“See!” cried Dab-Dab. “That boat is nearer now. You can count its three big sails – all red. They are coming after us…. Who are they?”

“They are bad sailors,” said Jip; “and their ship is very swift. They are the pirates of Barbary.”

Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows that pirates were after them in a swift ship. When the swallows heard this, they all came down onto the Doctor’s ship. They told him to separate a long thick rope into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he could. Then the Doctor and the animals tied the ends of these strings to the front of the ship; and the swallows took the strings with their feet and flew off, pulling the boat along. Altogether there were two thousand swallows. And then the Doctor’s ship traveled really fast. And all the animals on the ship began to laugh and dance, because the pirates’ ship was now far, far behind.

After two or three hours the swallows began to get tired. And they needed to take a rest soon; so they pulled the boat to an island and hid it in a deep bay till they could continue the flight. The island had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it. The Doctor decided to look for water. And he told all the animals to walk on the grass.

Then the Doctor noticed a lot of rats leaving the ship. Jip started to run after them, but the Doctor told him to stop. And one big black rat said,

“Do you know, Doctor, that all ships have rats in them?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor.

“Do you know that rats always leave a sinking ship?” asked the rat.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, “I do.”

“So I want to tell you that we are leaving this ship. This ship isn’t safe. The sides aren’t strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Soon 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 start tingling then. It’s a bad ship, Doctor. Don’t sail in it any more. Good-bye! We are now going to look for a good place to live on this island.”

“Good-bye!” said the Doctor. “And thank you very much.”

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

“What is the name of this island?” said the Doctor, climbing up the mountainside. “It seems a pleasant place. What a lot of birds there are!”

“These are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”

The Doctor stopped and listened. “Of course!” he said. And soon the canaries came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, clear water and showed green meadows. And the pushmi-pullyu was glad because he liked the green grass very much. A little later, when they were full, they lay on their backs and the canaries started singing for them. Suddenly two of the swallows came to them.

“Doctor!” they cried, “the pirates are in the bay; and they are on your ship. They are looking for things to steal. There is nobody on their ship now. If you hurry and come down to the shore, you can get onto their ship and escape. But please hurry.”

“That’s a good idea,” said the Doctor – “splendid!” And he called his animals together at once, said Good-bye to the canaries and ran down to the beach. When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails, and 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 onto the pirate-ship.

They pulled up the anchor without a sound, and moved the ship very, very carefully out of the bay. But suddenly Gub-Gub sneezed so loudly that the pirates on the other ship rushed upstairs to see what the noise was. As soon as they saw that the Doctor was on their ship, they sailed the other boat and blocked 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[24] and shouted, “Ha! Ha! You are trapped,[25] 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 your duck and your pig too. We’ll have pork chops and roast duck for supper tonight. And before I let you go home, your friends must send me a trunk – full of gold.”

Poor Gub-Gub began to weep. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor, “Let him talk, Doctor. Be pleasant to him. Our old ship will sink soon – the rats said so – and the rats are never wrong. Let him talk.”

“Look here, Ben Ali —” But before the Doctor could say any more, the pirates began to sail the ship nearer and they laughed. Poor Gub-Gub was really frightened. But soon something went wrong with the pirates; they stopped laughing; they looked puzzled. Then Ben Ali suddenly shouted, “Thunder and Lightning! – Men, THE BOAT’S LEAKING!” And then the other pirates saw that the boat started getting lower and lower in the water.

Soon the front end of the ship began to go down and down, faster and faster; and the pirates clung to the rails and the masts and the ropes. And at last the ship plunged right down to the bottom of the sea; and the six bad men were in the deep water of the bay. Then suddenly they all cried out in great fear, “THE SHARKS! The sharks are coming! Let us get onto your ship before they eat us! Help, help! – The sharks! The sharks!”

And now the Doctor could see the backs of big fishes. And one great shark came near to the ship and 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 are very bad – especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will eat them up.”

“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “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. And please make Ben Ali swim over here. I want to talk to him.”

So the shark chased Ben Ali to the Doctor.

“Listen, Ben Ali,” said John Dolittle. “You are a very bad man; you killed many people. These good sharks want to eat you up. But promise to do as I tell you, and I will let you go in safety.”

“What must I do?” asked the pirate and looked at the big shark.

“You must kill no more people,” said the Doctor; “don’t steal anything; never sink ships; don’t be a pirate.”

“But what can I do then?” asked Ben Ali.

“Take all your men, go to this island and be bird-seed-farmers,” the Doctor answered. “You must grow bird-seed for the canaries.”

The Barbary Dragon was really angry. “GROW BIRD-SEED!” he groaned. “Can I be a sailor?”

“No,” said the Doctor, “you cannot. For the rest of your life you must be a peaceful farmer. The shark is waiting. Don’t waste his time. Make your decision now.”

“Thunder and Lightning!” Ben Ali cried. Then he looked down into the water again and saw the shark. “Very well,” he said sadly. “We’ll be farmers.”

“Now go and be a good farmer and live in peace.” Then the Doctor turned to the big shark and said, “All right. Let them swim safely to the land.”

So the Doctor and his pets continued their journey home in the swift ship with the three red sails. The animals went downstairs to see their new boat inside. Soon Dab-Dab came up the stairs and cried, “Doctor! This ship of the pirates is absolutely beautiful. The beds downstairs are made of silk; there are soft carpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there is a lot of food and drinks… Oh, and we found another little room but we can’t open the door. Come down and help us open it.”

The Doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautiful ship. He found the animals at a little door. The Doctor turned the handle but the door didn’t open. Then they all started to look for the key. But nowhere in the whole boat could they find a key to that lock. So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the key-hole. But he could see nothing.

Suddenly the owl, Too-Too, said, “Sh! – Listen! – I think there’s someone in there! I hear that someone is putting his hand in his pocket,” said the owl.

“But how can you hear that?” said the Doctor.

“Almost everything makes SOME noise. We owls are very good hearers.”

“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, “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, “It’s a man. And he is unhappy. He is crying.”

“Well,” said the Doctor, “if the poor fellow’s unhappy, let’s get in and see what the matter with him is. Find me an axe, and I’ll chop the door down.”

Soon the Doctor chopped a hole in the door and got in. At first he could see nothing at all, it was so dark inside. So he struck a match. The room was quite small; there was no window; the ceiling was low. There was only one little stool. And in the middle of the floor there was a little boy, crying bitterly. He was about eight years old.

The little boy was frightened when he saw a man before him. But as soon as he saw John Dolittle’s face by the light of the match, he got up. “You aren’t one of the pirates, are you?” he asked. And when the Doctor laughed loudly, 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 went fishing in our little boat, and the pirates came and caught us. They sank our fishing-boat and brought us both onto this ship. They told my uncle that they wanted to make him a pirate because he knew how to sail a ship in any weather. But my uncle said that he didn’t want to be a pirate because he didn’t want to kill people and steal things. Then the leader, Ben Ali, became very angry and said, ‘We will throw you into the sea then!’ They sent me downstairs; and I heard the noise of a fight. And I never saw my uncle again after that. 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 about it. Maybe your uncle is quite safe all the time. You don’t KNOW that they drowned him, do you? Perhaps we can find him for you. First we’ll go and have tea – with strawberry jam; and then we will see what we can do.”

All the animals heard the boy’s story. So after tea Dab-Dab whispered to the Doctor, “Ask the dolphins about the boy’s uncle.”

“All right,” said the Doctor.

“What are those funny noises which you are making with your tongue?” asked the boy.

“Oh, I just said a couple of words in duck language,” the Doctor answered. “This is Dab-Dab, one of my pets.”

“I didn’t even know that ducks had a language,” said the boy. “Are all these other animals your pets, too? What is that strange animal with two heads?”

“Sh!” the Doctor whispered. “That is the pushmi-pullyu. Don’t let him see that we’re talking about him – he becomes really embarrassed… Tell me about your uncle now. “

“He had red hair,” the boy said – “very red hair, and he had the picture of an anchor on his arm, a tattoo. He was a strong man, a kind uncle and the best sailor in the South Atlantic.”

Then the Doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining-room and went upstairs. Soon he saw a school of dolphins near the ship. They were on their way to Brazil. And the Doctor asked them, “Have you seen a man with red hair and the tattoo of an anchor on his arm?”

“We saw his boat on the bottom of the sea. But we know that there was nobody inside it, because we went and looked.”

“His little nephew is on the ship with me here,” said the Doctor. “And he is afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea.”

“No – tell the little boy we are sure that the pirates didn’t drown him in the sea.”

So the Doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew, who clapped his hands with happiness. And the pushmi-pullyu took the little boy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining-room table.

“Your uncle didn’t drown. We must find him,” said the Doctor. Then Dab-Dab came up to him again and whispered, “Ask the eagles to look for the man.” So the Doctor sent one of the swallows off to call some eagles. And in an hour the little bird came back with six eagles. And they stood on the rail of the ship, like soldiers. Gub-Gub was very scared of them. And the Doctor said to the eagles, “Please help us find a fisherman. He has red hair and the tattoo of an anchor on his arm. This boy is the man’s nephew.” Eagles do not talk very much. And they answered, “You may be sure that we will do everything for John Dolittle.” Then they flew off. When they came back, it was almost night. And the eagles said to the Doctor, “We have searched all the seas and all the countries and all the islands and all the cities and all the villages. But we couldn’t find the man anywhere.” Then the six great birds flew back to their homes in the mountains and the rocks.

“Well,” said Dab-Dab, “what are we going to do now? We MUST find the boy’s uncle.” Then Jip went to the Doctor and said, “Ask the boy to bring me something that belonged to his uncle, please.” So the boy took from his pocket a big red handkerchief and said, “This was my uncle’s.” As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip shouted, “I’ll find his uncle for him in less than a week. Let us go upstairs and see which way the wind is blowing.” Then Jip went up to the front of the ship and smelt the wind. “It’s blowing from the North,” said the dog. Then he shut his eyes tight and sniffed hard with his mouth half-open. For a long time he said nothing. At last he said, “I can’t smell his uncle. We must wait until the wind changes to the South.” And the Doctor said, “Well, let’s go down to supper then. I’m quite hungry.” “So am I,” said Gub-Gub.

Early next morning they got up and saw that the day was sunny and Jip smelt the South wind. Then he came to the Doctor and said, “I can’t smell the boy’s uncle. We must wait until the wind changes to the East.” But even when the East wind came, at three o’clock that afternoon, the dog could not catch the smell of the man. The little boy was very upset and began to cry again. But Jip said to the Doctor, “Tell him that when the wind changes to the West, I’ll find his uncle.” The West wind came three days later. This was on a Friday morning. The wind was soft and warm and wet. As soon as Jip awoke he ran upstairs and poked his nose in the air. Then he rushed down again to wake the Doctor up.