"Jimmie Bones, the slaver?" cried the Captain. "That's the man the government has sent me after. Where is he?"
"My memory doesn't work very well while my hands are tied," said the Doctor quietly, nodding toward the handcuffs. "Possibly if you took these things off I might remember."
"Oh, excuse me," said the Captain, his manner changing at once. "Master-at-arms, release the prisoner."
"Aye, aye, sir," said the sailor, removing the handcuffs from the Doctor's wrists and turning to go.
"Oh, and by the way," the Captain called after him, "bring a chair up on deck. Perhaps our visitor is tired."
Then John Dolittle told the Captain the whole story of Zuzana and her troubles. And all the other officers on the ship gathered around to listen.
"And I have no doubt," the Doctor ended, "that this slaver who took away the woman's husband was no other than Jimmie Bones, the man you are after."
"Quite so," said the Captain. "I know he is somewhere around the coast. But where is he now? He's a difficult fish to catch."
"He has gone northward," said the Doctor. "But your ship is fast and should be able to overtake him. If he hides in some of these bays and creeks I have several birds here with me who can, as soon as it is light, seek him out for us and tell us where he is."
The Captain looked with astonishment into the faces of his listening officers, who all smiled unbelievingly.