The preceding day, twenty miles away, Biggles, Smyth and Ginger had spent an anxious day in their hiding place while the forest was being combed for them by an army of men, a fact which cries and the crashing of bushes did not allow them to forget. By the afternoon they had given up all hope of Algy’s arrival, knowing that only dire catastrophe could have prevented him from arriving at the rendezvous at the appointed hour; so they concentrated their efforts on evading capture until such time as they could decide on a course of action. They had more than one narrow escape, for search parties came perilously close to them more than once. On one occasion, two men, carrying rifles, who had been beating the foreshore, actually started towards their place of concealment, but at the last moment t
