Part III Chapter 8 Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary by Hugh Lofting
The Thief Escapes
Then suddenly talking out loud, the Doctor closed his bag with a snap. And with much tramping of feet the two of them, followed by Jip, left the mill.
After they had gone about a hundred yards along the path that led down the hill into the town, the Doctor said to Jip:
'Now you run on ahead and do a little barking—just like a dog setting out on a walk would do. Don't bother about us; we're going to stay here a while and then go back to the mill. But I want you to continue barking, moving slowly farther away all the time, so the man will think we're going on into the town.'
'All right,' said Jip. 'I understand. But don't forget to whistle for me, if there's a fight.'
The Doctor assured Jip that he would. Then, taking Pippinella's small cage out of his pocket, he put the green canary in it and returned it to its hiding–place.
'If we should have some trouble,' he said to her, 'You'll be safer there. Most birds—except bats and owls—don't see too well in the dark.'
'Yes,' said Pippinella. 'That's why we hide ourselves in the trees when the sun goes down. With cats on the prowl at night that's the only way we can hope to be sfae.'
'Quite so,' said John Dolittle. 'Please be very quiet, Pippinella.'
By now Jip was off down the hill and Steve and the Doctor could hear him bark out every once in a while, each time a little farther away. After waiting a few minutes they turned and made their way slowly and carefully back.
When they were within about fifty yards of the mill the Doctor motioned to Steve, and they hid themselves behind some bushes.
'I ought to have told those bats to keep me informed,' whispered the Doctor. 'Silly of me not to have thought of it. Listen! There's somebody opening the kitchen door.'
Presently Steve and the Doctor saw the door of the mill open slowly. A man came out and stood motionless, listening. In the distance Jip, still cheerfully yapping for an imaginary man to throw stones, could be plainly heard from below the hill.
After a while the man seemed satisfied that his visitors had really departed for he re–entered cautiously and closed the door behind him.
'Look!' said the Doctor. 'He's lighting candles. He has hung something over the window, but you can just see a glimmer through the chinks of the door.'
The Doctor and Steve were about to move forwards form their hiding–places when they heard the faint fluttering of wings near their heads. Against the sky they saw queer little shapes dancing. It was the bats.
'He turned us out,' they said to the Doctor. 'We wanted to stay and see if we could get you any information. But he flapped us out of the kitchen with a towel. You know some people think we bring bad luck.'
'Did you see anything of the papers?' asked the Doctor.
'Yes,' said they. 'He went and brought them up from the cellar, after he had closed the door and lit the candles. He's examining them on the table. He doesn't seem to be able to read very well, because he spends an awful long time over one line. We couldn't find out any more, because shortly after he started reading he saw us and drove us out.'
'Thank you,' said the Doctor, 'what you have told us is very valuable.' And he translated the bats' information for the benefit of Steve.
'We're going to have a job,' the Doctor added, 'because that door is probably securely fastened from the inside. And the window is too small to get through in a hurry.'
'I should think,' said Steve, 'the best way would be to watch him and wait till he goes out for a minute. The chances are that he'll leave them on the table if he does.'
'Well,' said the Doctor. 'let's sneak up and get a look at him, if we can, through the cracks of the door. Then we may be able to know better what to do.'
Together, then, the two taking the utmost care to make no noise, crept forward to the hill till they stood beneath the great towering shadow of the mill. On the left–hand side of the door the woodwork had wrapped away from the frame, leaving a narrow chink. Through this the Doctor peered.
Inside he saw a ragged, rough–looking man, with a stubby growth of beard on his chin, seated at the table. The table was littered deep in papers. Underneath the table was a piece of sacking spread out flat, in which they had evidently been wrapped and carried.
'Tweet! Tweet!' whistled the canary from the Doctor's pocket.
'What is it, Pippinella?' asked John Dolittle bringing her tiny cage in the open.
'Do you mind if I have a peek at that fellow?' she asked. 'I may need to recognize him later.'
