The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (10 page)

"My gracious!" said Gub-Gub in a hushed
voice. "What a height! I wonder they don't
scorch their feathers—so near the sun!"

They were gone a long time. And 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 in this half of the world.
But we have failed. In the main street of
Gibraltar we saw three red hairs lying on a wheel-
barrow before a baker's door. But they were
not the hairs of a man—they were the hairs out
of a fur-coat. Nowhere, on land or water, could
we see any sign of this boy's uncle. And if WE
could not see him, then he is not to be seen....
For John Dolittle—we have done our best."

Then the six great birds flapped their big
wings and flew back to their homes in the
mountains and the rocks.

"Well," said Dab-Dab, after they had gone,
"what are we going to do now? The boy's
uncle MUST be found—there's no two ways about
that. The lad isn't old enough to be knocking
around the world by himself. Boys aren't like
ducklings—they have to be taken care of till
they're quite old.... I wish Chee-Chee were
here. He would soon find the man. Good old
Chee-Chee! I wonder how he's getting on!"

"If we only had Polynesia with us," said the
white mouse. "SHE would soon think of some
way. Do you remember how she got us all
out of prison—the second time? My, but she
was a clever one!"

"I don't think so much of those eagle-
fellows,"said Jip. "They're just conceited. They
may have very good eyesight and all that; but
when you ask them to find a man for you, they
can't do it—and they have the cheek to come
back and say that nobody else could do it.
They're just conceited—like that collie in
Puddleby. And I don't think a whole lot of those
gossipy old porpoises either. All they could tell
us was that the man isn't in the sea. We don't
want to know where he ISN'T—we want to know
where he IS."

"Oh, don't talk so much," said Gub-Gub.
"It's easy to talk; but it isn't so easy to find a
man when you have got the whole world to hunt
him in. Maybe the fisherman's hair has turned
white, worrying about the boy; and that was
why the eagles didn't find him. You don't
know everything. You're just talking. You
are not doing anything to help. You couldn't
find the boy's uncle any more than the eagles
could—you couldn't do as well."

"Couldn't I?" said the dog. "That's all you
know, you stupid piece of warm bacon! I haven't
begun to try yet, have I? You wait and see!"

Then Jip went to the Doctor and said,

"Ask the boy if he has anything in his pockets
that belonged to his uncle, will you, please?"

So the Doctor asked him. And the boy
showed them a gold ring which he wore on a
piece of string around his neck because it was
too big for his finger. He said his uncle gave
it to him when they saw the pirates coming.

Jip smelt the ring and said,

"That's no good. Ask him if he has
anything else that belonged to his uncle."

Then the boy took from his pocket a great,
big red handkerchief and said, "This was my
uncle's too."

As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip shouted,

"SNUFF, by Jingo!—Black Rappee snuff.
Don't you smell it? His uncle took snuff—
Ask him, Doctor."

The Doctor questioned the boy again;
and he said, "Yes. My uncle took a lot of
snuff."

"Fine!" said Jip. "The man's as good as
found. 'Twill be as easy as stealing milk from
a kitten. Tell the boy I'll find his uncle for
him in less than a week. Let us go upstairs
and see which way the wind is blowing."

"But it is dark now," said the Doctor. "You
can't find him in the dark!"

"I don't need any light to look for a man who
smells of Black Rappee snuff," said Jip as he
climbed the stairs. "If the man had a hard
smell, like string, now—or hot water, it would
be different. But SNUFF!—Tut, tut!"

"Does hot water have a smell?" asked the Doctor.

"Certainly it has," said Jip. "Hot water
smells quite different from cold water. It is
warm water—or ice—that has the really difficult
smell. Why, I once followed a man for
ten miles on a dark night by the smell of the
hot water he had used to shave with—for the
poor fellow had no soap.... Now then, let
us see which way the wind is blowing. Wind is
very important in long-distance smelling. It
mustn't be too fierce a wind—and of course it
must blow the right way. A nice, steady, damp
breeze is the best of all.... Ha!—This wind
is from the North."

