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"Well," said Dab-Dab, after they had gone,

"what are we going to do now? The boy's
uncle MUST be found--there's no two ways about

that. The lad isn't old enough to be knocking
around the world by himself. Boys aren't like

ducklings--they have to be taken care of till
they're quite old.... I wish Chee-Chee were

here. He would soon find the man. Good old
Chee-Chee! I wonder how he's getting on!"

"If we only had Polynesia with us," said the
white mouse. "SHE would soon think of some

way. Do you remember how she got us all
out of prison--the second time? My, but she

was a clever one!"
"I don't think so much of those eagle-

fellows,"said Jip. "They're just conceited. They
may have very good eyesight and all that; but

when you ask them to find a man for you, they
can't do it--and they have the cheek to come

back and say that nobody else could do it.
They're just conceited--like that collie in

Puddleby. And I don't think a whole lot of those
gossipy old porpoises either. All they could tell

us was that the man isn't in the sea. We don't
want to know where he ISN'T--we want to know

where he IS."
"Oh, don't talk so much," said Gub-Gub.

"It's easy to talk; but it isn't so easy to find a
man when you have got the whole world to hunt

him in. Maybe the fisherman's hair has turned
white, worrying about the boy; and that was

why the eagles didn't find him. You don't
know everything. You're just talking. You

are not doing anything to help. You couldn't
find the boy's uncle any more than the eagles

could--you couldn't do as well."
"Couldn't I?" said the dog. "That's all you

know, you stupid piece of warm bacon! I haven't
begun to try yet, have I? You wait and see!"

Then Jip went to the Doctor and said,
"Ask the boy if he has anything in his pockets

that belonged to his uncle, will you, please?"
So the Doctor asked him. And the boy

showed them a gold ring which he wore on a
piece of string around his neck because it was

too big for his finger. He said his uncle gave
it to him when they saw the pirates coming.

Jip smelt the ring and said,
"That's no good. Ask him if he has

anything else that belonged to his uncle."
Then the boy took from his pocket a great,

big red handkerchief and said, "This was my
uncle's too."

As soon as the boy pulled it out, Jip shouted,
"SNUFF, by Jingo!--Black Rappee snuff.

Don't you smell it? His uncle took snuff--
Ask him, Doctor."

The Doctor questioned the boy again;
and he said, "Yes. My uncle took a lot of

snuff."
"Fine!" said Jip. "The man's as good as

found. 'Twill be as easy as stealing milk from
a kitten. Tell the boy I'll find his uncle for

him in less than a week. Let us go upstairs
and see which way the wind is blowing."

"But it is dark now," said the Doctor. "You
can't find him in the dark!"

"I don't need any light to look for a man who
smells of Black Rappee snuff," said Jip as he

climbed the stairs. "If the man had a hard
smell, like string, now--or hot water, it would

be different. But SNUFF!--Tut, tut!"
"Does hot water have a smell?" asked the Doctor.

"Certainly it has," said Jip. "Hot water
smells quite different from cold water. It is

warm water--or ice--that has the really difficult
smell. Why, I once followed a man for

ten miles on a dark night by the smell of the
hot water he had used to shave with--for the

poor fellow had no soap.... Now then, let
us see which way the wind is blowing. Wind is

very important in long-distance smelling. It
mustn't be too fierce a wind--and of course it

must blow the right way. A nice, steady, damp
breeze is the best of all.... Ha!--This wind

is from the North."
Then Jip went up to the front of the ship

and smelt the wind; and he started muttering
to himself,

"Tar; Spanish onions; kerosene oil; wet
raincoats; crushed laurel-leaves; rubber burning;

lace-curtains being washed--No, my mistake,
lace-curtains hanging out to dry; and foxes--

hundreds of 'em--cubs; and--"
"Can you really smell all those different

things in this one wind?" asked the Doctor.
"Why, of course!" said Jip. "And those are

only a few of the easy smells--the strong ones.
Any mongrel could smell those with a cold in

the head. Wait now, and I'll tell you some of
the harder scents that are coming on this wind

--a few of the dainty ones."
Then the dog shut his eyes tight, poked his

nose straight up in the air and sniffed hard with
his mouth half-open.