'Certainly,' said the Doctor. And he placed the cage at the opening through which they had been peering.
When she had memorized his features thoroughly the Doctor returned her to his pocket and speaking to Steve said:
'If only I knew,' he said, 'what kind of a fastening this door had on the inside I could tell what chance we'd have in rushing it. If it gave way to one good heave we might grab the fellow and secure your papers before he had time to do anything.'
'No. Better wait,' whispered Steve. 'If the door should not break down easily he'd be warned and have lots of time to destroy the papers in the fireplace or anything else. Better wait to see if he comes out. Can't you think of a way to entice him out?'
'Humph!' said the Doctor. 'Not without grave risk of arousing his suspicions and making matters worse than they are. Well, let's wait a while, then, and see what he does.'
So, despite the cold night wind, which had now begun to blow freshly from the East, the Doctor and Steve kept guard at the door, watching through the cracks, hoping the man would get up and come out. John Dolittle had it all planned exactly how they should jump on him, one from each side, and secure him before he had a chance to resist.
But hour after hour went by, and still old Jip kept cheerfully yapping away below the hill and never a sign or a move did the man make.
Finally the Doctor thought he had better go down the hill and relieve poor Jip, who was still performing the part given him and barking cheerily at regular intervals. So, leaving Steve to continue watching, John Dolittle set off down the hill, and finally found Jip—by this time well within the streets of the town—and told him how things were.
'Bother the luck! muttered Jip. 'Well, what are you going to do, Doctor?'
'I don't know, Jip,' said John Dolittle. 'But we are determined we're going to get those papers, if we have to wait all night.'
'How would it be, Doctor,' asked the dog? 'If I were to moan and whine around the mill? Maybe that would entice him out and you could jump on him at the door.'
'No,' said the Doctor, 'I think not. We're so afraid of scaring him, you see.'
'You couldn't get up on top of the tower and drop down on him from the inside?' asked Jip.
'Not without making enough noise to wake the dead,' said the Doctor. 'You better stop barking now. You may get the townsfolk aroused and do more harm than good. Come on up the hill, nearer the mill, but, for heaven's sake, don't make a sound!'
So once more they proceed cautiously up the hill, and, after the Doctor had stowed Jip away beneath a hedge and repeated his instructions about keeping quiet, he rejoined Steve at the door.
'Has he moved yet?' he asked.
'Not an inch,' whispered the window–cleaner. 'I believe he's reading my book from beginning to end.'
'Tut, tut!' muttered the Doctor. 'Luck seems against us tonight. What's that? Oh, the bats again.'
Once more the little hovering shadows circled around John Dolittle's head.
'Listen!' the Doctor whispered. 'Do you think you could get inside from the top and tell me what kind of a fastening he has on this door?'
'Oh, we know already,' said the bats. 'He has hardly anything at all—just a small, crazy bolt that you could easily force.
'Good,' said John Dolittle.
'Then he explained to Steve how they were both to draw back and to rush the door together.
'With the weight of the two of us it should surely give,' he whispered. But we must be sure to hit it together. Now, are you ready? Go!'
Together they charged. And together their shoulders hit the panels with a rash. The door gave way to the splintering sound of wood and fell inward. But, unfortunately, the Doctor fell on top of it and tripped Steve up, too. With a sweep of his hand the man at the table put out the candle. The Doctor scrambled to his feet and jumped for where he thought the table was. He found the table, but no man and no papers. The thief had lifted the piece of sacking cloth bodily and rolled it up.
'Guard the door, Steve!' yelled the doctor. 'Don't let him out!'
But he was too late. Steve, over–anxious to recover his papers, had already plunged into the dark room and was feeling and stumbling around wildly. Against the patch of sky framed in the door way the Doctor saw a man's figure, with a bundle under his arm, bound outward into the night.
'Jip!' he yelled—'Jip! Look out, Jip! He's getting away. And he's got the papers with him!'
