e! What shall I tell
them when I get home!"

But Jip called to the Doctor,

"He must be there--he must--HE MUST! The smell goes on no further. He
must be there, I tell you! Sail the ship close to the rock and let me
jump out on it."

So the Doctor brought the ship as close as he could and let down the
anchor. Then he and Jip got out of the ship on to the rock.

Jip at once put his nose down close to the ground and began to run all
over the place. Up and down he went, back and forth--zig-zagging,
twisting, doubling and turning. And everywhere he went, the Doctor ran
behind him, close at his heels--till he was terribly out of breath.

At last Jip let out a great bark and sat down. And when the Doctor came
running up to him, he found the dog staring into a big, deep hole in
the middle of the rock.

"The boy's uncle is down there," said Jip quietly. "No wonder those
silly eagles couldn't see him!--It takes a dog to find a man."

So the Doctor got down into the hole, which seemed to be a kind of
cave, or tunnel, running a long way under the ground. Then he struck a
match and started to make his way along the dark passage with Jip
following behind.

The Doctor's match soon went out; and he had to strike another and
another and another.

At last the passage came to an end; and the Doctor found himself in a
kind of tiny room with walls of rock.

And there, in the middle of the room, his head resting on his arms, lay
a man with very red hair--fast asleep!

Jip went up and sniffed at something lying on the ground beside him.
The Doctor stooped and picked it up. It was an enormous snuff-box. And
it was full of Black Rappee!

THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER

THE FISHERMAN'S TOWN

GENTLY then--very gently, the Doctor woke the man up.

But just at that moment the match went out again. And the man thought
it was Ben Ali coming back, and he began to punch the Doctor in the
dark.

But when John Dolittle told him who it was, and that he had his little
nephew safe on his ship, the man was tremendously glad, and said he was
sorry he had fought the Doctor. He had not hurt him much
though--because it was too dark to punch properly. Then he gave the
Doctor a pinch of snuff.

And the man told how the Barbary Dragon had put him on to this rock and
left him there, when he wouldn't promise to become a pirate; and how he
used to sleep down in this hole because there was no house on the rock
to keep him warm.

And t