Free The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed by Hugh Lofting Page A

we can't open
the door. Come down and see if you can let
us in."
    So the Doctor went downstairs and he saw
that it was indeed a beautiful ship. He found
the animals gathered round a little door, all
talking at once, trying to guess what was inside.
The Doctor turned the handle but it wouldn't
open. Then they all started to hunt for the key.
They looked under the mat; they looked under
all the carpets; they looked in all the cupboards
and drawers and lockers—in the big chests in the
ship's dining-room; they looked everywhere.
    While they were doing this they discovered
a lot of new and wonderful things that the
pirates must have stolen from other ships: Kashmir
shawls as thin as a cobweb, embroidered
with flowers of gold; jars of fine tobacco from
Jamaica; carved ivory boxes full of Russian
tea; an old violin with a string broken and a
picture on the back; a set of big chess-men,
carved out of coral and amber; a walking-stick
which had a sword inside it when you pulled
the handle; six wine-glasses with turquoise
and silver round the rims; and a lovely great
sugar-bowl, made of mother o' pearl. But
nowhere in the whole boat could they find a key to
fit that lock.
    So they all came back to the door, and Jip
peered through the key-hole. But something
had been stood against the wall on the inside
and he could see nothing.
    While they were standing around, wondering
what they should do, the owl, Too-Too,
suddenly said,
    "Sh!—Listen!—I do believe there's some
one in there!"
    They all kept still a moment. Then the
Doctor said,
    "You must be mistaken, Too-Too. I don't
hear anything."
    "I'm sure of it," said the owl. "Sh!—There
it is again—Don't you hear that?"
    "No, I do not," said the Doctor. "What
kind of a sound is it?"
    "I hear the noise of some one putting his
hand in his pocket," said the owl.
    "But that makes hardly any sound at all," said
the Doctor. "You couldn't hear that out here."
    "Pardon me, but I can," said Too-Too. "I
tell you there is some one on the other side of
that door putting his hand in his pocket. Almost
everything makes SOME noise—if your ears
are only sharp enough to catch it. Bats can hear
a mole walking in his tunnel under the earth
—and they think they're good hearers. But we
owls can tell you, using only one ear, the color
of a kitten from the way it winks in the dark."
    "Well, well!" said the Doctor. "You
surprise me. That's very interesting.... Listen
again and tell me what he's doing now."
    "I'm not sure yet," said Too-Too, "if it's a
man at all. Maybe it's a woman. Lift me up
and let me listen at the key-hole and I'll soon
tell you."
    So the Doctor lifted the owl up and held him
close to the lock of the door.
    After a moment Too-Too said,
    "Now he's rubbing his face with his left
hand. It is a small hand and a small face.
It MIGHT be a woman—No. Now he pushes his
hair back off his forehead—It's a man all right."
    "Women sometimes do that," said the Doctor.
    "True," said the owl. "But when they do,
their long hair makes quite a different sound.
... Sh! Make that fidgety pig keep still.
Now all hold your breath a moment so I can
listen well. This is very difficult, what I'm
doing now—and the pesky door is so thick! Sh!
Everybody quite still—shut your eyes and don't breathe."
    Too-Too leaned down and listened again
very hard and long.
    At last he looked up into the Doctor's face
and said,
    "The man in there is unhappy. He weeps.
He has taken care not to blubber or sniffle, lest
we should find out that he is crying. But I
heard—quite distinctly—the sound of a tear
falling on his sleeve."
    "How do you know it wasn't a drop of water
falling off the ceiling on him?" asked Gub-Gub.
"Pshaw!—Such ignorance!" sniffed Too-
Too. "A drop of water falling off the ceiling
would have made ten times as much noise!"
    "Well," said the Doctor, "if the poor
fellow's unhappy, we've got to get in and see
what's the matter with him. Find me an axe,
and I'll chop the door down."

The Seventeenth