"
"That's a good idea," said the Doctor--"splendid!"
And he called his animals together at once,
said Good-by to the canaries and ran down to the beach.
When they reached the shore they saw the
pirate-ship, with the three red sails, standing in
the water; and--just as the swallows had said
--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 on to the pirate-ship.
THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER
THE BARBARY DRAGON
EVERYTHING would have gone all right if the pig had not caught
a cold in his head while eating the damp sugar-cane on the
island. This is what happened:
After they had pulled up the anchor without a sound,
and were moving the ship very, very carefully out of the bay,
Gub-Gub suddenly sneezed so loud that the pirates
on the other ship came rushing upstairs to see
what the noise was.
As soon as they saw that the Doctor was
escaping, they sailed the other boat right across
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 and shouted across the water,
"Ha! Ha! You are caught, 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 that duck
you've got--and the pig too.
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