The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (4 page)

So they all got safely to the shore—some
swimming, some flying; and those that climbed
along the rope brought the Doctor's trunk and
handbag with them.

But the ship was no good any more—with the
big hole in the bottom; and presently the rough
sea beat it to pieces on the rocks and the timbers
floated away.

Then they all took shelter in a nice dry cave
they found, high up in the cliffs, till the storm
was over.

When the sun came out next morning they
went down to the sandy beach to dry themselves.

"Dear old Africa!" sighed Polynesia. "It's
good to get back. Just think—it'll be a
hundred and sixty-nine years to-morrow since I was
here! And it hasn't changed a bit! Same old
palm-trees; same old red earth; same old black
ants! There's no place like home!"

And the others noticed she had tears in her eyes—
she was so pleased to see her country once again.

Then the Doctor missed his high hat; for it
had been blown into the sea during the storm.
So Dab-Dab went out to look for it. And presently
she saw it, a long way off, floating on the
water like a toy-boat.

When she flew down to get it, she found one
of the white mice, very frightened, sitting
inside it.

"What are you doing here?" asked the duck.
"You were told to stay behind in Puddleby."

"I didn't want to be left behind," said the
mouse. "I wanted to see what Africa was like
—I have relatives there. So I hid in the baggage
and was brought on to the ship with the
hard-tack. When the ship sank I was terribly
frightened—because I cannot swim far. I
swam as long as I could, but I soon got all
exhausted and thought I was going to sink. And
then, just at that moment, the old man's hat came
floating by; and I got into it because I did not
want to be drowned."

So the duck took up the hat with the mouse in
it and brought it to the Doctor on the shore.
And they all gathered round to have a look.

"That's what you call a 'stowaway,'" said the parrot.

Presently, when they were looking for a place
in the trunk where the white mouse could travel
comfortably, the monkey, Chee-Chee, suddenly said,

"Sh! I hear footsteps in the jungle!"

They all stopped talking and listened. And
soon a black man came down out of the woods
and asked them what they were doing there.

"My name is John Dolittle—M. D.," said the
Doctor. "I have been asked to come to Africa
to cure the monkeys who are sick."

"You must all come before the King," said
the black man.

"What king?" asked the Doctor, who didn't
want to waste any time.

"The King of the Jolliginki," the man
answered. "All these lands belong to him; and all
strangers must be brought before him. Follow me."

So they gathered up their baggage and went
off, following the man through the jungle.

WHEN they had gone a little way through
the thick forest they came to a wide, clear
space; and they saw the King's palace which
was made of mud.

This was where the King lived with his
Queen, Ermintrude, and their son, Prince
Bumpo. The Prince was away fishing for salmon
in the river. But the King and Queen
were sitting under an umbrella before the palace
door. And Queen Ermintrude was asleep.

When the Doctor had come up to the palace
the King asked him his business; and the Doctor
told him why he had come to Africa.

"You may not travel through my lands," said
the King. "Many years ago a white man came
to these shores; and I was very kind to him.
But after he had dug holes in the ground to get
the gold, and killed all the elephants to get their
ivory tusks, he went away secretly in his ship—
without so much as saying 'Thank you.' Never
again shall a white man travel through the lands
of Jolliginki."

Then the King turned to some of the black
men who were standing near and said, "Take
away this medicine-man—with all his animals,
and lock them up in my strongest prison."

So six of the black men led the Doctor and
all his pets away and shut them up in a stone
dungeon. The dungeon had only one little window,
high up in the wall, with bars in it; and
the door was strong and thick.

Then they all grew very sad; and Gub-Gub,
the pig, began to cry. But Chee-Chee said he
would spank him if he didn't stop that horrible
noise; and he kept quiet.

"Are we all here?" asked the Doctor, after
he had got used to the dim light.

"Yes, I think so," said the duck and started
to count them.

"Where's Polynesia?" asked the crocodile.
"She isn't here."

