The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (8 page)

Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and
tell the swallows that pirates were coming after
them in a swift ship, and what should he do
about it.

When the swallows heard this, they all came
down on to the Doctor's ship; and they told him
to unravel some pieces of long rope and make
them into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he
could. Then the ends of these strings were tied
on to the front of the ship; and the swallows
took hold of the strings with their feet and flew
off, pulling the boat along.

And although swallows are not very strong
when only one or two are by themselves, it is
different when there are a great lot of them
together. And there, tied to the Doctor's ship,
were a thousand strings; and two thousand
swallows were pulling on each string—all terribly
swift fliers.

And in a moment the Doctor found himself
traveling so fast he had to hold his hat on with
both hands; for he felt as though the ship itself
were flying through waves that frothed and
boiled with speed.

And all the animals on the ship began to
laugh and dance about in the rushing air, for
when they looked back at the pirates' ship, they
could see that it was growing smaller now,
instead of bigger. The red sails were being left
far, far behind.

DRAGGING a ship through the sea is hard work. And after
two or three hours the swallows began to get tired in the
wings and short of breath. Then they sent a message
down to the Doctor to say that they would have
to take a rest soon; and that they would pull the
boat over to an island not far off, and hide it in
a deep bay till they had got breath enough to go on.

And presently the Doctor saw the island they
had spoken of. It had a very beautiful, high,
green mountain in the middle of it.

When the ship had sailed safely into the bay
where it could not be seen from the open sea,
the Doctor said he would get off on to the island
to look for water—because there was none left
to drink on his ship. And he told all the animals
to get out too and romp on the grass to
stretch their legs.

Now as they were getting off, the Doctor
noticed that a whole lot of rats were coming up
from downstairs and leaving the ship as well.
Jip started to run after them, because chasing
rats had always been his favorite game. But
the Doctor told him to stop.

And one big black rat, who seemed to want
to say something to the Doctor, now crept forward
timidly along the rail, watching the dog
out of the corner of his eye. And after he had
coughed nervously two or three times, and
cleaned his whiskers and wiped his mouth, he
said,

"Ahem—er—you know of course that all
ships have rats in them, Doctor, do you not?"

And the Doctor said, "Yes."

"And you have heard that rats always leave
a sinking ship?"

"Yes," said the Doctor—"so I've been told."

"People," said the rat, "always speak of it
with a sneer—as though it were something dis-
graceful. But you can't blame us, can you?
After all, who WOULD stay on a sinking ship, if
he could get off it?"

"It's very natural," said the Doctor—"very
natural. I quite understand.... Was there—
Was there anything else you wished to say?"

"Yes," said the rat. "I've come to tell you
that we are leaving this one. But we wanted to
warn you before we go. This is a bad ship
you have here. It isn't safe. The sides aren't
strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Before
to-morrow night it will sink to the bottom of
the sea."

"But how do you know?" asked the Doctor.

"We always know," answered the rat. "The
tips of our tails get that tingly feeling—like
when your foot's asleep. This morning, at six
o'clock, while I was getting breakfast, my tail
suddenly began to tingle. At first I thought it
was my rheumatism coming back. So I went
and asked my aunt how she felt—you remember
her?—the long, piebald rat, rather skinny, who
came to see you in Puddleby last Spring with
jaundice? Well—and she said HER tail was
tingling like everything! Then we knew, for
sure, that this boat was going to sink in less than
two days; and we all made up our minds to
leave it as soon as we got near enough to any
land. It's a bad ship, Doctor. Don't sail in
it any more, or you'll be surely drowned....
Good-by! We are now going to look for a good
place to live on this island."

"Good-by!" said the Doctor. "And thank
you very much for coming to tell me. Very
considerate of you—very! Give my regards to
your aunt. I remember her perfectly....
Leave that rat alone, Jip! Come here! Lie down!"

So then the Doctor and all his animals went
off, carrying pails and saucepans, to look for
water on the island, while the swallows took
their rest.

"I wonder what is the name of this island,"
said the Doctor, as he was climbing up the
mountainside. "It seems a pleasant place.
What a lot of birds there are!"

"Why, these are the Canary Islands," said
Dab-Dab. "Don't you hear the canaries singing?"

The Doctor stopped and listened.

"Why, to be sure—of course!" he said.
"How stupid of me! I wonder if they can tell
us where to find water."

And presently the canaries, who had heard all
about Doctor Dolittle from birds of passage,
came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool,
clear water where the canaries used to take their
bath; and they showed him lovely meadows
where the bird-seed grew and all the other
sights of their island.

