13 Red Sails and Blue Wings

CHAPTER 13 Red Sails and Blue Wings On their way home, Doctor Dolittle and his friends had to sail pass the coast of Barbary,

home to the Barbary pirates. These pirates were very bad men. They waited for sailors to shipwreck on the shore. If that did not happen, the pirates got into their own boat and chased them. When they caught ships, they stole everything and sent the passengers off in rowboats. The pirates were always pleased with themselves. They went back to shore singing songs and thinking themselves very clever. One sunny day, the doctor and Dab-Dab were exercising on deck. They walked up and down the ship. A nice fresh wind was blowing, and everyone was happy. Dab-Dab was the first to notice the other ship. It was a long way behind them and had a bright red sail. "I don't like the look of that sail," said Dab- Dab. "I don't think it's friendly. I'm worried more trouble is coming our way." Jip was sleeping beside them on the deck. He began to growl and talk in his sleep. "I smell

roast beef cooking," he mumbled. "Oh, roast beef with brown gravy." "My goodness!" Doctor Dolittle said. "What's the matter with that dog? Does he smell in his sleep? Smelling and talking?" "It appears that way," said Dab-Dab. "All dogs can smell in their sleep." "But he must be imagining it," the doctor said. "There's no roast beef cooking on this boat." "It must be coming from that other ship." "But that ship is ten miles away at least," Doctor Dolittle said. "Surely he can't smell that far!" Jip began to growl again. His lips curled up at the edges. Even though he was still asleep, he began to talk more. "I smell bad men," he mumbled. "The worst men I ever smelled. I smell trouble. Woof! I need to stop them. Woof!" Jip started to bark so loud that he woke himself up. "Look!" Dab-Dab said. "That ship is much

closer now! It must be traveling fast. They're coming right at us. I wonder who they are." "I was just dreaming about them," Jip said. "I could smell them. They are very bad men. My guess is that they are the pirates of Barbary." "Then we must hurry on our way," the doctor said. "We need to put up more sails to catch the wind. That will help us go faster." The dog hurried downstairs to grab more sails. He dragged up as many as he could carry. But even with all these sails, the pirate ship was still faster. It continued to gain on the doctor's ship. "The prince gave us a poor ship," grumbled Gub-Gub. "It must have been the slowest in his fleet. Look! They are almost on top of us now." "I can see six men," Jip said. "What are we going to do?" The doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and tell the swallows they were being followed. "Tell them that the pirates' ship is very fast," he added. When the swallows heard this, they all came

down to the deck. They told the doctor to unravel some pieces of long rope. They needed to have as many thin strips of rope as possible. They tied the end of these strips to the front of the ship. The swallows took hold of the other ends. They flew back into the sky, pulling the boat behind them. Swallows, as you may know, are small birds and not very strong. But it is quite different when there are many of them. There were a thousand strings attached to Doctor Dolittle's ship. And there were two swallows pulling on each string. In only a moment or two the doctor found himself moving so fast that he had to hold on to his hat with both hands. It felt almost like they were flying, too. All the animals on board began to laugh and dance. They looked back at the pirate ship. It was growing smaller and smaller. The red sail was being left far, far behind.