by Hugh Lofting
“Are you John Dolittle, the famous animal-doctor?”
“Yes,” said Doctor Dolittle. “That is my name.”
“Well,” said the shark, “we know these pirates to be a badlot—especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will gladly eatthem up for you—and then you won’t be troubled any more.”
“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “This is really most attentive. But Idon’t think it will be necessary to eat them. Don’t let any of themreach the shore until I tell you—just keep them swimming about, willyou? And please make Ben Ali swim over here that I may talk to him.”
So the shark went off and chased Ben Ali over to the Doctor.
“Listen, Ben Ali,” said John Dolittle, leaning over the side. “Youhave been a very bad man; and I understand that you have killed manypeople. These good sharks here have just offered to eat you up forme—and ’twould indeed be a good thing if the seas were rid of you. Butif you will promise to do as I tell you, I will let you go in safety.”
“What must I do?” asked the pirate, looking down sideways at the bigshark who was smelling his leg under the water.
“You must kill no more people,” said the Doctor; “you must stopstealing; you must never sink another ship; you must give up being apirate altogether.”
“But what shall I do then?” asked Ben Ali. “How shall I live?”
“You and all your men must go on to this island and bebird-seed-farmers,” the Doctor answered. “You must grow bird-seed forthe canaries.”
The Barbary Dragon turned pale with anger, “_Grow bird-seed!_” hegroaned in disgust. “Can’t I be a sailor?”
“No,” said the Doctor, “you cannot. You have been a sailor longenough—and sent many stout ships and good men to the bottom of thesea. For the rest of your life you must be a peaceful farmer. The sharkis waiting. Do not waste any more of his time. Make up your mind.”
“Thunder and Lightning!” Ben Ali muttered—“_Bird-seed!_” Then he lookeddown into the water again and saw the great fish smelling his other leg.
“Very well,” he said sadly. “We’ll be farmers.”
“And remember,” said the Doctor, “that if you do not keep yourpromise—if you start killing and stealing again, I shall hear of it,because the canaries will come and tell me. And be very sure that Iwill find a way to punish you. For though I may not be able to sail aship as well as you, so long as the birds and the beasts and the fishesare my friends, I do not have to be afraid of a pirate chief—eventhough he call himself ‘The Dragon of Barbary.’ Now go and be a goodfarmer and live in peace.”
Then the Doctor turned to the big shark, and waving his hand he said,
“All right. Let them swim safely to the land.”
_THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER_
TOO-TOO, THE LISTENER
HAVING thanked the sharks again for their kindness, the Doctor and hispets set off once more on their journey home in the swift ship with thethree red sails.
As they moved out into the open sea, the animals all went downstairsto see what their new boat was like inside; while the Doctor leant onthe rail at the back of the ship with a pipe in his mouth, watching theCanary Islands fade away in the blue dusk of the evening.
While he was standing there, wondering how the monkeys were gettingon—and what his garden would look like when he got back to Puddleby,Dab-Dab came tumbling up the stairs, all smiles and full of news.
“Doctor!” she cried. “This ship of the pirates is simplybeautiful—absolutely. The beds downstairs are made of primrosesilk—with hundreds of big pillows and cushions; there are thick, softcarpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there are allsorts of good things to eat and drink—special things; the larder—well,it’s just like a shop, that’s all. You never saw anything like it inyour life—Just think—they kept five different kinds of sardines, thosemen! Come and look.... Oh, and we found a little room down there withthe door locked; and we are all crazy to get in and see what’s inside.Jip says it must be where the pirates kept their treasure. But we can’topen the door. Come down and see if you can let us in.”
So the Doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautifulship. He found the animals gathered round a little door, all talkingat once, trying to guess what was inside. The Doctor turned the handlebut it wouldn’t open. Then they all started to hunt for the key. Theylooked under the mat; they looked under all the carpets; they lookedin all the cupboards and drawers and lockers—in the big chests in theship’s dining-room; they looked everywhere.
