So the Doctor decided that he had better have a sea bird to guide him. And Dab-Dab went and got a curlew who was strolling about on the beach, doing nothing in particular. This bird said he knew the place quite well and would consider it an honor to act as guide to John Dolittle. Then, with Jip, Dab-Dab, Gub-Gub and the white mouse, the Doctor got into his canoe and started off for the Harmattan Rocks.
It was a beautiful morning and they enjoyed the paddle—though Gub-Gub came very near to upsetting the canoe more than once, leaning out to grab for passing sea weed, which he had noticed the curlew eating. Finally, for safety's sake, they made him lie down at the bottom of the canoe, where he couldn't see anything.
About eleven o'clock a group of little rocky islands were sighted, which their guide said were the Harmattan Rocks. At this point in their journey the mainland of Africa was just disappearing from view on the sky-line behind them. The rocks they were coming to seemed to be the home of thousands of different kinds of sea birds. As the canoe drew near, gulls, terns, gannets, albatrosses, cormorants, auklets, petrels, wild ducks, even wild geese, came out, full of curiosity to examine the stranger. When they learned from the curlew that this quiet little fat man was none other than the great Doctor Dolittle himself they passed word back to the rocks; and soon the air about the canoe was simply thick with wings flashing in the sunlight. And the welcome to their home that the sea birds screeched to the Doctor was so hearty and noisy you couldn't hear yourself speak.
It was easy to see why this place had been chosen for a home by the sea birds. The shores all around were guarded by half-sunken rocks, on which the waves roared and broke dangerously. No ship was ever likely to come here to disturb the quiet life of the birds. Indeed, even with a light canoe that could go in shallow water, the Doctor would have had hard work to make a landing. But the welcoming birds guided him very skillfully around to the back of the biggest island, where a bay with deep water formed a pretty sort of toy harbor. The Doctor understood now why these islands had been left in the possession of the poor Chief: no neighbors would consider them worth taking. Hard to approach, with very little soil in which crops could be grown, flat and open to all the winds and gales of heaven, barren and lonesome, they tempted none of the Chief's enemies. And so for many, many years they remained the property of Nyam-Nyam and his people—though indeed even they hardly ever visited them. But in the end the Harmattan Rocks proved to be of greater value than all the rest of the lands this tribe had lost.
"Oh, I think this is an awful place," said Gub-Gub as they got out of the canoe. "Nothing but waves and rocks. What have you come here for, Doctor?"
"'Oh, I think this is an awful place!'"
"I hope to do a little pearl fishing," said John Dolittle. "But first I must see the spoonbill and give her this registered package. Dab-Dab, would you please try to find her for me? With so many millions of sea birds around, myself, I wouldn't know how to begin to look for her."
"All right," said Dab-Dab. "But it may take me a little time. There are several islands and quite a number of spoonbills. I shall have to make inquiries and find out which one sent you the pearls."
So Dab-Dab went off upon her errand. And in the meantime the Doctor talked and chatted with various sea bird leaders who had already made his acquaintance at the Great Conference in the hollow of No-Man's-Land. These kept coming up to him, anxious to show off before their fellows the fact that they knew the great man personally. And once more the Doctor's notebook was kept busy with new discoveries to be jotted down about the carriage of mail by birds that live upon the sea.
The birds, who at first followed the Doctor in droves around the main island wherever he went, presently returned to their ordinary doings when the newness of his arrival had worn off. And after Dab-Dab had come back from her hunt and told him the spoonbill lived on one of the smaller islands, he got back into his canoe and paddled over to the rock she pointed out.
Here the spoonbill was waiting for him at the water's edge. She apologized for not coming in person to welcome him, but said she was afraid to leave her babies when there were sea eagles around. The little ones were with her, two scrubby, greasy youngsters, who could walk but not fly. The Doctor opened the package and gave them back their precious toys; and with squawks of delight they began playing marbles on the flat rocks with the enormous pink pearls.
"The young ones were with her"
"What charming children you have," said the Doctor to the mother spoonbill, who was watching them proudly. "I'm glad they've got their playthings safely back. I wouldn't have had them lose them for anything."
"Yes, they are devoted to those pebbles," said the spoonbill. "By the way, were you able to tell me what they are? I found them, as I wrote you, inside an oyster."
"They are pearls," said the Doctor, "and worth a tremendous lot. Ladies in cities wear them around their necks."
"Oh, indeed," said the bird. "And why don't the ladies in the country wear them, too?"
"I don't just know," said the Doctor. "I suppose because they're too costly. With any one of those pearls you could buy a house and garden."
"Well, wouldn't you like to keep them, then?" asked the spoonbill. "I could get the children something else to play with, no doubt."
"Oh, no," said the Doctor, "thank you. I have a house and garden."
"Yes, Doctor," Dab-Dab put in, "but you wouldn't be bound to buy a second one with the money you would get for the pearls. It would come in real handy for something else, you know."
"The baby spoonbills want them," said John Dolittle. "Why should I take them away from them?"
"Balls of pink putty would suit them just as well," snorted Dab-Dab.
