So the Doctor and Jip and Speedy-the-Skimmer sat down in the shade of the palm trees and for the first time plans for that great service which was to be known as the Swallow Mail were discussed.
When it was possible to see,女友🈵 however,卸妆👑 the Doctor found that most of Chief Nyam-Nyam's people had fled off into the jungle; and the Amazons,女友🔤 in thousands,崩溃🐎 were just going through the village,崩溃🚗 taking anything they fancied. The Doctor tried to argue with them,女友🐠 but they merely laughed at him.
"We've caught the fellow who stole the pearls,女友🌚 Doctor,女友☎" said Speedy.
Well,崩溃📱 when breakfast had been disposed of the Doctor sharpened his pencil,女友🌊 got out a notebook and,卸妆🚪 telling Too-Too to listen carefully,女友🈚 in case he should miss anything,女友🗽 he asked the turtle to begin the story of the Flood.Then the Doctor drew back for a run and threw his whole weight against the door. But the hinges and lock had been made to stand the beating of the sea and they budged no more than if he had been a fly.
"'What was that?'"
At first the squirrel seemed almost too frightened to speak. So the Doctor took a pair of scissors and cut the bonds that held him.
"Well,女友📀" said the Doctor,崩溃📐 "if you haven't got an island we must make one for you."In the meantime,卸妆🎢 Speedy and the thrush flew over the land by the short cut to the post office.
"Well,女友👃 what have you done with the matches,女友🐽 Doctor?" called Dab-Dab. "They were always in your coat."
"Well,卸妆🚽 never mind,崩溃🏨 we'll forget it,崩溃🚁" said the Doctor. "It's only a boyish escapade."
John Dolittle had no idea of what he meant to do. Nor was the gull himself sure that he would be in time to succeed with the plan he had in mind. But presently,卸妆🔲 to his delight,卸妆🐮 the seabird heard his call being answered from the rocky shores shrouded in darkness. And soon he had hundreds of his brother gulls circling round him in the night.So Dab-Dab went off upon her errand. And in the meantime the Doctor talked and chatted with various sea bird leaders who had already made his acquaintance at the Great Conference in the hollow of No-Man's-Land. These kept coming up to him,崩溃📭 anxious to show off before their fellows the fact that they knew the great man personally. And once more the Doctor's notebook was kept busy with new discoveries to be jotted down about the carriage of mail by birds that live upon the sea.
This is a letter he received from a pig in Patagonia:
"Try in your waistcoat pockets,崩溃💒" said Too-Too. "They were always the most interesting. You haven't turned them out since you left Puddleby. There must be lots in them."
Speedy had agreed with the Doctor upon a sort of overhead telegraph system to be carried on by the swallows. And as soon as the millions of little birds had spread themselves out in a line along the coast,卸妆😵 so that the sky was speckled with them as far as the eye could reach,卸妆🍀 they began passing messages,崩溃🍉 by whistling to one another,女友🚔 all the way from the scouts in front back to the Doctor on the warship,卸妆⛪ to give news of how the hunt was progressing.
"You,卸妆🍜 Doctor,卸妆🐧" said the deep voice of the piffilosaurus at his elbow,卸妆📹 "are the first human in a thousand years that has set foot here. The last one was King Kakaboochi's mother-in-law."
"Don't worry,崩溃🌹 Doctor,卸妆♈ I'll get it to her,卸妆🙏" said the mouse. "I've just found an old rat hole over here in the corner. I popped down it and it goes under the wall and comes out by the root of the tree on the other side of the road from the prison."
While he was talking to the Chief (who seemed to be a kindly old man) Speedy swept into the Chief's hut in a great state of excitement.
"In my travels through the woods I heard children's voices and the barking of a dog. Usually I would have gone further into the forest,女友⚓ away from such sounds. But in my young days I was a curious bird and my curiosity often led me into many adventures. So instead of flying away,卸妆📼 I went toward the noises I heard,卸妆➰ moving cautiously from tree to tree,女友❗ so that I could see without being seen."From the bottom of the lake,卸妆🚣" said the turtle. "Out there,崩溃🍙" Mudface nodded toward the gloomy wide-stretching waters,崩溃👂 "there stood,卸妆🍌 thousands of years ago,崩溃🍛 the beautiful city of Shalba. Don't I know,女友🎰 when for long enough I lived in it? Once it was the greatest and fairest city ever raised by men and King Mashtu of Shalba the proudest monarch in the world. Now I,女友🐤 Mudface the turtle,崩溃🎩 make a nest in the swamp out of the ruins of his palace. Ha! Ha!"
"The light's too bad,崩溃😆" grumbled the gunners. "Who could hit anything two miles away in this rotten light?"
"What is it? What's the matter?" he shouted into the darkness over the sea.
"Very well,女友🎻" said the Doctor. "I'll attend to that,卸妆🔌 too. Shall I have the letter boxes in the middle of the door,卸妆🚭 or would you like them on one side?"
"Couldn't you use the houses of Fantippo?" asked the Doctor.