While they were doing this they discovered a lot of new and wonderfulthings that the pirates must have stolen from other ships: Kashmirshawls as thin as a cobweb, embroidered with flowers of gold; jars offine tobacco from Jamaica; carved ivory boxes full of Russian tea; anold violin with a string broken and a picture on the back; a set of bigchess-men, carved out of coral and amber; a walking-stick which hada sword inside it when you pulled the handle; six wine-glasses withtourquoise and silver round the rims; and a lovely great sugar-bowl,made of mother o’ pearl. But nowhere in the whole boat could they finda key to fit that lock.
So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the key-hole.But something had been stood against the wall on the inside and hecould see nothing.
While they were standing around, wondering what they should do, theowl, Too-Too, suddenly said,
“Sh!—Listen!—I do believe there’s some one in there!”
They all kept still a moment. Then the Doctor said,
“‘Sh!—Listen!—I do believe there’s some one in there!’”]
“You must be mistaken, Too-Too. I don’t hear anything.”
“I’m sure of it,” said the owl. “Sh!—There it is again—Don’t you hearthat?”
“No, I do not,” said the Doctor. “What kind of a sound is it?”
“I hear the noise of some one putting his hand in his pocket,” said theowl.
“But that makes hardly any sound at all,” said the Doctor. “Youcouldn’t hear that out here.”
“Pardon me, but I can,” said Too-Too. “I tell you there is some oneon the other side of that door putting his hand in his pocket. Almosteverything makes _some_ noise—if your ears are only sharp enoughto catch it. Bats can hear a mole walking in his tunnel under theearth—and they think they’re good hearers. But we owls can tell you,using only one ear, the color of a kitten from the way it winks in thedark.”
“Well, well!” said the Doctor. “You surprise me. That’s veryinteresting.... Listen again and tell me what he’s doing now.”
“I’m not sure yet,” said Too-Too, “if it’s a man at all. Maybe it’s awoman. Lift me up and let me listen at the key-hole and I’ll soon tellyou.”
So the Doctor lifted the owl up and held him close to the lock of thedoor.
After a moment Too-Too said,
“Now he’s rubbing his face with his left hand. It is a small hand anda small face. It _might_ be a woman—No. Now he pushes his hair back offhis forehead—It’s a man all right.”
“Women sometimes do that,” said the Doctor.
“True,” said the owl. “But when they do, their long hair makes quitea different sound.... Sh! Make that fidgety pig keep still. Now allhold your breath a moment so I can listen well. This is very difficult,what I’m doing now—and the pesky door is so thick! Sh! Everybody quitestill—shut your eyes and don’t breathe.”
Too-Too leaned down and listened again very hard and long.
At last he looked up into the Doctor’s face and said,
“The man in there is unhappy. He weeps. He has taken care not toblubber or sniffle, lest we should find out that he is crying. But Iheard—quite distinctly—the sound of a tear falling on his sleeve.”
“How do you know it wasn’t a drop of water falling off the ceiling onhim?” asked Gub-Gub.
“Pshaw!—Such ignorance!” sniffed Too-Too. “A drop of water falling offthe ceiling would have made ten times as much noise!”
“Well,�
� said the Doctor, “if the poor fellow’s unhappy, we’ve got toget in and see what’s the matter with him. Find me an axe, and I’llchop the door down.”
_THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER_
THE OCEAN GOSSIPS
RIGHT away an axe was found. And the Doctor soon chopped a hole in thedoor big enough to clamber through.
At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So hestruck a match.
The room was quite small; no window; the ceiling, low. For furniturethere was only one little stool. All round the room big barrels stoodagainst the walls, fastened at the bottom so they wouldn’t tumble withthe rolling of the ship; and above the barrels, pewter jugs of allsizes hung from wooden pegs. There was a strong, winey smell. And inthe middle of the floor sat a little boy, about eight years old, cryingbitterly.
“I declare, it is the pirates’ rum-room!” said Jip in a whisper.
“Yes. Very rum!” said Gub-Gub. “The smell makes me giddy.”
