Free The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

thought it?—Luke,
the philosopher!—Killed a man!—I can hardly believe it."
    "It's true enough—unfortunately," said Jip. "Luke did it. But it wasn't
his fault. Bob says so. And he was there and saw it all. He was scarcely
more than a puppy at the time. Bob says Luke couldn't help it. He HAD to
do it."
    "Where is Bob now?" asked the Doctor.
    "Down at the prison. I wanted him to come with me here to see you; but
he won't leave the prison while Luke is there. He just sits outside the
door of the prison-cell and won't move. He doesn't even eat the food
they give him. Won't you please come down there, Doctor, and see if
there is anything you can do? The trial is to be this afternoon at two
o'clock. What time is it now?"
    "It's ten minutes past one."
    "Bob says he thinks they are going to kill Luke for a punishment if they
can prove that he did it—or certainly keep him in prison for the rest
of his life. Won't you please come? Perhaps if you spoke to the judge
and told him what a good man Luke really is they'd let him off."
    "Of course I'll come," said the Doctor getting up and moving to go. "But
I'm very much afraid that I shan't be of any real help." He turned at
the door and hesitated thoughtfully.
    "And yet—I wonder—"
    Then he opened the door and passed out with Jip and me close at his
heels.

The Fourth Chapter. Bob
*
    DAB-DAB was terribly upset when she found we were going away again
without luncheon; and she made us take some cold pork-pies in our
pockets to eat on the way.
    When we got to Puddleby Court-house (it was next door to the prison), we
found a great crowd gathered around the building.
    This was the week of the Assizes—a business which happened every three
months, when many pick-pockets and other bad characters were tried by
a very grand judge who came all the way from London. And anybody in
Puddleby who had nothing special to do used to come to the Court-house
to hear the trials.
    But to-day it was different. The crowd was not made up of just a few
idle people. It was enormous. The news had run through the countryside
that Luke the Hermit was to be tried for killing a man and that the
great mystery which had hung over him so long was to be cleared up
at last. The butcher and the baker had closed their shops and taken a
holiday. All the farmers from round about, and all the townsfolk,
were there with their Sunday clothes on, trying to get seats in the
Court-house or gossipping outside in low whispers. The High Street was
so crowded you could hardly move along it. I had never seen the quiet
old town in such a state of excitement before. For Puddleby had not had
such an Assizes since 1799, when Ferdinand Phipps, the Rector's oldest
son, had robbed the bank.
    If I hadn't had the Doctor with me I am sure I would never have been
able to make my way through the mob packed around the Court-house door.
But I just followed behind him, hanging on to his coat-tails; and at
last we got safely into the jail.
    "I want to see Luke," said the Doctor to a very grand person in a blue
coat with brass buttons standing at the door.
    "Ask at the Superintendent's office," said the man. "Third door on the
left down the corridor."
    "Who is that person you spoke to, Doctor?" I asked as we went along the
passage.
    "He is a policeman."
    "And what are policemen?"
    "Policemen? They are to keep people in order. They've just been
invented—by Sir Robert Peel. That's why they are also called 'peelers'
sometimes. It is a wonderful age we live in. They're always thinking of
something new—This will be the Superintendent's office, I suppose."
    From there another policeman was sent with us to show us the way.
    Outside the door of Luke's cell we found Bob, the bulldog, who wagged
his tail sadly when he saw us. The man who was guiding us took a large
bunch of keys from his pocket and opened the door.
    I had never been inside a real prison-cell before; and I felt quite
a thrill when the policeman went out and locked the door after