First Edition. (No dustjacket) pp. 184 #061121
From biggles.info: Biggles is sent to British territory in Central Africa, near to the Belgian Congo to investigate two deaths that appear to have been the work of a leopard. Taking Algy, Bertie and Ginger with him, Biggles flies to Lake Jumu to stay at a Government rest house. On arrival, he makes the grim discovery of another victim, torn to shreds by what appear to be claws. Investigations reveal the village of the nearby Zinn tribesmen to be deserted apart from an old man who joins their party and they nickname ‘grandpa’. Bertie is left to guard the rest house and has visitors who want to take ‘grandpa’ away. The timely arrival of Ginger saves what could have been an ugly situation. Biggles flies out and meets a local guide called Charlie who agrees to act as interpreter for the group. During a night watch duty, Ginger shoots a man dressed up as a leopard, complete with real paws and claws who was sneaking up on them. Biggles goes to confront the baddies who have now been located. They are lead by two men called Ducard and Batoun. With them they have a witch doctor who is stirring up unrest amongst the natives. The Zinn villagers are all scared of him and are being used as manual labour to dig in various places. Biggles tells them to leave and takes the Zinn people back to their village. Whilst hunting for food to feed the villagers, Biggles has a showdown with a lion and this is the picture on the dust cover of the book. A further leopard man attack on the Zinn village leads to Charlie being wounded and Bertie killing his assailant. Biggles discovers that the area is rich in bauxite, which is aluminium oxide. However, Ducard and Batoun are searching for diamonds, convinced by the story of a dying prospector who told them about the riches of the area – but died before he said what it was. Batoun kills Ducard when he wants to leave and goes to get native reinforcements from the Belgian Congo. Assisted by Capitaine Bourgon of the Belgian Colonial Service, Biggles withstands an attack at the rest house in which both Batoun and the witch doctor are killed. The arrival of the King’s African Rifles saves the day.