The little boy seemed rather frightened to find a man standing therebefore him and all those animals staring in through the hole in thebroken door. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle’s face by the light ofthe match, he stopped crying and got up.
“You aren’t one of the pirates, are you?” he asked.
And when the Doctor threw back his head and laughed long and loud, thelittle boy smiled too and came and took his hand.
“You laugh like a friend,” he said—“not like a pirate. Could you tellme where my uncle is?”
“I am afraid I can’t,” said the Doctor. “When did you see him last?”
“It was the day before yesterday,” said the boy. “I and my uncle wereout fishing in our little boat, when the pirates came and caught us.They sunk our fishing-boat and brought us both on to this ship. Theytold my uncle that they wanted him to be a pirate like them—for he wasclever at sailing a ship in all weathers. But he said he didn’t want tobe a pirate, because killing people and stealing was no work for a goodfisherman to do. Then the leader, Ben Ali, got very angry and gnashedhis teeth, and said they would throw my uncle into the sea if he didn’tdo as they said. They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of afight going on above. And when they let me come up again next day, myuncle was nowhere to be seen. I asked the pirates where he was; butthey wouldn’t tell me. I am very much afraid they threw him into thesea and drowned him.”
And the little boy began to cry again.
“Well now—wait a minute,” said the Doctor. “Don’t cry. Let’s go andhave tea in the dining-room, and we’ll talk it over. Maybe your uncleis quite safe all the time. You don’t _know_ that he was drowned, doyou? And that’s something. Perhaps we can find him for you. First we’llgo and have tea—with strawberry-jam; and then we will see what can bedone.”
All the animals had been standing around listening with greatcuriosity. And when they had gone into the ship’s dining-room and werehaving tea, Dab-Dab came up behind the Doctor’s chair and whispered.
“Ask the porpoises if the boy’s uncle was drowned—they’ll know.”
“All right,” said the Doctor, taking a second piece of bread-and-jam.
“What are those funny, clicking noises you are making with yourtongue?” asked the boy.
“Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck-language,” the Doctoranswered. “This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets.”
“I didn’t even know that ducks had a language,” said the boy. “Are allthese other animals your pets, too? What is that strange-looking thingwith two heads?”
“Sh!” the Doctor whispered. “That is the pushmi-pullyu. Don’t let himsee we’re talking about him—he gets so dreadfully embarrassed.... Tellme, how did you come to be locked up in that little room?”
“The pirates shut me in there when they were going off to steal thingsfrom another ship. When I heard some one chopping on the door, Ididn’t know who it could be. I was very glad to find it was you. Do youthink you will be able to find my uncle for me?”
“Well, we are going to try very hard,” said the Doctor. “Now what wasyour uncle like to look at?”
“He had red hair,” the boy answered—“very red hair, and the picture ofan anchor tattooed on his arm. He was a strong man, a kind uncle andthe best sailor in the South Atlantic. His fishing-boat was called _TheSaucy Sally_—a cutter-rigged sloop.”
“What’s ‘cutterigsloop’?” whispered Gub-Gub, turning to Jip.
“Sh!—That’s the kind of a ship the man had,” said Jip. “Keep still,can’t you?”
“Oh,” said the pig, “is that all? I thought it was something to drink.”
So the Doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining-room,and went upstairs to look for passing porpoises.
And soon a whole school came dancing and jumping through the water, ontheir way to Brazil.
When they saw the Doctor leaning on the rail of his ship, they cameover to see how he was getting on.
And the Doctor asked them if they had seen anything of a man with redhair and an anchor tattooed on his arm.
“Do you mean the master of _The Saucy Sally_?” asked the porpoises.
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “That’s the man. Has he been drowned?”
“His fishing-sloop was sunk,” said the porpoises—“for we saw it lyingon the bottom of the sea. But there was nobody inside it, because wewent and looked.”
“His little nephew is on the ship with me here,” said the Doctor. “Andhe is terribly afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea.Would you be so good as to find out for me, for sure, whether he hasbeen drowned or not?”
