The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (13 page)

While we were waiting for the maps Chee-Chee and I set about lighting
the lamps: a green one on the right side of the ship, a red one on the
left and a white one on the mast.

At last we heard some one trundling on the stairs again and the Doctor
said,

"Ah, here's Bumpo with the maps at last!"

But to our great astonishment it was not Bumpo alone that appeared but
THREE people.

"Good Lord deliver us! Who are these?" cried John Dolittle.

"Two more stowaways, Sir," said Bumpo stepping forward briskly. "I found
them in your cabin hiding under the bunk. One woman and one man, Sir.
Here are the maps."

"This is too much," said the Doctor feebly. "Who are they? I can't see
their faces in this dim light. Strike a match, Bumpo."

You could never guess who it was. It was Luke and his wife. Mrs. Luke
appeared to be very miserable and seasick.

They explained to the Doctor that after they had settled down to live
together in the little shack out on the fens, so many people came
to visit them (having heard about the great trial) that life became
impossible; and they had decided to escape from Puddleby in this
manner—for they had no money to leave any other way—and try to find
some new place to live where they and their story wouldn't be so well
known. But as soon as the ship had begun to roll Mrs. Luke had got most
dreadfully unwell.

Poor Luke apologized many times for being such a nuisance and said that
the whole thing had been his wife's idea.

The Doctor, after he had sent below for his medicine-bag and had given
Mrs. Luke some sal volatile and smelling-salts, said he thought the best
thing to do would be for him to lend them some money and put them ashore
at Penzance with Matthew. He also wrote a letter for Luke to take with
him to a friend the Doctor had in the town of Penzance who, it was
hoped, would be able to find Luke work to do there.

As the Doctor opened his purse and took out some gold coins I heard
Polynesia, who was sitting on my shoulder watching the whole affair,
mutter beneath her breath,

"There he goes—lending his last blessed penny—three pounds ten—all
the money we had for the whole trip! Now we haven't the price of a
postage-stamp aboard if we should lose an anchor or have to buy a pint
of tar—Well, let's, pray we don't run out of food—Why doesn't he give
them the ship and walk home?"

Presently with the help of the map the course of the boat was changed
and, to Mrs. Luke's great relief, we made for Penzance and dry land.

I was tremendously interested to see how a ship could be steered into a
port at night with nothing but light-houses and a compass to guide you.
It seemed to me that the Doctor missed all the rocks and sand-bars very
cleverly.

We got into that funny little Cornish harbor about eleven o'clock that
night. The Doctor took his stowaways on shore in our small row-boat
which we kept on the deck of the Curlew and found them rooms at the
hotel there. When he got back he told us that Mrs. Luke had gone
straight to bed and was feeling much better.

It was now after midnight; so we decided to stay in the harbor and wait
till morning before setting out again.

I was glad to get to bed, although I felt that staying up so
tremendously late was great fun. As I climbed into the bunk over the
Doctor's and pulled the blankets snugly round me, I found I could look
out of the port-hole at my elbow, and, without raising my head from the
pillow, could see the lights of Penzance swinging gently up and down
with the motion of the ship at anchor. It was like being rocked to sleep
with a little show going on to amuse you. I was just deciding that I
liked the life of the sea very much when I fell fast asleep.

THE next morning when we were eating a very excellent breakfast of
kidneys and bacon, prepared by our good cook Bumpo, the Doctor said to
me,

"I was just wondering, Stubbins, whether I should stop at the Capa
Blanca Islands or run right across for the coast of Brazil. Miranda said
we could expect a spell of excellent weather now—for four and a half
weeks at least."

"Well," I said, spooning out the sugar at the bottom of my cocoa-cup, "I
should think it would be best to make straight across while we are sure
of good weather. And besides the Purple Bird-of-Paradise is going to
keep a lookout for us, isn't she? She'll be wondering what's happened to
us if we don't get there in about a month."

"True, quite true, Stubbins. On the other hand, the Capa Blancas make
a very convenient stopping place on our way across. If we should need
supplies or repairs it would be very handy to put in there."

"How long will it take us from here to the Capa Blancas?" I asked.

"About six days," said the Doctor—"Well, we can decide later. For the
next two days at any rate our direction would be the same practically in
either case. If you have finished breakfast let's go and get under way."