Still calling for Jip, the Doctor jumped over the fallen door and ran out into the open. The wind had now increased and was blowing strongly from the East. John Dolittle, knowing that the man had doubled away to the right, realized at once that the weather was again him. Jim, who he had left a little below the crest of the hill, was to the windward. But the Doctor's voice and the man's sent would be carried in the opposite direction.
Thus it was at least tow minutes elapsed before John Dolittle could get Jip's attention at all. And by that time the man had got a good start, downwind. However, Jip shot away on the trail at once and the Doctor and Steve blunder after him through the windy night as best they could.
'Even with the weather against him,' the Doctor panted as he stumbled over the uneven ground, 'Jip may yet keep in touch with the scamp. He's a wonder, that dog, when it comes to tracking.'
'I only hope that fellow doesn't destroy the papers,' muttered Steve.
'No, I don't think that's likely,' said John Dolittle. 'After all, why should he? He certainly could not make anything out of them if he did that.'
'He might want to get rid of evidence that he had stolen them,' said Steve.
After about a twenty–minute run, during which the two men entirely lost touch with the dog, they ran into Jip returning from the hunt. His miserable, dejected appearance told them at once that he had met with nothing but failure.
'It's no good Doctor,' said he. 'He got away, confound him! As soon as I heard you call I dashed off to try to get ahead of hi, where the wind would blow the smell of him towards me, instead of away. But what with the start he had and the crossed trails that wretched old badger had left behind, it couldn't be done. He must have got into the woods below the second filed—of course, he'd know the country like his own hand, having lived here. And, although my speed is better than his, the lay of the land is new to me. I hunted right through the woods and along every ditch where he might have hidden. The forest was quite large and beyond it I came out on a road. I followed it a way, thinking he'd likely have stuck to it because it gave him a chance for clear running in the dark.
'This road led round, in a wandering sort of zig–zag, back into the town on the far side,' continued Jip. 'There, the wind was against me again. And to find him by myself among the houses would be pretty nearly impossible, even if he did not go on through the town—which he probably did. I'm sorry to have failed you, Doctor. but you see how things were, don't you.'
'Oh, quite, Jip, quite.' said the Doctor. 'Too bad, too bad! Have you anything to suggest that we might do?'
'We could go into the town,' said Jip gloomily. 'The three of us, by hunting through it thoroughly, might run him down. But I have my doubts. I've a notion that customer had been chased before and knows a good deal about the game of lying low.'
The Doctor explained to Steve what the dog had said and the three of them, after the door had been put back in its place to keep the rain out, made their way down into the town. By the time they got there it was three o'clock in the morning. As yet, except for a sleepy watchman in the market square, there was no one abroad.
The Doctor had very little hope of accomplishing anything, but he proceeded with the help of his companions to make a thorough search of all the streets. Each one took a section of the town, and it was agreed that they should meet again in the square after an hour had passed.
But quite early in the hunt John Dolittle realized that it would be perfectly easy for a man to hide, when hunted at such a time as this with all the townsfolk abed, to find some shrubbery in a garden, or a stable, or other place of refuge, from which he could not be routed without walking up the whole town. And as the nature of their business was something which Steve did not wish to have made public, it would not be possible to arrest him in the ordinary way.
When the Doctor returned to the square the first of the market gardeners were beginning to arrive with their wagons of vegetables. While he waited for the return of Steve and Jip. John Dolittle reviewed the events of the night; he tried to imagine what he would do, were be the hunted man. The only idea that came to him was that he would most likely try to make his way to London where it would be easy to lose oneself in the crowds. With this in mind he made inquiries of the farmers who were arriving from that direction, hoping to hear that one of them had seen the tramp with the sacking bundle under his arm. But they all gave him the same reply. Nobody had seen the stranger the Doctor described.
Neither Steve nor Jip, when they finally turned up, had any better report to give than his own. It was decided then to have breakfast and talk over what they would do next.