“Oh, he isn’t drowned,” said the porpoises. “If he were, we would besure to have heard of it from the deep-sea Decapods. We hear all thesalt-water news. The shell-fish call us ‘The Ocean Gossips.’ No—tellthe little boy we are sorry we do not know where his uncle is; but weare quite certain he hasn’t been drowned in the sea.”
So the Doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew, whoclapped his hands with happiness. And the pushmi-pullyu took the littleboy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining-room table; whileall the other animals followed behind, beating the dish-covers withspoons, pretending it was a parade.
_THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER_
SMELLS
“YOUR uncle must now be _found_,” said the Doctor—“that is the nextthing—now that we know he wasn’t thrown into the sea.”
Then Dab-Dab came up to him again and whispered,
“Ask the eagles to look for the man. No living creature can see betterthan an eagle. When they are miles high in the air they can count theants crawling on the ground. Ask the eagles.”
So the Doctor sent one of the swallows off to get some eagles.
And in about an hour the little bird came back with six different kindsof eagles: a Black Eagle, a Bald Eagle, a Fish Eagle, a Golden Eagle,an Eagle-Vulture, and a White-tailed Sea Eagle. Twice as high as theboy they were, each one of them. And they stood on the rail of theship, like round-shouldered soldiers all in a row, stern and still andstiff; while their great, gleaming, black eyes shot darting glanceshere and there and everywhere.
Gub-Gub was scared of them and got behind a barrel. He said he felt asthough those terrible eyes were looking right inside of him to see whathe had stolen for lunch.
And the Doctor said to the eagles,
“A man has been lost—a fisherman with red hair and an anchor marked onhis arm. Would you be so kind as to see if you can find him for us?This boy is the man’s nephew.”
Eagles do not talk very much. And all they answered in their huskyvoices was,
“You may be sure that we will do our best—for John Dolittle.”
Then they flew off—and Gub-Gub came out from behind his barrel to seethem go. Up and up and up they went—higher and higher and higher still.Then, when the Doctor could only just see them, they parted companyand started going off all different ways—North, East, South and West,looking like tiny grains of black sand
creeping across the wide, bluesky.
“My gracious!” said Gub-Gub in a hushed voice. “What a height! I wonderthey don’t scorch their feathers—so near the sun!”
They were gone a long time. And when they came back it was almost night.
And the eagles said to the Doctor,
“We have searched all the seas and all the countries and all theislands and all the cities and all the villages in this half of theworld. But we have failed. In the main street of Gibraltar we sawthree red hairs lying on a wheelbarrow before a baker’s door. But theywere not the hairs of a man—they were the hairs out of a fur-coat.Nowhere, on land or water, could we see any sign of this boy’s uncle.And if _we_ could not see him, then he is not to be seen.... For JohnDolittle—we have done our best.”
Then the six great birds flapped their big wings and flew back to theirhomes in the mountains and the rocks.
“Well,” said Dab-Dab, after they had gone, “what are we going to donow? The boy’s uncle _must_ be found—there’s no two ways about that.The lad isn’t old enough to be knocking around the world by himself.Boys aren’t like ducklings—they have to be taken care of till they’requite old.... I wish Chee-Chee were here. He would soon find the man.Good old Chee-Chee! I wonder how he’s getting on!”
“If we only had Polynesia with us,” said the white mouse. “_She_ wouldsoon think of some way. Do you remember how she got us all out ofprison—the second time? My, but she was a clever one!”
“I don’t think so much of those eagle-fellows,” said Jip. “They’re justconceited. They may have very good eyesight and all that; but when youask them to find a man for you, they can’t do it—and they have thecheek to come back and say that nobody else could do it. They’re justconceited—like that collie in Puddleby. And I don’t think a whole lotof those gossipy old porpoises either. All they could tell us was thatthe man isn’t in the sea. We don’t want to know where he _isn’t_—wewant to know where he _is_.”
