"I put the parcel down"
"Perhaps it slipped off the tree," said the Doctor, "and fell down into the underbrush."
"It couldn't have," said the thrush. "I put it into a little hollow in the bark of the bough. It just couldn't have slipped or rolled. Somebody must have taken it."
"Dear me," said John Dolittle. "Robbing the mails; that's a serious thing. I wonder who could have done it?"
"I'll bet it's Jack Wilkins, the cross-eyed pearl fisherman," whispered Dab-Dab. "A man with a face like that would steal anything. And he was the only one, besides us and Speedy, who knew the pearls were going through the mails. It's Wilkins, sure as you're alive."
"I wonder," said the Doctor. "They do say he is a most unscrupulous customer. Well, there's nothing for it, I suppose, but that I should paddle back to Fantippo right away and try to find him. The post office is responsible for the loss of registered mail, and if Mr. Wilkins took those pearls I'm going to get them back again. But after this we will make it a post office rule that carriers of registered mail may not talk to their sisters or anyone else while on duty."