"Putty is poisonous," said the Doctor. "They appreciate the beauty of the pearls. Let them have them. But," he added to the mother spoonbill, "if you know where any more are to be found I should be glad to know."
"I don't," said she. "I don't even know how these came to be in the possession of the oyster I ate."
"Pearls always grow in oysters—when they grow at all," said the Doctor. "But they are rare. This is the point that most interests me—the natural history of pearls. They are said to form around a grain of sand that gets into the oyster's shell by accident. I had hoped that if you were in the habit of eating oysters you could give me some information."
"I'm afraid I can't," said the spoonbill. "To tell you the truth, I got those oysters from a pile which some other bird had left on the rock here. He had eaten his fill, I suppose, and gone away. There are a good many left still. Let's go over to the pile and crack a few. Maybe they've all got pearls in them."
So they went across to the other side of the little island and started opening oysters. But not another pearl did they find.
"Where are the oyster beds around here?" asked the Doctor.
"Between this island and the next," said the spoonbill. "I don't fish for them myself because I'm not a deep diver. But I've seen other kinds of sea birds fishing in that place—just about half way between this island and that little one over there."
"I'll go out with her, Doctor," said Dab-Dab, "and do a little fishing on my own account. I can dive pretty deep, though I'm not a regular diving duck. Maybe I can get some pearls for you."
So Dab-Dab went out with the spoonbill and started pearl fishing.
Then for a good hour and a half the faithful housekeeper fished up oyster after oyster and brought them to the Doctor on the island. He and the animals found opening them quite exciting work, because you never knew what you might discover. But nothing was found in the shells but fat oysters and thin oysters.
"I think I'd like to try a hand at diving myself," said the Doctor, "if the water is not too deep. I used to be quite good at fishing up sixpences from the bottom of the swimming pool when I was a boy."
And he took off his clothes, got into the canoe and paddled out with the animals till he was over the oyster beds. Then he dove right down into the clear green water, while Jip and Gub-Gub watched him with intense interest.
But when he came up, blowing like a seal, he hadn't even got an oyster. All he had was a mouthful of seaweed.
"Let's see what I can do," said Jip. And out of the canoe jumped another pearl fisherman.
Then Gub-Gub got all worked up and before anybody could stop him he had taken a plunge. The pig went down so quick and so straight he got his snout stuck in the mud at the bottom, and the Doctor, still out of breath, had to go down after him and get him free. The animals by this time were at such a pitch of excitement that even the white mouse would have jumped in if Gub-Gub's accident hadn't changed his mind.
"Gub-Gub dives for pearls"
Jip managed to bring up a few small oysters, but there were no pearls in them.
"I'm afraid we're pretty poor fishers," said John Dolittle. "Of course, it's possible that there may not be any more pearls there."
"No, I'm not satisfied yet," said Dab-Dab. "I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of pearls there—the beds are enormous. I think I'll go around among the sea birds and try to find out who it was got those oysters our spoonbill found the pearls in. The bird that fished up that pile was an expert oyster diver."
So while the Doctor put his clothes on and Gub-Gub washed the mud out of his ears, Dab-Dab went off on a tour of inquiry around the islands.
After about twenty minutes she brought back a black duck-like bird with a tuft on his head.
"This cormorant, Doctor," said she, "fished up that pile of oysters."
"Ah," said John Dolittle, "perhaps we shall find out something now. Can you tell me," he asked the cormorant, "how to get pearls?"
"Pearls? What do you mean?" said the bird.
Then Dab-Dab went and borrowed the playthings from the spoonbill's children to show him.
"Oh, those things," said the cormorant. "Those come in bad oysters. When I go oyster fishing I never pick up that kind except once in a while by accident—and then I never bother to open them."
"But how do you tell oysters of that kind from the others?" asked the Doctor.
"By sniffing them," said the cormorant. "The ones that have those things in them don't smell fresh. I'm frightfully particular about my oysters."
"Do you mean to say that even when you are right down under the water you could tell an oyster that had pearls in it from one that hadn't—just by sniffing it?"
"Certainly. So could any cormorant."
"There you are, Doctor," said Dab-Dab. "The trick's done. Now you can get all the pearls you want."
"But these oyster beds don't belong to me," said John Dolittle.
"Oh, dear!" sighed the duck. "Did anyone ever see a man who could find so many objections to getting rich? Who do they belong to, then?"
"To Chief Nyam-Nyam and his people, of course. He owns the Harmattan Rocks. Would you mind," the Doctor asked, turning to the cormorant, "getting me a few oysters of this kind to look at?"
"With the greatest of pleasure," said the cormorant.
And he flew out over the oyster beds and shot down into the sea like a stone. In a minute he was back again with three oysters—two in his feet and one in his mouth. The animals gathered around with bated breath while the Doctor opened them. In the first was a small gray pearl; in the second a middle-sized pink pearl, and in the third two enormous black ones.
"Gosh, how lovely!" murmured Gub-Gub.
"Pearls before swine," giggled the white mouse. "Tee, hee!"
"How uneducated you are!" snorted the pig, turning up his snout. "Ladies before gentlemen; swine before pearls!"