"Are you sure?" said the Doctor. "Look again.
Polynesia! Polynesia! Where are you?"

"I suppose she escaped," grumbled the crocodile.
"Well, that's just like her!—Sneaked off into
the jungle as soon as her friends got into trouble."

"I'm not that kind of a bird," said the parrot,
climbing out of the pocket in the tail of the
Doctor's coat. "You see, I'm small enough to
get through the bars of that window; and I was
afraid they would put me in a cage instead.
So while the King was busy talking, I hid in
the Doctor's pocket—and here I am! That's
what you call a 'ruse,'" she said, smoothing
down her feathers with her beak.

"Good Gracious!" cried the Doctor.
"You're lucky I didn't sit on you."

"Now listen," said Polynesia, "to-night, as
soon as it gets dark, I am going to creep through
the bars of that window and fly over to the
palace. And then—you'll see—I'll soon find
a way to make the King let us all out of prison."

"Oh, what can YOU do?" said Gub-Gub,
turning up his nose and beginning to cry again.
"You're only a bird!"

"Quite true," said the parrot. "But do not
forget that although I am only a bird, I CAN TALK
LIKE A MAN—and I know these people."

So that night, when the moon was shining
through the palm-trees and all the King's men
were asleep, the parrot slipped out through the
bars of the prison and flew across to the palace.
The pantry window had been broken by a tennis
ball the week before; and Polynesia popped
in through the hole in the glass.

She heard Prince Bumpo snoring in his bed-
room at the back of the palace. Then she tip-
toed up the stairs till she came to the King's
bedroom. She opened the door gently and
peeped in.

The Queen was away at a dance that night
at her cousin's; but the King was in bed fast
asleep.

Polynesia crept in, very softly, and got under
the bed.

Then she coughed—just the way Doctor
Dolittle used to cough. Polynesia could mimic
any one.

The King opened his eyes and said sleepily:
"Is that you, Ermintrude?" (He thought it
was the Queen come back from the dance.)

Then the parrot coughed again—loud, like a
man. And the King sat up, wide awake, and
said, "Who's that?"

"I am Doctor Dolittle," said the parrot—just
the way the Doctor would have said it.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?" cried
the King. "How dare you get out of prison!
Where are you?—I don't see you."

But the parrot just laughed—a long, deep
jolly laugh, like the Doctor's.

"Stop laughing and come here at once, so I
can see you," said the King.

"Foolish King!" answered Polynesia. "Have
you forgotten that you are talking to John
Dolittle, M.D.—the most wonderful man on earth?
Of course you cannot see me. I have made myself
invisible. There is nothing I cannot do.
Now listen: I have come here to-night to warn
you. If you don't let me and my animals travel
through your kingdom, I will make you and all
your people sick like the monkeys. For I can
make people well: and I can make people ill—
just by raising my little finger. Send your
soldiers at once to open the dungeon door, or you
shall have mumps before the morning sun has
risen on the hills of Jolliginki."

Then the King began to tremble and was
very much afraid.

"Doctor," he cried, "it shall be as you say.
Do not raise your little finger, please!" And he
jumped out of bed and ran to tell the soldiers
to open the prison door.

As soon as he was gone, Polynesia crept
downstairs and left the palace by the pantry window.

But the Queen, who was just letting herself
in at the backdoor with a latch-key, saw the par-
rot getting out through the broken glass. And
when the King came back to bed she told him
what she had seen.

Then the King understood that he had been
tricked, and he was dreadfully angry. He hurried
back to the prison at once

But he was too late. The door stood open.
The dungeon was empty. The Doctor and all
his animals were gone.

QUEEN ERMINTRUDE had never in her life seen her husband
so terrible as he got that night. He gnashed his teeth
with rage. He called everybody a fool. He threw his
tooth-brush at the palace cat. He rushed round
in his night-shirt and woke up all his army and
sent them into the jungle to catch the Doctor.
Then he made all his servants go too—his cooks
and his gardeners and his barber and Prince
Bumpo's tutor—even the Queen, who was tired
from dancing in a pair of tight shoes, was packed
off to help the soldiers in their search.