Then Jip went up to the front of the ship
and smelt the wind; and he started muttering
to himself,

"Tar; Spanish onions; kerosene oil; wet
raincoats; crushed laurel-leaves; rubber burning;
lace-curtains being washed—No, my mistake,
lace-curtains hanging out to dry; and foxes—
hundreds of 'em—cubs; and—"

"Can you really smell all those different
things in this one wind?" asked the Doctor.

"Why, of course!" said Jip. "And those are
only a few of the easy smells—the strong ones.
Any mongrel could smell those with a cold in
the head. Wait now, and I'll tell you some of
the harder scents that are coming on this wind
—a few of the dainty ones."

Then the dog shut his eyes tight, poked his
nose straight up in the air and sniffed hard with
his mouth half-open.

For a long time he said nothing. He kept as
still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing
at all. When at last he began to speak, it
sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly,
in a dream.

"Bricks," he whispered, very low—"old
yellow bricks, crumbling with age in a garden-
wall; the sweet breath of young cows standing
in a mountain-stream; the lead roof of a dove-
cote—or perhaps a granary—with the mid-day
sun on it; black kid gloves lying in a bureau-
drawer of walnut-wood; a dusty road with a
horses' drinking-trough beneath the sycamores;
little mushrooms bursting through the rotting
leaves; and—and—and—"

"Any parsnips?" asked Gub-Gub.

"No," said Jip. "You always think of things
to eat. No parsnips whatever. And no snuff—
plenty of pipes and cigarettes, and a few cigars.
But no snuff. We must wait till the wind
changes to the South."

"Yes, it's a poor wind, that," said Gub-Gub.
"I think you're a fake, Jip. Who ever heard of
finding a man in the middle of the ocean just by
smell! I told you you couldn't do it."

"Look here," said Jip, getting really angry.
"You're going to get a bite on the nose in a min-
ute! You needn't think that just because the
Doctor won't let us give you what you deserve,
that you can be as cheeky as you like!"

"Stop quarreling!" said the Doctor—"Stop
it! Life's too short. Tell me, Jip, where do
you think those smells are coming from?"

"From Devon and Wales—most of them,"
said Jip—"The wind is coming that way."

"Well, well!" said the Doctor. "You know
that's really quite remarkable—quite. I must
make a note of that for my new book. I wonder
if you could train me to smell as well as that....
But no—perhaps I'm better off the way I am.
'Enough is as good as a feast,' they say.
Let's go down to supper. I'm quite hungry."

"So am I," said Gub-Gub.

UP they got, early next morning, out of the silken beds;
and they saw that the sun was shining brightly and that
the wind was blowing from the South.

Jip smelt the South wind for half an hour. Then he came
to the Doctor, shaking his head.

"I smell no snuff as yet," he said. "We must wait
till 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 snuff.

The little boy was terribly disappointed and
began to cry again, saying that no one seemed
to be able to find his uncle for him. But all Jip
said to the Doctor was,

"Tell him that when the wind changes to
the West, I'll find his uncle even though he be
in China—so long as he is still taking Black
Rappee snuff."

Three days they had to wait before the West
wind came. This was on a Friday morning,
early—just as it was getting light. A fine rainy
mist lay on the sea like a thin fog. And 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 got most
frightfully excited and rushed down again to
wake the Doctor up.

"Doctor!" he cried. "I've got it! Doctor!
Doctor! Wake up! Listen! I've got it!
The wind's from the West and it smells of nothing
but snuff. Come upstairs and start the ship—quick!"

So the Doctor tumbled out of bed and went
to the rudder to steer the ship.

"Now I'll go up to the front," said Jip; "and
you watch my nose—whichever way I point it,
you turn the ship the same way. The man cannot
be far off—with the smell as strong as
this. And the wind's all lovely and wet. Now
watch me!"

