After two or three hours the swallows began to get tired. And they needed to take a rest soon; so they pulled the boat to an island and hid it in a deep bay till they could continue the flight. The island had a very beautiful, high, green mountain in the middle of it. The Doctor decided to look for water. And he told all the animals to walk on the grass.

Then the Doctor noticed a lot of rats leaving the ship. Jip started to run after them, but the Doctor told him to stop. And one big black rat said,

“Do you know, Doctor, that all ships have rats in them?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor.

“Do you know that rats always leave a sinking ship?” asked the rat.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, “I do.”

“So I want to tell you that we are leaving this ship. This ship isn’t safe. The sides aren’t strong enough. Its boards are rotten. Soon it will sink to the bottom of the sea.”

“But how do you know?” asked the Doctor.

“We always know,” answered the rat. “The tips of our tails start tingling then. It’s a bad ship, Doctor. Don’t sail in it any more. Good-bye! We are now going to look for a good place to live on this island.”

“Good-bye!” said the Doctor. “And thank you very much.”

So then the Doctor and all his animals went to look for water on the island, while the swallows took their rest.

“What is the name of this island?” said the Doctor, climbing up the mountainside. “It seems a pleasant place. What a lot of birds there are!”

“These are the Canary Islands,” said Dab-Dab. “Don’t you hear the canaries singing?”

The Doctor stopped and listened. “Of course!” he said. And soon the canaries came and led him to a beautiful spring of cool, clear water and showed green meadows. And the pushmi-pullyu was glad because he liked the green grass very much. A little later, when they were full, they lay on their backs and the canaries started singing for them. Suddenly two of the swallows came to them.

“Doctor!” they cried, “the pirates are in the bay; and they are on your ship. They are looking for things to steal. There is nobody on their ship now. If you hurry and come down to the shore, you can get onto their ship and escape. But please hurry.”

“That’s a good idea,” said the Doctor – “splendid!” And he called his animals together at once, said Good-bye to the canaries and ran down to the beach. When they reached the shore they saw the pirate-ship, with the three red sails, and there was nobody on it; all the pirates were downstairs in the Doctor’s ship, looking for things to steal. So John Dolittle told his animals to walk very softly and they all crept onto the pirate-ship.

They pulled up the anchor without a sound, and moved the ship very, very carefully out of the bay. But suddenly Gub-Gub sneezed so loudly that the pirates on the other ship rushed upstairs to see what the noise was. As soon as they saw that the Doctor was on their ship, they sailed the other boat and blocked the entrance to the bay so that the Doctor could not get out into the open sea. Then the leader of these bad men (who called himself “Ben Ali, The Dragon”) shook his fist at the Doctor[24] and shouted, “Ha! Ha! You are trapped,[25] my fine friend! You were going to run off in my ship, eh? But you are not a good enough sailor to beat Ben Ali, the Barbary Dragon. I want your duck and your pig too. We’ll have pork chops and roast duck for supper tonight. And before I let you go home, your friends must send me a trunk – full of gold.”

Poor Gub-Gub began to weep. But the owl, Too-Too, whispered to the Doctor, “Let him talk, Doctor. Be pleasant to him. Our old ship will sink soon – the rats said so – and the rats are never wrong. Let him talk.”

“Look here, Ben Ali —” But before the Doctor could say any more, the pirates began to sail the ship nearer and they laughed. Poor Gub-Gub was really frightened. But soon something went wrong with the pirates; they stopped laughing; they looked puzzled. Then Ben Ali suddenly shouted, “Thunder and Lightning! – Men, THE BOAT’S LEAKING!” And then the other pirates saw that the boat started getting lower and lower in the water.

Soon the front end of the ship began to go down and down, faster and faster; and the pirates clung to the rails and the masts and the ropes. And at last the ship plunged right down to the bottom of the sea; and the six bad men were in the deep water of the bay. Then suddenly they all cried out in great fear, “THE SHARKS! The sharks are coming! Let us get onto your ship before they eat us! Help, help! – The sharks! The sharks!”

And now the Doctor could see the backs of big fishes. And one great shark came near to the ship and said to the Doctor, “Are you John Dolittle, the famous animal-doctor?”

“Yes,” said Doctor Dolittle. “That is my name.”

“Well,” said the shark, “we know these pirates are very bad – especially Ben Ali. If they are annoying you, we will eat them up.”

“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “But I don’t think it will be necessary to eat them. Don’t let any of them reach the shore until I tell you. And please make Ben Ali swim over here. I want to talk to him.”

So the shark chased Ben Ali to the Doctor.

“Listen, Ben Ali,” said John Dolittle. “You are a very bad man; you killed many people. These good sharks want to eat you up. But promise to do as I tell you, and I will let you go in safety.”

“What must I do?” asked the pirate and looked at the big shark.

“You must kill no more people,” said the Doctor; “don’t steal anything; never sink ships; don’t be a pirate.”

“But what can I do then?” asked Ben Ali.

“Take all your men, go to this island and be bird-seed-farmers,” the Doctor answered. “You must grow bird-seed for the canaries.”

The Barbary Dragon was really angry. “GROW BIRD-SEED!” he groaned. “Can I be a sailor?”

“No,” said the Doctor, “you cannot. For the rest of your life you must be a peaceful farmer. The shark is waiting. Don’t waste his time. Make your decision now.”

“Thunder and Lightning!” Ben Ali cried. Then he looked down into the water again and saw the shark. “Very well,” he said sadly. “We’ll be farmers.”

“Now go and be a good farmer and live in peace.” Then the Doctor turned to the big shark and said, “All right. Let them swim safely to the land.”

So the Doctor and his pets continued their journey home in the swift ship with the three red sails. The animals went downstairs to see their new boat inside. Soon Dab-Dab came up the stairs and cried, “Doctor! This ship of the pirates is absolutely beautiful. The beds downstairs are made of silk; there are soft carpets on the floors; the dishes are made of silver; and there is a lot of food and drinks… Oh, and we found another little room but we can’t open the door. Come down and help us open it.”

The Doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautiful ship. He found the animals at a little door. The Doctor turned the handle but the door didn’t open. Then they all started to look for the key. But nowhere in the whole boat could they find a key to that lock. So they all came back to the door, and Jip peered through the key-hole. But he could see nothing.

Suddenly the owl, Too-Too, said, “Sh! – Listen! – I think there’s someone in there! I hear that someone is putting his hand in his pocket,” said the owl.

“But how can you hear that?” said the Doctor.

“Almost everything makes SOME noise. We owls are very good hearers.”

“Well, well!” said the Doctor. “You surprise me. That’s very interesting… Listen again and tell me what he’s doing now.”