parrot coughed again--loud, like a man. And the King sat up,
wide awake, and said, "Who's that?"

"I am Doctor Dolittle," said the parrot--just the way the Doctor would
have said it.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?" cried the King. "How dare you get
out of prison! Where are you?--I don't see you."

But the parrot just laughed--a long, deep jolly laugh, like the
Doctor's.

"Stop laughing and come here at once, so I can see you," said the King.

"Foolish King!" answered Polynesia. "Have you forgotten that you are
talking to John Dolittle, M.D.--the most wonderful man on earth? Of
course you cannot see me. I have made myself invisible. There is
nothing I cannot do. Now listen: I have come here to-night to warn you.
If you don't let me and my animals travel through your kingdom, I will
make you and all your people sick like the monkeys. For I can make
people well: and I can make people ill--just by raising my little
finger. Send your soldiers at once to open the dungeon door, or you
shall have mumps before the morning sun has risen on the hills of
Jolliginki."

Then the King began to tremble and was very much afraid.

"Doctor," he cried, "it shall be as you say. Do not raise your little
finger, please!" And he jumped out of bed and ran to tell the soldiers
to open the prison door.

As soon as he was gone, Polynesia crept downstairs and left the palace
by the pantry window.

But the Queen, who was just letting herself in at the backdoor with a
latch-key, saw the parrot getting out through the broken glass. And
when the King came back to bed she told him what she had seen.

Then the King understood that he had been tricked, and he was
dreadfully angry. He hurried back to the prison at once

But he was too late. The door stood open. The dungeon was empty. The
Doctor and all his animals were gone.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

THE BRIDGE OF APES

QUEEN ERMINTRUDE had never in her life seen her husband so terrible as
he got that night. He gnashed his teeth with rage. He called
everybody a fool. He threw his tooth-brush at the palace cat. He
rushed round in his night-shirt and woke up all his army and sent them
into the jungle to catch the Doctor. Then he made all his servants go
too--his cooks and his gardeners and his barber and Prince Bumpo's
tutor--even the Queen, who was tired from dancing in a pair of tight
shoes, was packed off to help the soldiers in their search.

All this time the Do