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 anyone 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 safely 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”
“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.
PART TWO
Chapter 1
Planning the Escape