Upstairs I found our vessel surrounded by white and gray seagulls
who flashed and circled about in the sunny morning air, looking for
food-scraps thrown out by the ships into the harbor.

By about half past seven we had the anchor up and the sails set to a
nice steady breeze; and this time we got out into the open sea without
bumping into a single thing. We met the Penzance fishing fleet coming in
from the night's fishing, and very trim and neat they looked, in a line
like soldiers, with their red-brown sails all leaning over the same way
and the white water dancing before their bows.

For the next three or four days everything went smoothly and nothing
unusual happened. During this time we all got settled down into our
regular jobs; and in spare moments the Doctor showed each of us how to
take our turns at the wheel, the proper manner of keeping a ship on her
right course, and what to do if the wind changed suddenly. We divided
the twenty-four hours of the day into three spells; and we took it in
turns to sleep our eight hours and be awake sixteen. So the ship was
well looked after, with two of us always on duty.

Besides that, Polynesia, who was an older sailor than any of us, and
really knew a lot about running ships, seemed to be always awake—except
when she took her couple of winks in the sun, standing on one leg beside
the wheel. You may be sure that no one ever got a chance to stay abed
more than his eight hours while Polynesia was around. She used to watch
the ship's clock; and if you overslept a half-minute, she would come
down to the cabin and peck you gently on the nose till you got up.

I very soon grew to be quite fond of our funny black friend Bumpo,
with his grand way of speaking and his enormous feet which some one was
always stepping on or falling over. Although he was much older than
I was and had been to college, he never tried to lord it over me. He
seemed to be forever smiling and kept all of us in good humor. It wasn't
long before I began to see the Doctor's good sense in bringing him—in
spite of the fact that he knew nothing whatever about sailing or travel.

On the morning of the fifth day out, just as I was taking the wheel over
from the Doctor, Bumpo appeared and said,

"The salt beef is nearly all gone, Sir."

"The salt beef!" cried the Doctor. "Why, we brought a hundred and twenty
pounds with us. We couldn't have eaten that in five days. What can have
become of it?"

"I don't know, Sir, I'm sure. Every time I go down to the stores I find
another hunk missing. If it is rats that are eating it, then they are
certainly colossal rodents."

Polynesia who was walking up and down a stay-rope taking her morning
exercise, put in,

"We must search the hold. If this is allowed to go on we will all be
starving before a week is out. Come downstairs with me, Tommy, and we
will look into this matter."

So we went downstairs into the store-room and Polynesia told us to keep
quite still and listen. This we did. And presently we heard from a dark
corner of the hold the distinct sound of someone snoring.

"Ah, I thought so," said Polynesia. "It's a man—and a big one. Climb in
there, both of you, and haul him out. It sounds as though he were behind
that barrel—Gosh! We seem to have brought half of Puddleby with us.
Anyone would think we were a penny ferry-boat. Such cheek! Haul him
out."

So Bumpo and I lit a lantern and climbed over the stores. And there,
behind the barrel, sure enough, we found an enormous bearded man fast
asleep with a well-fed look on his face. We woke him up.

"Washamarrer?" he said sleepily.

It was Ben Butcher, the able seaman.

Polynesia spluttered like an angry fire-cracker.

"This is the last straw," said she. "The one man in the world we least
wanted. Shiver my timbers, what cheek!"

"Would it not be advisable," suggested Bumpo, "while the varlet is still
sleepy, to strike him on the head with some heavy object and push him
through a port-hole into the sea?"

"No. We'd get into trouble," said Polynesia. "We're not in Jolliginki
now, you know—worse luck!—Besides, there never was a port-hole big
enough to push that man through. Bring him upstairs to the Doctor."

So we led the man to the wheel where he respectfully touched his cap to
the Doctor.

"Another stowaway, Sir," said Bumpo smartly. I thought the poor Doctor
would have a fit.

"Good morning, Captain," said the man. "Ben Butcher, able seaman, at
your service. I knew you'd need me, so I took the liberty of stowing
away—much against my conscience. But I just couldn't bear to see you
poor landsmen set out on this voyage without a single real seaman to
help you. You'd never have got home alive if I hadn't come—Why look
at your mainsail, Sir—all loose at the throat. First gust of wind come
along, and away goes your canvas overboard—Well, it's all right now I'm
here. We'll soon get things in shipshape."

