"'How dare you speak to me like that?'"
"You're an unscrupulous scoundrel," said the Doctor. "I don't want to talk to you."
"If you don't make the birds work for me I'll give orders that you get no food," said the Emir. "You shall be starved to death."
"I have told you," said the Doctor, "that I don't desire any further conversation with you. Not a single pearl shall you ever get from the Harmattan Fisheries."
"And not a bite to eat shall you ever have till I do," the Emir yelled.
Then he turned to the prison guards, gave instructions that the Doctor was not to be fed till further orders and stalked out. The door slammed shut with a doleful clang and after one decent breath of fresh air the Doctor was left in the darkness of his stuffy dungeon.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE DOCTOR'S RELEASE
The Emir of Ellebubu went back to his palace feeling perfectly certain that after he had starved John Dolittle for a few days he would be able to make him do anything he wanted. He gave orders that no water should be served to the prisoner either, so as to make doubly sure that he would be reduced to obedience.