“Well, if you wait here,” said the porpoises, “we’ll see what can be done.”

THE FIFTH CHAPTER

THE SHELLFISH RIDDLE SOLVED AT LAST

So Doctor Dolittle with a crown on his head sat down upon the shore like King Knut, and waited.  And for a whole hour the porpoises kept going and coming, bringing up different kinds of sea-beasts from the deep to see if they could help him.

Many and curious were the creatures they produced.  It would seem however that there were very few things that spoke shellfish except the shellfish themselves.  Still, the porpoises grew a little more hopeful when they discovered a very old sea-urchin (a funny, ball-like, little fellow with long whiskers all over him) who said he could not speak pure shellfish, but he used to understand starfish—­enough to get along—­when he was young.  This was coming nearer, even if it wasn’t anything to go crazy about.  Leaving the urchin with us, the porpoises went off once more to hunt up a starfish.

They were not long getting one, for they were quite common in those parts.  Then, using the sea-urchin as an interpreter, they questioned the starfish.  He was a rather stupid sort of creature; but he tried his best to be helpful.  And after a little patient examination we found to our delight that he could speak shellfish moderately well.

Feeling quite encouraged, the Doctor and I now got into the canoe; and, with the porpoises, the urchin and the starfish swimming alongside, we paddled very gently out till we were close under the towering shell of the Great Snail.

And then began the most curious conversation I have ever witnessed.  First the starfish would ask the snail something; and whatever answer the snail gave, the starfish would tell it to the sea-urchin, the urchin would tell it to the porpoises and the porpoises would tell it to the Doctor.

In this way we obtained considerable information, mostly about the very ancient history of the Animal Kingdom; but we missed a good many of the finer points in the snail’s longer speeches on account of the stupidity of the starfish and all this translating from one language to another.

While the snail was speaking, the Doctor and I put our ears against the wall of his shell and found that we could in this way hear the sound of his voice quite plainly.  It was, as the fidgit had described, deep and bell-like.  But of course we could not understand a single word he said.  However the Doctor was by this time terrifically excited about getting near to learning the language he had sought so long.  And presently by making the other fishes repeat over and over again short phrases which the snail used, he began to put words together for himself.  You see, he was already familiar with one or two fish languages; and that helped him quite a little.  After he had practised for a while like this he leant over the side of the canoe and putting his face below the water, tried speaking to the snail direct.