Ginger In Australia
Chapter 10
Persistence Pays Off
Algy was not long doing the rounds of the garages. There were only two. He hired an ancient Land Rover for their own use and talked to the mechanic who had rented Ginger his car.
"He hired the car for four days," Algy reported as soon as he got back. "The chap said Ginger had been asking about the opal mines to the north of here and borrowed a map of the region. He was last seen heading north making for Duck Creek."
"Then we'd better get cracking," urged Biggles. "Bertie, you stay here in case Ginger comes back. If he does, tell him to wait. We don't want to be chasing our own tails. Algy, you and I will head north and see what we can find out. With any luck we'll pass him on his return journey."
Bertie settled down to wait as Algy and Biggles climbed into the Land Rover. "You drive, I'll navigate," instructed Biggles as they set off, following the same trail as Ginger had traversed the day before.
Algy drove as fast as he dared given the state of the roads. Although Biggles kept watch there was no sign of Ginger or the car he had hired. "Pull in here," ordered Biggles as he saw the spoil heaps that had attracted Ginger's attention. "We'll ask this chap if anyone's seen him come this way."
By chance, the man he hailed turned out to be a miner who had spoken to Ginger just before he left. What he told Biggles did nothing to lessen his anxiety for the young man.
"Let's head back," he told Algy when he had thanked the man for his help. "Ginger set off back to the hotel. He never made it. That means something must have happened to him between here and Yowah."
"There was no sign of him on the road," remarked Algy. "I looked."
"So did I," admitted Biggles. "Perhaps he's had an accident and has gone off the road. We'll keep our eyes peeled on the way back and if we don't find him, one of us will take the Auster and do a search from the air. At least we know now roughly where he is."
Algy nodded but said nothing, putting the Land Rover in gear and pulling away. They reached Yowah without spotting any evidence that Ginger had ever passed that way and gloomily reported what they had found to Bertie.
"Well, he's not come back here, old boy," affirmed Bertie. "I'm getting seriously worried about young Ginger."
Biggles was silent, but Algy knew him well enough to know that he shared Bertie's concern.
"Let's grab a quick bite to eat and start the air search," suggested Biggles. "If Ginger is lost or hurt, any delay could make the situation worse."
After a hasty meal, Biggles took to the air in the Auster and Algy, after having dropped him off at the airfield, made his way back toward the mine. They had decided to take the radio out of the Halifax and put it in the Land Rover so that they could keep in touch. Hurriedly improvising a suitable antenna, Algy repeatedly muttered that he missed Ginger when it came to radio work. Biggles irritably told him to stop complaining and hurry up.
When Biggles took off in the Auster, he headed straight for the road that they had travelled to the mine. As he swept northwards he passed over Algy's Land Rover raising a cloud of dust from the unmetalled surface.
Biggles divided up the area he was to search into squares, flying a regular pattern, each square slightly overlapping the other, looking for any sign of Ginger or the car he had been driving.
He had almost given up hope, as he could see the mine workings in the distance and thought that by road the journey would not be more than twenty minutes or half an hour, when he glimpsed the sun glinting on something. He banked the Auster and brought it round so that he could get a better view.
Whatever had caused the flash of light was half hidden in the scrub. Biggles went lower and changed the angle of his approach. The gleam had been the reflection of light off a windscreen, he realised and called Algy immediately to investigate, pinpointing the position as he circled overhead. He saw Algy's vehicle race up and stop in a cloud of dust. Algy leapt out, looking for the crash that Biggles had spotted. Following Biggles' instructions, Algy plunged into the scrub. Within minutes he was back and the radio crackled in Biggles' earphones.
"It's his car, Biggles," Algy's disembodied voice came over the ether, "but he's not in it." He paused and when he spoke again, despite the distortion caused by the narrowness of the bandwidth, Biggles could plainly hear the anxiety in his voice. "There's a lot of blood and he's been sick."
Biggles looked around. He could not see the car clearly and there were patches of scrub interspersed with open ground. If Ginger was down in the bush, he would not be able to sight him from the air in all probability unless he was out in the open. If he was, after a day unprotected in the heat, Biggles was not hopeful of a good outcome.
"Make a search from ground level," he told Algy. "I'll look from here, but I don't hold out much hope. If he's unconscious, he'll be a small target to spot from here. There is one thing, if he's badly hurt he can't have gone far."
Algy acknowledged and plunged into the bush once more. Biggles lost sight of him for a while and then Algy emerged into view, heading for a clump of scrub between the wreck and the trees.
Biggles saw him quicken his pace and duck under cover. In a flash he was back out again, waving his arms frantically for Biggles to land.
"He's found him!" exclaimed Biggles to himself and cast about for somewhere to put the machine down near Algy, who had gone back to the scrub.
Not without a certain amount of trepidation, Biggles floated the Auster down on a clear patch of ground about a hundred yards from where he had last seen Algy.
The wheels rumbled over the rough terrain and Biggles heaved a hearty sigh of relief as the aircraft ran to a stop safely. He jumped down and made for Algy's last known position.