The Story of Doctor Dolittle
came and tried to get on to the boat where the Doctor was. But Jip kept
snapping at their noses, so they were afraid to climb up the side of
the ship.
Then suddenly they all cried out in great fear,
“_The sharks!_ The sharks are coming! Let us get on to the ship before
they eat us! Help, help!—The sharks! The sharks!”
And now the Doctor could see, all over the bay, the backs of big fishes
swimming swiftly through the water.
And one great shark came near to the ship, and poking his nose out of
the water he said to the Doctor,
“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 bad
lot—especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will gladly eat
them up for you—and then you won’t be troubled any more.”
“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “This is really most attentive. But I
don’t think it will be necessary to eat them. Don’t let any of them
reach the shore until I tell you—just keep them swimming about, will
you? 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. “You
have been a very bad man; and I understand that you have killed many
people. These good sharks here have just offered to eat you up for
me—and ’twould indeed be a good thing if the seas were rid of you. But
if 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 big
shark who was smelling his leg under the water.
“You must kill no more people,” said the Doctor; “you must stop
stealing; you must never sink another ship; you must give up being a
pirate 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 be
bird-seed-farmers,” the Doctor answered. “You must grow bird-seed for
the canaries.”
The Barbary Dragon turned pale with anger, “_Grow bird-seed!_” he
groaned in disgust. “Can’t I be a sailor?”
“No,” said the Doctor, “you cannot. You have been a sailor long
enough—and sent many stout ships and good men to the bottom of the
sea. For the rest of your life you must be a peaceful farmer. The shark
is waiting. Do not waste any more of his time. Make up your mind.”
“Thunder and Lightning!” Ben Ali muttered—“_Bird-seed!_” Then he looked
down 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 your
promise—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 I
will find a way to punish you. For though I may not be able to sail a
ship as well as you, so long as the birds and the beasts and the fishes
are my friends, I do not have to be afraid of a pirate chief—even
though he call himself ‘The Dragon of Barbary.’ Now go and be a good
farmer 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 his
pets set off once more on their journey home in the swift ship with the
three red sails.
As they moved out into the open sea, the animals all went downstairs
to see what their new boat was like inside; while the Doctor leant on
the rail at the back of the ship with a pipe in his mouth, watching the
Canary Islands fade away in the blue dusk of the evening.
While he was standing there, wondering how the monkeys were getting
on—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 simply
beautiful—absolutely. The beds downstairs are made of primrose
silk—with hundreds of big pillows and cushions; there are thick, soft
carpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there are all
sorts 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 in
your life—Just think—they kept five different kinds of sardines, those
men! Come and look.... Oh, and we found a little room down there with
the 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’t
open 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 beautiful
ship. He found the animals gathered round a little door, all talking
at once, trying to guess what was inside. The Doctor turned the handle
but it wouldn’t open. Then they all started to hunt for the key. They
looked under the mat; they looked under all the carpets; they looked
in all the cupboards and drawers and lockers—in the big chests in the
ship’s dining-room; they looked everywhere.
While they were doing this they discovered a lot of new and wonderful
things that the pirates must have stolen from other ships: Kashmir
shawls as thin as a cobweb, embroidered with flowers of gold; jars of
fine tobacco from Jamaica; carved ivory boxes full of Russian tea; an
old violin with a string broken and a picture on the back; a set of big
chess-men, carved out of coral and amber; a walking-stick which had
a sword inside it when you pulled the handle; six wine-glasses with
tourquoise and silver round the rims; and a lovely great sugar-bowl,
made of mother o’ pearl. But nowhere in the whole boat could they find
a 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 he
could see nothing.
While they were standing around, wondering what they should do, the
owl, 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,
“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 hear
that?”
“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 the
owl.
“But that makes hardly any sound at all,” said the Doctor. “You
couldn’t hear that out here.”
“Pardon me, but I can,” said Too-Too. “I tell you there is some one
on the other side of that door putting his hand in his pocket. Almost
everything makes _some_ noise—if your ears are only sharp enough
to catch it. Bats can hear a mole walking in his tunnel under the
earth—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 the
dark.”
“Well, well!” said the Doctor. “You surprise me. That’s very
interesting.... 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 a
woman. Lift me up and let me listen at the key-hole and I’ll soon tell
you.”
So the Doctor lifted the owl up and held him close to the lock of the
door.
After a moment Too-Too said,
“Now he’s rubbing his face with his left hand. It is a small hand and
a small face. It _might_ be a woman—No. Now he pushes his hair back off
his 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 quite
a different sound.... Sh! Make that fidgety pig keep still. Now all
hold 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 quite
still—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 to
blubber or sniffle, lest we should find out that he is crying. But I
heard—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 on
him?” asked Gub-Gub.
“Pshaw!—Such ignorance!” sniffed Too-Too. “A drop of water falling off
the ceiling would have made ten times as much noise!”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “if the poor fellow’s unhappy, we’ve got to
get in and see what’s the matter with him. Find me an axe, and I’ll
chop the door down.”
_THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER_
THE OCEAN GOSSIPS
RIGHT away an axe was found. And the Doctor soon chopped a hole in the
door big enough to clamber through.
At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So he
struck a match.
The room was quite small; no window; the ceiling, low. For furniture
there was only one little stool. All round the room big barrels stood
against the walls, fastened at the bottom so they wouldn’t tumble with
the rolling of the ship; and above the barrels, pewter jugs of all
sizes hung from wooden pegs. There was a strong, winey smell. And in
the middle of the floor sat a little boy, about eight years old, crying
bitterly.
“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 there
before him and all those animals staring in through the hole in the
broken door. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle’s face by the light of
the 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, the
little boy smiled too and came and took his hand.
“You laugh like a friend,” he said—“not like a pirate. Could you tell
me 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 were
out 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. They
told my uncle that they wanted him to be a pirate like them—for he was
clever at sailing a ship in all weathers. But he said he didn’t want to
be a pirate, because killing people and stealing was no work for a good
fisherman to do. Then the leader, Ben Ali, got very angry and gnashed
his teeth, and said they would throw my uncle into the sea if he didn’t
do as they said. They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of a
fight going on above. And when they let me come up again next day, my
uncle was nowhere to be seen. I asked the pirates where he was; but
they wouldn’t tell me. I am very much afraid they threw him into the
sea 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 and
have tea in the dining-room, and we’ll talk it over. Maybe your uncle
is quite safe all the time. You don’t _know_ that he was drowned, do
you? And that’s something. Perhaps we can find him for you. First we’ll
go and have tea—with strawberry-jam; and then we will see what can be
done.”
All the animals had been standing around listening with great
curiosity. And when they had gone into the ship’s dining-room and were
having 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 your
tongue?” asked the boy.
“Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck-language,” the Doctor