GULLS AND SHIPS
"'Fine!' says the old rat. 'Now run around the shed a few times,哪里🗽 so you won't take a chill. And then go to bed and cover up. In the morning when it's light you'll find yourself very different.'
The cross-eyed Wilkins was still seated at the table,七十九⭐ as Dab-Dab had described,正骨🔔 counting pearls. Two other men were asleep in bunks around the room. The Doctor swung open the door and jumped in. Instantly Wilkins sprang up from the table,正骨📇 snatched a pistol from his belt and leveled it at the Doctor's head.
"'That's a good notion,七十九🔐' said he. 'Let's start to-morrow.'"
"'Go and see the Doctor,七十九🚢' said my brother.
"Because it has never been visited by man since the Flood,七十九📏" said the giant reptile. "You will be the first to see it. We who live in it boast that we bathe daily in the original water of the Flood. For before the Forty Days' Rain came it was not there,七十九🐢 they say. But when the Flood passed away this part of the world never dried up. And so it has remained,哪里👎 guarded by these wide mangrove swamps,哪里🌵 ever since."
The Doctor was dreadfully angry when he had heard the story. And he asked Zuzana how long ago was it that the slaver's ship bearing her husband had left.
"That's a little idea of my own,正骨👢" said the Sparrow. "We'll 'ave one box for the bills and one for sure-enough letters. You see,正骨📕 people are so disappointed when they 'ear the postman's knock and come to the door,正骨🔸 expecting to find a nice letter from a friend or news that money's been left them and all they get is a bill from the tailor. But if we have two boxes on each door,七十九🐸 one marked 'Bills,哪里🐥' and the other 'Letters,哪里😼' the postman can put all the bills in one box and the honest letters in the other. As I said,哪里📅 it's a little idea of my own. We might as well be real up-to-date. What do you think of it?"
CHAPTER IX
"'Well,七十九👥' I said,七十九🚀 'people hire out bicycles and pianos for rent,正骨🍡 don't they? So,正骨📲 why can't you and I rent out bones for dogs to chew? They won't be able to pay us in money of course,哪里🚁 so we'll get them to bring us things,哪里👟 instead. Then the beggar can sell the things and get money.'
So the good Speedy sent off messengers; and all around the world and back again word was passed from bird to bird that John Dolittle,正骨🚚 the famous animal doctor,七十九🎥 wished to see all the leaders of all kinds of birds,哪里😭 great and small.
"Dab-Dab,七十九㊗ the economical housekeeper,正骨🚕 blew out the candle"
This they were glad to do. And the Doctor made the tea himself and it was very excellent. Over the tea Zuzana and her husband (whose name was Begwe) were conversing about the Kingdom of Fantippo.
"The fall of the year 1492 was a stormy season. Gales and squalls were blowing up all the time and we did not get started on our trip until the second week in October. My ancestor had been the leader of the flock for a long time. But he had grown sort of old and feeble and a younger bird was elected in his place to lead the Golden Jays to Venezuela that year. The new leader was a conceited youngster,哪里🐟 and because he had been chosen he thought he knew everything about navigation and weather and sea crossings.
"You sound bitter,正骨💽" said the Doctor. "Did King Mashtu do you any harm?"
"It changed my appearance completely. Moving through the long grass,正骨🐮 I looked like some ordinary kind of deer. So,哪里🌸 disguised in this manner,七十九🗼 I sauntered out into an open meadow and grazed around till my precious Badamoshis should appear. Which they very shortly did.
And on the morrow,七十九🌗 crossing once again to the island,哪里📞 he went on with the discussion and planning and arrangement. It was agreed that the Swallow Mail Service should have its head office here in No-Man's-Land. And that there should be branch offices at Cape Horn,正骨📟 Greenland,正骨📛 in Christmas Island,正骨🎯 Tahiti,哪里🔡 Kashmir,哪里🐹 Thibet and Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. Most of the mails were arranged so that those birds who migrated or went to other lands in the winter and back again in summer should carry the letters on their regular yearly journeys. And as there are some kinds of birds crossing from one land to another in almost every week of the year,七十九🏰 this took care of much of the mails without difficulty."So in the dead of night I crept out of the jungle and came to the place where the hunters' huts were. I had to come up from the leeward side,正骨💮 because I didn't want to have the dogs get my scent on the wind. I was more afraid of the hunters' dogs,七十九😱 you see,哪里⏳ than I was of the hunters themselves. From the men I could escape quite easily,七十九👺 being much swifter than they were; but dogs,正骨🚁 with their sense of smell,七十九🍯 are much harder to get away from,七十九🌿 even when you can reach the cover of the jungle.
But not one hit the slave ship. Splash! Splash! Splash! They fell harmlessly into the water.
So while the Doctor put his clothes on and Gub-Gub washed the mud out of his ears,七十九🍺 Dab-Dab went off on a tour of inquiry around the islands.