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.
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