For a long time he said nothing. He kept as
still as a stone. He hardly seemed to be breathing

at all. When at last he began to speak, it
sounded almost as though he were singing, sadly,

in a dream.
"Bricks," he whispered, very low--"old

yellow bricks, crumbling with age in a garden-
wall; the sweet breath of young cows standing

in a mountain-stream; the lead roof of a dove-
cote--or perhaps a granary--with the mid-day

sun on it; black kid gloves lying in a bureau-
drawer of walnut-wood; a dusty road with a

horses' drinking-trough beneath the sycamores;
little mushrooms bursting through the rotting

leaves; and--and--and--"
"Any parsnips?" asked Gub-Gub.

"No," said Jip. "You always think of things
to eat. No parsnips whatever. And no snuff--

plenty of pipes and cigarettes, and a few cigars.
But no snuff. We must wait till the wind

changes to the South."
"Yes, it's a poor wind, that," said Gub-Gub.

"I think you're a fake, Jip. Who ever heard of
finding a man in the middle of the ocean just by

smell! I told you you couldn't do it."
"Look here," said Jip, getting really angry.

"You're going to get a bite on the nose in a min-
ute! You needn't think that just because the

Doctor won't let us give you what you deserve,
that you can be as cheeky as you like!"

"Stop quarreling!" said the Doctor--"Stop
it! Life's too short. Tell me, Jip, where do

you think those smells are coming from?"
"From Devon and Wales--most of them,"

said Jip--"The wind is coming that way."
"Well, well!" said the Doctor. "You know

that's really quite remarkable--quite. I must
make a note of that for my new book. I wonder

if you could train me to smell as well as that....
But no--perhaps I'm better off the way I am.

`Enough is as good as a feast,' they say.
Let's go down to supper. I'm quite hungry."

"So am I," said Gub-Gub.
THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER

THE ROCK
UP they got, early next morning, out of the silken beds;

and they saw that the sun was shining brightly and that
the wind was blowing from the South.

Jip smelt the South wind for half an hour. Then he came
to the Doctor, shaking his head.

"I smell no snuff as yet," he said. "We must wait
till the wind changes to the East."

But even when the East wind came, at three o'clock
that afternoon, the dog could not catch the smell of snuff.

The little boy was terribly disappointed and
began to cry again, saying that no one seemed

to be able to find his uncle for him. But all Jip
said to the Doctor was,

"Tell him that when the wind changes to
the West, I'll find his uncle even though he be

in China--so long as he is still taking Black
Rappee snuff."

Three days they had to wait before the West
wind came. This was on a Friday morning,

early--just as it was getting light. A fine rainy
mist lay on the sea like a thin fog. And the

wind was soft and warm and wet.
As soon as Jip awoke he ran upstairs and

poked his nose in the air. Then he got most
frightfully excited and rushed down again to

wake the Doctor up.
"Doctor!" he cried. "I've got it! Doctor!

Doctor! Wake up! Listen! I've got it!
The wind's from the West and it smells of nothing

but snuff. Come upstairs and start the ship--quick!"
So the Doctor tumbled out of bed and went

to the rudder to steer the ship.
"Now I'll go up to the front," said Jip; "and

you watch my nose--whichever way I point it,
you turn the ship the same way. The man cannot

be far off--with the smell as strong as
this. And the wind's all lovely and wet. Now

watch me!"
So all that morning Jip stood in the front

part of the ship, sniffing the wind and pointing
the way for the Doctor to steer; while all the

animals and the little boy stood round with their
eyes wide open, watching the dog in wonder.

About lunch-time Jip asked Dab-Dab to tell
the Doctor that he was getting worried and

wanted to speak to him. So Dab-Dab went and
fetched the Doctor from the other end of the

ship and Jip said to him,
"The boy's uncle is starving. We must make

the ship go as fast as we can."
"How do you know he is starving?" asked the Doctor.



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