And the pushmi-pullyu was glad they had
come; because he liked the green grass so much
better than the dried apples he had been eating
on the ship. And Gub-Gub squeaked for joy
when he found a whole valley full of wild
sugarcane.

A little later, when they had all had plenty
to eat and drink, and were lying on their backs
while the canaries sang for them, two of the swallows
came hurrying up, very flustered and excited.

"Doctor!" they cried, "the pirates have come
into the bay; and they've all got on to your ship.
They are downstairs looking for things to steal.
They have left their own ship with nobody on
it. If you hurry and come down to the shore,
you can get on to their ship—which is very fast
—and escape. But you'll have to hurry."

"That's a good idea," said the Doctor—"splendid!"

And he called his animals together at once,
said Good-by to the canaries and ran down to the beach.

When they reached the shore they saw the
pirate-ship, with the three red sails, standing in
the water; and—just as the swallows had said
—there was nobody on it; all the pirates were
downstairs in the Doctor's ship, looking for
things to steal.

So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very
softly and they all crept on to the pirate-ship.

EVERYTHING would have gone all right if the pig had not caught
a cold in his head while eating the damp sugar-cane on the
island. This is what happened:

After they had pulled up the anchor without a sound,
and were moving the ship very, very carefully out of the bay,
Gub-Gub suddenly sneezed so loud that the pirates
on the other ship came rushing upstairs to see
what the noise was.

As soon as they saw that the Doctor was
escaping, they sailed the other boat right across
the entrance to the bay so that the Doctor could
not get out into the open sea.

Then the leader of these bad men (who called
himself "Ben Ali, The Dragon") shook his fist
at the Doctor and shouted across the water,

"Ha! Ha! You are caught, my fine friend!
You were going to run off in my ship, eh? But
you are not a good enough sailor to beat Ben
Ali, the Barbary Dragon. I want that duck
you've got—and the pig too. We'll have pork-
chops and roast duck for supper to-night. And
before I let you go home, you must make your
friends send me a trunk-full of gold."

Poor Gub-Gub began to weep; and Dab-Dab
made ready to fly to save her life. But the owl,
Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor,

"Keep him talking, Doctor. Be pleasant to
him. Our old ship is bound to sink soon—the
rats said it would be at the bottom of the sea
before to-morrow night—and the rats are never
wrong. Be pleasant, till the ship sinks under
him. Keep him talking."

"What, until to-morrow night!" said the Doctor.
"Well, I'll do my best.... Let me see—
What shall I talk about?"

"Oh, let them come on," said Jip. "We can
fight the dirty rascals. There are only six of
them. Let them come on. I'd love to tell that
collie next door, when we get home, that I had bitten
a real pirate. Let 'em come. We can fight them."

"But they have pistols and swords," said the
Doctor. "No, that would never do. I must
talk to him.... Look here, Ben Ali—"

But before the Doctor could say any more,
the pirates began to sail the ship nearer, laughing
with glee, and saying one to another, "Who
shall be the first to catch the pig?"

Poor Gub-Gub was dreadfully frightened;
and the pushmi-pullyu began to sharpen his
horns for a fight by rubbing them on the mast
of the ship; while Jip kept springing into the
air and barking and calling Ben Ali bad names
in dog-language.

But presently something seemed to go wrong
with the pirates; they stopped laughing and
cracking jokes; they looked puzzled; something
was making them uneasy.

Then Ben Ali, staring down at his feet,
suddenly bellowed out,

"Thunder and Lightning!—Men, THE BOAT'S LEAKING!"

And then the other pirates peered over the
side and they saw that the boat was indeed getting
lower and lower in the water. And one
of them said to Ben Ali,

"But surely if this old boat were sinking we
should see the rats leaving it."

And Jip shouted across from the other ship,

"You great duffers, there are no rats there
to leave! They left two hours ago! 'Ha, ha,'
to you, 'my fine friends!'"

But of course the men did not understand him.
Soon the front end of the ship began to go
down and down, faster and faster—till the boat
looked almost as though it were standing on its
head; and the pirates had to cling to the rails
and the masts and the ropes and anything to
keep from sliding off. Then the sea rushed
roaring in and through all the windows and the
doors. And at last the ship plunged right down
to the bottom of the sea, making a dreadful
gurgling sound; and the six bad men were left
bobbing about in the deep water of the bay.

Some of them started to swim for the shores
of the island; while others 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
well 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 la
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."