All this time the Doctor and his animals were
running through the forest towards the Land of
the Monkeys as fast as they could go.

Gub-Gub, with his short legs, soon got tired;
and the Doctor had to carry him—which made
it pretty hard when they had the trunk and the
hand-bag with them as well.

The King of the Jolliginki thought it would
be easy for his army to find them, because the
Doctor was in a strange land and would not
know his way. But he was wrong; because the
monkey, Chee-Chee, knew all the paths through
the jungle—better even than the King's men
did. And he led the Doctor and his pets to the
very thickest part of the forest—a place where
no man had ever been before—and hid them all
in a big hollow tree between high rocks.

"We had better wait here," said Chee-Chee,
"till the soldiers have gone back to bed. Then
we can go on into the Land of the Monkeys."

So there they stayed the whole night through.

They often heard the King's men searching
and talking in the jungle round about. But
they were quite safe, for no one knew of that
hiding-place but Chee-Chee—not even the
other monkeys.

At last, when daylight began to come through
the thick leaves overhead, they heard Queen
Ermintrude saying in a very tired voice that it
was no use looking any more—that they might
as well go back and get some sleep.

As soon as the soldiers had all gone home,
Chee-Chee brought the Doctor and his animals
out of the hiding-place and they set off for the
Land of the Monkeys.

It was a long, long way; and they often got
very tired—especially Gub-Gub. But when he
cried they gave him milk out of the cocoanuts
which he was very fond of.

They always had plenty to eat and drink;
because Chee-Chee and Polynesia knew all the
different kinds of fruits and vegetables that grow
in the jungle, and where to find them—like
dates and figs and ground-nuts and ginger and
yams. They used to make their lemonade out of
the juice of wild oranges, sweetened with honey
which they got from the bees' nests in hollow
trees. No matter what it was they asked for,
Chee-Chee and Polynesia always seemed to be
able to get it for them—or something like it.
They even got the Doctor some tobacco one day,
when he had finished what he had brought with
him and wanted to smoke.

At night they slept in tents made of palm-
leaves, on thick, soft beds of dried grass. And
after a while they got used to walking such a lot
and did not get so tired and enjoyed the life of
travel very much.

But they were always glad when the night
came and they stopped for their resting-time.
Then the Doctor used to make a little fire of
sticks; and after they had had their supper, they
would sit round it in a ring, listening to
Polynesia singing songs about the sea, or to Chee-
Chee telling stories of the jungle.

And many of the tales that Chee-Chee told
were very interesting. Because although the
monkeys had no history-books of their own
before Doctor Dolittle came to write them for
them, they remember everything that happens by
telling stories to their children. And Chee-Chee
spoke of many things his grandmother had told
him—tales of long, long, long ago, before Noah
and the Flood—of the days when men dressed
in bear-skins and lived in holes in the rock and
ate their mutton raw, because they did not know
what cooking was—having never seen a fire.
And he told them of the Great Mammoths and
Lizards, as long as a train, that wandered over
the mountains in those times, nibbling from the
tree-tops. And often they got so interested
listening, that when he had finished they found
their fire had gone right out; and they had to
scurry round to get more sticks and build a new
one.

Now when the King's army had gone back
and told the King that they couldn't find the
Doctor, the King sent them out again and told
them they must stay in the jungle till they caught
him. So all this time, while the Doctor and his
animals were going along towards the Land of
the Monkeys, thinking themselves quite safe,
they were still being followed by the King's men.
If Chee-Chee had known this, he would most
likely have hidden them again. But he didn't
know it.

One day Chee-Chee climbed up a high rock
and looked out over the tree-tops. And when
he came down he said they were now quite close
to the Land of the Monkeys and would soon
be there.