_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.