And now the Doctor set out with his animals and the old Chief to return to Nyam-Nyam's country from the land where he had been imprisoned. On the way they kept meeting with groups of the Chief's people who were still hiding in the jungle. These were told the glad tidings of the Emir's promise. When they learned that their land was now free and safe again the people joined the Doctor's party for the return journey. And long before he came in sight of the village John Dolittle looked like a conquering general coming back at the head of an army,腊鱼🙏 so many had gathered to him on the way.
"What are you going to say to Wilkins,做法💁 Doctor?" asked Dab-Dab as the canoe glided along over the moonlit sea. "It's a pity you haven't got a pistol or something like that. He looks a desperate character and he isn't likely to give up the pearls without a fight."
"That's the 'Elephants' March,腊鱼🍂'" said the turtle. "They always played it at the Royal Circus of Shalba for the elephants' procession."
"Thank you,腊鱼🍁" said the gull. "I am feeling kind of peckish myself. You are very kind. This is the first time I've eaten ship's food inside a ship."
The Doctor,腊鱼🚂 on hearing this,做法💼 felt glad that he had already got the pink pearls safely off to their owner by registered mail. Then he told the King that he hoped shortly to take a holiday because he was overworked and needed a rest. The King asked where he was going,简单💸 and the Doctor said he thought of taking a week's canoe trip up the coast toward the Harmattan Rocks.
"What's the matter?" shouted the Doctor,简单🐑 as soon as he was near enough to make the woman hear. "Why have you come so far from the land? Don't you know that you are in great danger if a storm should come up?"
But after many hours of fruitless search night began to come on and the swallows who were acting as guides could no longer see big distances,简单🔪 for there was no moon.
"They found the Doctor shaving"
A good strong canoe had by this time been put at the Doctor's service by the King,简单🎎 who was also having the post office houseboat built at the Doctor's orders.
For a long time Dab-Dab,腊鱼📥 the motherly housekeeper,简单🐨 had been trying to get the Doctor to take a holiday from his post office business.
A GREAT GUNNER
Some weeks later the Doctor received this letter from a farmer in Lincolnshire:Cheapside said that the message was so long he was afraid he would never be able to remember it by heart. So John Dolittle told him to take it down in bird scribble and he dictated it to him all over again.
"The gulls dashed themselves into the wheelman's face"
"Yes,家常🐓 Doctor,做法📱" Dab-Dab put in,腊鱼🎽 "but you wouldn't be bound to buy a second one with the money you would get for the pearls. It would come in real handy for something else,腊鱼💌 you know."
Poor Mudface awoke with an acute attack of gout. He had not been bothered by this ailment since the Doctor's arrival. But now he could scarcely move at all without great pain. And Dab-Dab brought his breakfast to him where he lay.
"The bluejackets crowded to the rail"
It was a long but a most interesting journey that the Doctor took from Fantippo to Lake Junganyika. It turned out that the turtle's home lay many miles inland in the heart of one of the wildest,家常🔸 most jungly parts of Africa.
"Dear me,做法♠" said he while he was sitting miserably on the floor in the darkness,家常🐠 wondering what on earth he was going to do without any of his animals to help him,简单🐵 "what a poor holiday I am spending,简单🎬 to be sure!"
Such a roaring trade was done in this way that the King set the stamp printing presses to work more busily than ever,做法🛁 so that a whole new set of Fantippo stamps should be ready for sale by the time the same ship called again on her way home to England."Aye,腊鱼🐂 aye,腊鱼💴 sir,家常📙" said the master-at-arms. And before the Doctor knew it he had handcuffs fastened firmly on his wrists.
"Well,家常😳 just wait until I have your hands free,简单🏰" said the white mouse. "Then I'll see what can be done. There! I've bitten through one strand. Now wiggle your hands a bit and you can undo the whole rope."
"Well,家常📘 wouldn't you like to keep them,简单🐒 then?" asked the spoonbill. "I could get the children something else to play with,简单😐 no doubt."
"Well,做法🌓" said the Jay,做法🎲 "the story was handed down to me by my mother,家常🏥 who heard it from my grandmother,简单🌜 who got it from my great-grandmother,做法😺 and so on,腊鱼👛 way back to an ancestor of ours who lived in America in the fifteenth century. Our kind of birds in those days did not come across to this side of the Atlantic,做法📟 neither summer nor winter. We used to spend from March to September in the Bermudas and the rest of the year in Venezuela. And when we made the autumn journey south we used to stop at the Bahama Islands to rest on the way.