"No, it isn't all right," said the Doctor, "it's all wrong. And I'm not
at all glad to see you. I told you in Puddleby I didn't want you. You
had no right to come."

"But Captain," said the able seaman, "you can't sail this ship without
me. You don't understand navigation. Why, look at the compass now:
you've let her swing a point and a half off her course. It's madness for
you to try to do this trip alone—if you'll pardon my saying so, Sir.
Why—why, you'll lose the ship!"

"Look here," said the Doctor, a sudden stern look coming into his eyes,
"losing a ship is nothing to me. I've lost ships before and it doesn't
bother me in the least. When I set out to go to a place, I get there.
Do you understand? I may know nothing whatever about sailing and
navigation, but I get there just the same. Now you may be the best
seaman in the world, but on this ship you're just a plain ordinary
nuisance—very plain and very ordinary. And I am now going to call at
the nearest port and put you ashore."

"Yes, and think yourself lucky," Polynesia put in, "that you are not
locked up for stowing away and eating all our salt beef."

"I don't know what the mischief we're going to do now," I heard her
whisper to Bumpo. "We've no money to buy any more; and that salt beef
was the most important part of the stores."

"Would it not be good political economy," Bumpo whispered back, "if we
salted the able seaman and ate him instead? I should judge that he would
weigh more than a hundred and twenty pounds."

"How often must I tell you that we are not in Jolliginki," snapped
Polynesia. "Those things are not done on white men's ships—Still," she
murmured after a moment's thought, "it's an awfully bright idea. I don't
suppose anybody saw him come on to the ship—Oh, but Heavens! we haven't
got enough salt. Besides, he'd be sure to taste of tobacco."

THEN the Doctor told me to take the wheel while he made a little
calculation with his map and worked out what new course we should take.

"I shall have to run for the Capa Blancas after all," he told me when
the seaman's back was turned. "Dreadful nuisance! But I'd sooner swim
back to Puddleby than have to listen to that fellow's talk all the way
to Brazil."

Indeed he was a terrible person, this Ben Butcher. You'd think that any
one after being told he wasn't wanted would have had the decency to keep
quiet. But not Ben Butcher. He kept going round the deck pointing out
all the things we had wrong. According to him there wasn't a thing right
on the whole ship. The anchor was hitched up wrong; the hatches weren't
fastened down properly; the sails were put on back to front; all our
knots were the wrong kind of knots.

At last the Doctor told him to stop talking and go downstairs. He
refused—said he wasn't going to be sunk by landlubbers while he was
still able to stay on deck.

This made us feel a little uneasy. He was such an enormous man there was
no knowing what he might do if he got really obstreperous.

Bumpo and I were talking about this downstairs in the dining-saloon
when Polynesia, Jip and Chee-Chee came and joined us. And, as usual,
Polynesia had a plan.

"Listen," she said, "I am certain this Ben Butcher is a smuggler and a
bad man. I am a very good judge of seamen, remember, and I don't like
the cut of this man's jib. I—"

"Do you really think," I interrupted, "that it is safe for the Doctor to
cross the Atlantic without any regular seamen on his ship?"

You see it had upset me quite a good deal to find that all the things
we had been doing were wrong; and I was beginning to wonder what might
happen if we ran into a storm—particularly as Miranda had only said the
weather would be good for a certain time; and we seemed to be having so
many delays. But Polynesia merely tossed her head scornfully.

"Oh, bless you, my boy," said she, "you're always safe with John
Dolittle. Remember that. Don't take any notice of that stupid old salt.
Of course it is perfectly true the Doctor does do everything wrong.
But with him it doesn't matter. Mark my words, if you travel with John
Dolittle you always get there, as you heard him say. I've been with him
lots of times and I know. Sometimes the ship is upside down when you get
there, and sometimes it's right way up. But you get there just the same.
And then of course there's another thing about the Doctor," she added
thoughtfully: "he always has extraordinary good luck. He may have his
troubles; but with him things seem to have a habit of turning out all
right in the end. I remember once when we were going through the Straits
of Magellan the wind was so strong—"