Part I Chapter 7 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
THE MESSENGER FROM THE NORTH
Late that night the Doctor took Too-Too with him and went to visit the seal again. "Now, Sophie," said he when they had reached the side of the tank, "this owl is a friend of mine, and I want you to describe to him just where in Alaska your husband can be found. Then we'll send him off to the seashore, and he will hand on your message to the gulls who are going northwestward. Let me introduce you: Sophie, this is Too-Too, one of the cleverest birds I know. He is particularly good at mathematics."
The owl sat on the rail while Sophie told him exactly how Slushy could be reached and reeled off a long and loving message for her husband. When she had ended he said:
"I think I'll make for Bristol, Doctor. It is about the nearest coast town. There are always plenty of gulls to be found in the harbor. I'll get one to take this and pass it on to its destination."
"Very good, Too-Too," said the Doctor. "But we want to hurry it all we can. If you can find some sea-bird who is willing to take it the whole way as a special favor to me, it would be better."
"All right," said Too-Too, preparing to depart. "Leave the window of the caravan open, so I can get in. I don't suppose I shall be back much before two in the morning. So long!"
Then the Doctor returned to his wagon and rewrote the last part of his new book, which was called Animal Natation. Sophie had given him a lot of helpful hints on good swimming style which made it necessary for him to add three more chapters.
He got so interested in this he did not notice how the time was passing; till, somewhere between two and three in the morning he suddenly found Too-Too, the night bird, standing on the table before him.
"Doctor," said he, speaking low so he would not wake the animals. "You could never guess whom I met. You remember the gull who brought you the warning about Cape Stephen Light? Well, I ran into him in Bristol Harbor. I hadn't seen him since the good old house-boat days. But I recognized him at once. I told him I was hunting for some one to take a message up to Alaska; and when he heard it was you who sent me, he said he would attend to it himself with pleasure. He doesn't expect to be back under five days, though-- at best.
"Splendid, Too-Too, splendid!" said the Doctor.
"I am returning to Bristol Friday," said the owl, "and if he isn't back then, I'll wait till he comes."
The following morning John Dolittle told Sophie that her message had been sent on; and she was very pleased. For the present there was nothing further to be done but to wait for the gull's return.
On Thursday (a day before the time Too-Too had planned to return to Bristol) the Doctor's whole party were seated round the table in the caravan listening to a story from Toby, the Punch-and-Judy dog. Just as Toby paused breathless at the most exciting parts, there came a gentle tapping on the window.
"Booh!" said Gub-Gub--"How spookish!" And he crawled under the bed.
John Dolittle rose, drew back the curtains and opened the window. On the sill stood the gull who months before had brought him another message by night when he lived in the houseboat postoffice. Now, weather-beaten and weary, he looked more dead than alive. Gently the Doctor lifted him from the window-sill, and set him down on the table. Then they all drew near, staring at him in silence, waiting for the exhausted bird to speak.
"John Dolittle," said the gull at last, "I didn't wait for Too-Too to meet me in Bristol, because I thought you ought to know at once. The seal herd to which Sophie and her husband belonged are in a bad way --very bad. And it has all come about because Sophie was taken away and her husband Slushy lost the leadership. Winter has set in up there early this year--and my, such a winter! Blizzards, mountainous snowdrifts, the seas frozen months ahead of the usual time. I nearly died of the cold myself--and you know we gulls can stand awful low temperatures. Well, leadership for the seal herds is tremendously important in bad weather. They're not much different from sheep--same as all animals that travel and live in packs. And without a big, strong boss to lead them to the open fishing and the protected wintering places, they're just lost, that's all--helpless. Now, it seems, ever since Slushy started to mope they've had one leader after another--and none of them any good. Rows and little revolutions going on in the herd all the while. And in the meantime the walruses and sea lions are driving them out of all the best fishing and the Esquimaux seal hunters killing them right and left. No seal herd can last long against the fur hunters up there if they haven't got a good leader with wits enough to keep them out of danger. Slushy was the best they ever had, as strong as an ox. Now all he does is lie on an iceberg, mooning and weeping because his favorite wife's been taken away. He's got hundreds more, just as good-looking, but the only one he wants is Sophie, and there you are. The herd's just going to pieces. In the days of Slushy's leadership, they tell me it was the finest seal herd in the Arctic Circle. Now, most likely, with this extra bad winter setting in, it'll be wiped right out."
For fully a minute after the gull finished his long speech silence reigned in the caravan.
Finally John Dolittle said:
"Toby, does Sophie belong to Blossom or to Higgins?"
"To Higgins, Doctor," said the little dog. "He does something as the same as you do; in return for letting the seal perform in the big ring, Higgins gets his stand in the circus free, and pockets whatever money he makes on her as a side show."
"Well, that isn't the same as me at all," said the Doctor. "The big difference is that the pushmi-pullyu is here of his own accord and Sophie is kept against her will. It is a perfect scandal that hunters can go up to the Arctic and capture any animals they like, breaking up families and upsetting herd government and community life in this way--a crying shame! Toby, how much does a seal cost?"