So all that morning Jip stood in the front
part of the ship, sniffing the wind and pointing
the way for the Doctor to steer; while all the
animals and the little boy stood round with their
eyes wide open, watching the dog in wonder.

About lunch-time Jip asked Dab-Dab to tell
the Doctor that he was getting worried and
wanted to speak to him. So Dab-Dab went and
fetched the Doctor from the other end of the
ship and Jip said to him,

"The boy's uncle is starving. We must make
the ship go as fast as we can."

"How do you know he is starving?" asked the Doctor.

"Because there is no other smell in the West
wind but snuff," said Jip. "If the man were
cooking or eating food of any kind, I would
be bound to smell it too. But he hasn't even
fresh water to drink. All he is taking is snuff
—in large pinches. We are getting nearer to
him all the time, because the smell grows
stronger every minute. But make the ship go
as fast as you can, for I am certain that the
man is starving."

"All right," said the Doctor; and he sent
Dab-Dab to ask the swallows to pull the ship,
the same as they had done when the pirates were
chasing them.

So the stout little birds came down and once
more harnessed themselves to the ship.

And now the boat went bounding through the
waves at a terrible speed. It went so fast that
the fishes in the sea had to jump for their lives
to get out of the way and not be run over.

And all the animals got tremendously excited;
and they gave up looking at Jip and turned to
watch the sea in front, to spy out any land or
islands where the starving man might be.

But hour after hour went by and still the ship
went rushing on, over the same flat, flat sea; and
no land anywhere came in sight.

And now the animals gave up chattering and
sat around silent, anxious and miserable. The
little boy again grew sad. And on Jip's face
there was a worried look.

At last, late in the afternoon, just as the sun
was going down, the owl, Too-Too, who
was perched on the tip of the mast, suddenly
startled them all by crying out at the top of his
voice,

"Jip! Jip! I see a great, great rock in front
of us—look—way out there where the sky and
the water meet. See the sun shine on it—like
gold! Is the smell coming from there?"

And Jip called back,

"Yes. That's it. That is where the man is.
—At last, at last!"

And when they got nearer they could see that
the rock was very large—as large as a big field.
No trees grew on it, no grass—nothing. The
great rock was as smooth and as bare as the back
of a tortoise.

Then the Doctor sailed the ship right round
the rock. But nowhere on it could a man be
seen. All the animals screwed up their eyes
and looked as hard as they could; and John
Dolittle got a telescope from downstairs.

But not one living thing could they spy—
not even a gull, nor a star-fish, nor a shred of
sea-weed.

They all stood still and listened, straining
their ears for any sound. But the only noise
they heard was the gentle lapping of the little
waves against the sides of their ship.

Then they all started calling, "Hulloa, there!
—HULLOA!" till their voices were hoarse.
But only the echo came back from the rock.

And the little boy burst into tears and said,

"I am afraid I shall never see my uncle any
more! What shall I tell them when I get home!"

But Jip called to the Doctor,

"He must be there—he must—HE MUST!
The smell goes on no further. He must be
there, I tell you! Sail the ship close to the rock
and let me jump out on it."

So the Doctor brought the ship as close as
he could and let down the anchor. Then he
and Jip got out of the ship on to the rock.

Jip at once put his nose down close to the
ground and began to run all over the place. Up
and down he went, back and forth—zig-zagging,
twisting, doubling and turning. And
everywhere he went, the Doctor ran behind him,
close at his heels—till he was terribly out of
breath.

At last Jip let out a great bark and sat down.
And when the Doctor came running up to him,
he found the dog staring into a big, deep hole in
the middle of the rock.

"The boy's uncle is down there," said Jip
quietly. "No wonder those silly eagles couldn't
see him!—It takes a dog to find a man."

So the Doctor got down into the hole, which
seemed to be a kind of cave, or tunnel, running
a long way under the ground. Then he struck
a match and started to make his way along the
dark passage with Jip following behind.

The Doctor's match soon went out; and he
had to strike another and another and another.