Biggles Bingo: Stood up in front of a firing squad; Daring rescue

I have filled in two squares of my Biggles Bingo card.

From Ashes. 1914 words.

Erich von Stalhein is put before a firing squad.

Prompts: Stood up in front of a firing squad; Daring rescue. (Also a bonus prompt not on my card, a curative nip of brandy.)

Also, here's another which I didn't write for Biggles Bingo as I wrote it before we thought of that, so I'm not counting it for the card, but it does contain a hilarious number of the prompts on my card.

Human Touch. 14,000 words.

Biggles and von Stalhein are trapped together in an evil laboratory.

Prompts: Searching for lost friend(s), Daring rescue, Gunshot wound, A mysterious poison, Nerves, Dinner invitations.

Biggles Flies West, by W. E. Johns

The others joined in the famous refrain, roaring it at the top of their voices.

'Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum.'

Algy, looking through the loophole, saw the astonished faces of the soldiers peering out of the jungle. "They think we've gone crazy," he declared.

Biggles nodded. "They're not far wrong, either," he murmured drily. Then his eyes glinted. "Avast there, pipe down," he cried. "Here comes the boat."

The one where Biggles and crew play pirates! Literally. They not only get involved in a pirate adventure, but they dress up as pirate, fly the Jolly Roger, and take on pirate names from Treasure Island I swear to God. Biggles is Captain Smollett. It's hilarious.

It begins with a historical prologue about pirates and a cursed doubloon which is the most piratical thing I have ever read. It's absolutely delightful. In another universe, Johns wrote historical adventures and they were great.

The main story begins with a teenage boy named Dick living mostly on his own. He gets the tragic news that his father, a sailor, has died, but managed to send him 1) a letter describing how he found a cache of pirate treasure on an uninhabited island and how his shipmate tried to kill him for it and now he's dying, 2) a rather vague map to the treasure, 3) one gold doubloon.

No sooner has Dick received this than the shipmate bursts in and tries to kill him and steal the doubloon, letter, and map. (The shipmate knows about the island and treasure, but not the exact location of the treasure itself.) He flees and runs straight into Biggles and friends! After some adventures, Biggles agrees to fly Dick out to the island so they can all go treasure hunting.

Unfortunately, they are burdened with the doubloon, which the readers knows from the prologue is cursed. Literally everything goes wrong, starting with their attempt to take a taxi to a restaurant!

Once on the island, the pirate adventures truly begin. It's absolutely hilariously and amazingly piratical. It has EVERY pirate trope except a parrot (but it does have an albatross). Biggles is totally aware of how ridiculous it all is and throws himself into it with boyish enthusiasm, even giving everyone nicknames from Treasure Island.

It's completely delightful and an excellent example of writing different genres within the same series, and I would enthusiastically recommend it...

...but it does have a caveat, and it's a pretty big one. I'm sure by now you can guess what it is. The overall racism content is mostly in the mild-moderate range, and it's intermittent rather than pervasive, BUT it also includes several casual uses of the n-word. If I was reissuing this book I would remove them, and I wish someone had. I don't think even Johns would object, as judging by later books he appears to have met some actual Black people in the interim.

ETA: Apparently some editions DID remove it thank God. I am going to exchange my super-racist copy forthwith.

Re: the cover: Yes. I know.