TEXT: Chapter 13 - Red sails and blue wings

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER

RED SAILS AND BLUE WINGS

SAILING homeward, the Doctor's ship had to pass the coast
of Barbary. This coast is the seashore of the Great Desert.
It is a wild, lonely place--all sand and stones. And it was
here that the Barbary pirates lived.

These pirates, a bad lot of men, used to wait
for sailors to be shipwrecked on their shores.
And often, if they saw a boat passing, they would
come out in their fast sailing-ships and chase it.
When they caught a boat like this at sea, they
would steal everything on it; and after they had
taken the people off they would sink the ship
and sail back to Barbary singing songs and feeling
proud of the mischief they had done. Then
they used to make the people they had caught
write home to their friends for money. And if
the friends sent no money, the pirates often
threw the people into the sea.

Now one sunshiny day the Doctor and Dab-
Dab were walking up and down on the ship
for exercise; a nice fresh wind was blowing the
boat along, and everybody was happy. Presently
Dab-Dab saw the sail of another ship a
long way behind them on the edge of the sea.
It was a red sail.

"I don't like the look of that sail," said Dab-
Dab. "I have a feeling it isn't a friendly ship.
I am afraid there is more trouble coming to us."

Jip, who was lying near taking a nap in the
sun, began to growl and talk in his sleep.

"I smell roast beef cooking," he mumbled--
"underdone roast beef--with brown gravy over it."

"Good gracious!" cried the Doctor. "What's
the matter with the dog? Is he SMELLING in his
sleep--as well as talking?"

"I suppose he is," said Dab-Dab. "All dogs
can smell in their sleep."

"But what is he smelling?" asked the Doctor.

"There is no roast beef cooking on our ship."
"No," said Dab-Dab. "The roast beef must
be on that other ship over there."

"But that's ten miles away," said the Doctor.
"He couldn't smell that far surely!"

"Oh, yes, he could," said Dab-Dab. "You ask him."

Then Jip, still fast asleep, began to growl
again and his lip curled up angrily, showing
his clean, white teeth.

"I smell bad men," he growled--"the worst
men I ever smelt. I smell trouble. I smell a
fight--six bad scoundrels fighting against one
brave man. I want to help him. Woof--oo--WOOF!"
Then he barked, loud, and woke himself up with
a surprised look on his face.

"See!" cried Dab-Dab. "That boat is nearer now.
You can count its three big sails--all red.
Whoever it is, they are coming after us....
I wonder who they are."

"They are bad sailors," said Jip; "and their
ship is very swift. They are surely the pirates
of Barbary."

"Well, we must put up more sails on our
boat," said the Doctor, "so we can go faster and
get away from them. Run downstairs, Jip, and
fetch me all the sails you see."

The dog hurried downstairs and dragged up
every sail he could find.

But even when all these were put up on the
masts to catch the wind, the boat did not go
nearly as fast as the pirates'--which kept coming
on behind, closer and closer.

"This is a poor ship the Prince gave us," said
Gub-Gub, the pig--"the slowest he could find,
I should think. Might as well try to win a race
in a soup-tureen as hope to get away from them
in this old barge. Look how near they are now!
--You can see the mustaches on the faces of the
men--six of them. What are we going to do?"

Then the Doctor asked Dab-Dab to fly up and
tell the swallows that pirates were coming after
them in a swift ship, and what should he do
about it.

When the swallows heard this, they all came
down on to the Doctor's ship; and they told him
to unravel some pieces of long rope and make
them into a lot of thin strings as quickly as he
could. Then the ends of these strings were tied
on to the front of the ship; and the swallows
took hold of the strings with their feet and flew
off, pulling the boat along.

And although swallows are not very strong
when only one or two are by themselves, it is
different when there are a great lot of them
together. And there, tied to the Doctor's ship,
were a thousand strings; and two thousand
swallows were pulling on each string--all terribly
swift fliers.

And in a moment the Doctor found himself
traveling so fast he had to hold his hat on with
both hands; for he felt as though the ship itself
were flying through waves that frothed and
boiled with speed.

And all the animals on the ship began to
laugh and dance about in the rushing air, for
when they looked back at the pirates' ship, they
could see that it was growing smaller now,
instead of bigger. The red sails were being left
far, far behind.