“But my goodness, Doctor,” said I, “what an immense bonfire it must have been to be visible all that distance!—Thousands of tons of the stuff, surely, must have been piled together to make a smudge which could be seen that far.”
“And who could have made it?” put in Chee-Chee.
For a moment there was silence. Then Polynesia spoke the thought that was in my mind—and I imagine in the Doctor’s too.
“The man who made those torches,” said she quietly, “could move an awful lot of timber in one day, I’ll warrant.”
“You mean you think it was he who sent the signals?” asked Chee-Chee, his funny little eyes staring wide open with astonishment.
“ ‘You mean you think it was he who sent the signals?’ ”
“Why not?” said Polynesia. Then she lapsed into silent contemplation and no further questioning from Chee-Chee could get a word out of her.
“Well,” said the monkey at last, “if he did send it that would look as though he were responsible for the whole thing. It must have been he who sent the moth down to us—who needed the Doctor’s assistance and presence here.”
He looked towards John Dolittle for an answer to this suggestion. But the Doctor, like Polynesia, didn’t seem to have anything to say.