enclosed in the letter. He gazed at. it for some seconds without speaking; then, looking. up, he smiled faintly at the intent expressions. on the faces of the others. ‘Well, so now we know,’. he observed quietly.
CHAPTER V UNEXPECTED DIFFICULTIES
From five thousand feet Biggles looked down. through his windscreen over rolling leagues of. sapphire sea, unmarked by a ripple except at the. edge, where, in a long line of creamy turquoise,. tiny waves lapped idly at the coral strand that. meandered mile after mile ahead until at last it lost. itself in the purple distance. Beyond it, to the right. as the aeroplane flew, stretched the jungle, a vague. monotonous blanket of sombre green that rolled. away, fold after fold, to the mysterious shadows of. the far horizon.
CHAPTER VI TRAGIC EVENTS
Fluted bars of soft mother-of-pearl light were. filtering through the window when Biggles awoke. with a start. He was on his feet in an instant.. ‘Hark!’ he cried, as the others sat up in various. degrees of wakefulness.
CHAPTER VII THE HURRICANE
The new aircraft was a pure flying-boat; that is to. say, it was not fitted with a land undercarriage.. It was larger than their own machine, having. accommodation for eight passengers, but being. designed for commercial work, the pilot’s compartment. was separated from the cabin by a bulkhead,. although communication could be established. by means of a small doorway, the door. itself having a glass panel in it through which. passengers could, if they wished, see into the. cockpit. All of which was, of course, orthodox. design in that class of aircraft. It was not the. machine Biggles would have chosen in the ordinary. way, but he had had no choice, and in the circumstances. he accounted himself extremely fortunate. in being able to acquire an aircraft of any. sort.
CHAPTER VIII WRECKED
Out of the corner of his eyes Biggles saw Dick. go overboard and disappear under the foam, but. he could do nothing to help him. Indeed, as he. fought to keep the flying-boat under control, it. seemed certain that during the next minute or two. the others must join him. Ashen, he looked at Algy.. ‘Jump when she hits!’ he cried, in a shrill, strangled. voice, and dived deliberately at the rocks.
CHAPTER IX WHAT HAPPENED TO DICK
Had Algy or Ginger, at the time when they had. recovered Dick’s jacket from the sea, looked a little. more closely to the left, where great heaps of seaweed,. torn from the ocean bed by the fury of the. hurricane, had been cast up, they might have noticed. a little white crumpled heap, half buried under long. ribbons of slimy kelp, in which case this story would. have had a different ending. For the crumpled heap. was Dick’s bruised body, pounded into unconsciousness. by the weight of the giant rollers which had, at. the finish, flung him far up the gently shelving beach.
CHAPTER X WHAT HAPPENED TO BIGGLES
When Biggles, on the sinking aircraft, had been. driven beyond the point of rock that hid him from. the others’ gaze, his position was not quite so. desperate as it undoubtedly appeared to them. In. the first place, the half empty tanks, and the air-filled. wings that still trailed behind the hull, gave. it a certain degree of buoyancy. Secondly—and. this, of course, they could not see—the wreck was. being driven towards a small islet, little more than. a big mound of rock, that rose out of the water. some distance farther along, perhaps two hundred. yards from the main island. It appeared to be a. piece broken off the end of the island, the very tip. of the crescent which in shape it resembled.. Beyond it lay the open sea.
CHAPTER XI THE RESCUE
Biggles stooped, caught Dick by the arm and. helped him to his feet. ‘You’re all right now,. laddie,’ he said kindly. ‘I was just about in time,. wasn’t I?’ he added gravely.
CHAPTER XII A LUCKY FALL
When he came back, and, after making the canoe. secure, climbed up to the fort, he found the others. still marvelling at it. They were agog with enthusiasm. and excitement, pardonable in the circumstances,. for it was impossible for anyone with. imagination to be in such a place without feeling. something of its romantic, if tragic, associations.
CHAPTER XIII REVELATIONS
Biggles and his companions had not fallen into. the galleon in the same place as Dick’s father, who. had crashed through into the saloon, which, in. accordance with the usual practice of the period in. which the ship was built, was situated in the poop.. They were, as Biggles pointed out, in the fo’c’sle,. which they saw at once was precisely as it had been. abandoned, except that what had once been. blankets were now mouldering heaps of mildew. from which sprouted unhealthy-looking growths. of green fungus. Indeed, from them and the few. odd articles of clothing that lay about rose an. unwholesome stench of corruption and decay.. There was little else there of interest except a few. weapons, corroded with rust, that had been discarded. by the last of the pirates when they had. abandoned the ship. Anything of value had been. taken with them.
CHAPTER XIV DICK GOES ASHORE
For what seemed a long time Dick sat alone on. the roof. At first he could hear the others talking. down below, but after a while their conversation. became intermittent, and then finally stopped. altogether, so he assumed that they were sleeping.. Silence fell, the breathless hush of a tropic night.. The quivering of the palm fronds ceased, and. even the gentle lap, lap, lap, of the ripples at the. foot of the rock died away. The stars shone in the. heavens with unbelievable luminosity, like lamps. suspended from a purple ceiling. The moon crept. over the horizon and began its upward journey,. turning the sea into a lake of shimmering quicksilver,. and the island into a mysterious world of. vague black shadows. Across the deserted beach. the black rocks crouched like monsters emerging. from the ocean bed.
CHAPTER XV THE ATTACK
He awoke with a start, aware that he had slept. It. was still dark, but he could see a vague form moving. about the room. He sat up to see more clearly.
The others joined in the famous refrain, roaring it. at the top of their voices.
CHAPTER XVI WARM WORK
Dawn the following morning saw Algy doing duty. as guard. A slight mist hung over the sea and. shrouded the island in a soft, lavender-tinted. mantle, but as the rays of the sun dispersed it, his. sharply uttered ‘All hands to repel boarders’. brought the others scrambling to their feet.
CHAPTER XVII EXPLANATIONS
‘It was a bit of luck for us that you happened to. be coming this way,’ observed Biggles, as they sped. towards the destroyer.