"They vary in price, Doctor," said Toby. "But I heard Sophie say that when Higgins bought her in Liverpool from the men who had caught her he paid twenty pounds for her. She had been trained on the ship to do tricks before she landed."
"How much have we got in the money box, Too-Too?" asked the Doctor.
"All of last week's gate money," said the owl, "except one shilling and threepence. The threepence you spent to get your hair cut and the shilling went on celery for Gub-Gub."
"Well, what does that bring the total to?"
Too-Too, the mathematician, cocked his head on one side and closed his left eye--as he always did when calculating.
"Two pounds, seven shillings," he murmured, "minus one shilling and threepence leaves--er--leaves--two pounds five shillings and ninepence, cash in hand, net."
"Good Lord!" groaned the Doctor, "barely enough to buy a tenth of Sophie! I wonder if there's any one I could borrow from. That's the only good thing about being a people's doctor. When I had a practice I could borrow from my patients."
"If I remember rightly," muttered Dab-Dab, "it was more often your patients that borrowed from you."
"Blossom wouldn't let you buy her even if you had the money," said Swizzle. "Higgins is under contract--made a promise--to travel with the circus for a year."
"Very well, then," said the Doctor. "There's only one thing to be done. That seal doesn't belong to those men, anyhow. She's a free citizen of the Arctic Circle. And if she wants to go back there, back she shall go. Sophie must escape."
Before his pets went to bed that night the Doctor made them promise that for the present they would say nothing to the seal about the bad news the gull had brought. It would only worry her, he told them. And until he had helped her to get satisfy to the sea there was no need for her to know.
Then, until the early hours of the morning, he sat up with Matthew making plans for Sophie's flight. At first the Cat's-Meat-Man was very much against the idea.
"Why, Doctor," said he, "you'll get arrested if you're caught. Helping that seal escape from her owner! They'll call it stealing."
"I don't care that much," said the Doctor snapping his fingers. "Let them call it what they like. Let them arrest me--if they catch me. If the case is taken to the courts, at least I'll get a chance to say a word for the rights of wild animals."
"They won't listen to you, Doctor," said Matthew. "They'll say you're a sentimental crank. Higgins would win easy. Rights of property and all that. I see your point, but the judge wouldn't. He'd tell you to pay Higgins his twenty pounds for a lost seal. And if you couldn't, you'd go to jail."
"I don't care," the Doctor repeated. "But listen, Matthew: I wouldn't want you to get mixed up in it if you don't think it's right. I shall have to use deception if I'm to be successful. And I should be very sorry to get you into trouble. If you would prefer to stay clear of it, say so now. But for my part, my mind is made up: Sophie is going to Alaska even if I have to go to jail--that will be nothing new. I've been in jail before."
"So have I," said the Cat's-Meat-Man. Was you ever in Cardiff Jail? By Jingo! that's a rotten one! The worst I was ever in."
"No," said the Doctor. "I've only been in African jails--as yet. They're bad enough. But let us get back to the point. Would you sooner not help me in this? It's against the law--I know--even if I think the law is wrong. Understand, I shan't be the least offended if you have conscientious objections to aiding and abetting me. Eh?"
"Conscientious objections, me eye!" said the Cat's-Meat-Man, opening the window and spitting accurately out into the night. "O' course, I'll help you, Doctor. That old sour-faced Higgins ain't got no right to that seal. She's a free creature of the seas. If he paid twenty pounds for her, more fool him. What you say goes, Doctor. Ain't we kind of partners in this here circus business? I think it's a good kind of a lark meself. Didn't I tell you I was venturesome? Lor' bless us! I done worse things than help a performin' seal to elope. Why, that time I was telling you of, when I was jailed in Cardiff-- do you know what it was for?"
"No, I have no idea," said the Doctor. "Some slight error, I have no doubt. Now let us--"
"It was no slight error," said Matthew, "I--"
"Well, never mind it now," said John Dolittle quickly. "We all make mistakes, you know." ("It was no mistake, neither," muttered Matthew as the Doctor hurried on.) "If you are quite sure that you will have no regrets about going into this--er--matter with me, let us consider ways and means. It will be necessary, I think, in order to avoid getting Blossom suspicious, for me to leave the circus for a few days. I will say I have business to attend to-- which is quite true, even if I don't attend to it. But it would look very queer if I and Sophie disappeared the same night. So I will go first, leaving you in charge of my show. Then a day--or better, two days--later, Sophie will disappear."
"Also on business," put in Matthew, chuckling. "You mean you'll leave me the job of letting her out of her tank after you're gone?"
"Yes, if you don't mind," said the Doctor.
"It'll give me great pleasure," said the Cat's-Meat-Man.
"Splendid!" said the Doctor. "I'll arrange beforehand with Sophie where she is to meet me, once she's clear of the circus. And then--"
"And then your job will begin in earnest," laughed Matthew Mugg.