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startled. "Lads," he said, shaking a little, "I gave no such order."
"It is passing queer," Smee said, and they all fidgeted uncomfortably. Hook raised his
voice, but there was a quiver in it.
"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear me?"
Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He immediately
answered in Hook's voice:
"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you."
In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee and Starkey
clung to each other in terror.
"Who are you, stranger? Speak!" Hook demanded.
"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the JOLLY ROGER."
"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely.
"Brimstone and gall," the voice retorted, "say that again, and I'll cast anchor in you."
Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost humbly,
"come tell me, who am I?"
"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish."
"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, that his proud spirit
broke. He saw his men draw back from him.
"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to
our pride."
They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had become, he
scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he
needed, it was his own. He felt his ego slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he
whispered hoarsely to it.
In his dark nature there was a touch of the feminine, as in all the great pirates, and it
sometimes gave him intuitions. Suddenly he tried the guessing game.
"Hook," he called, "have you another voice?"
Now Peter could never resist a game, and he answered blithely in his own voice, "I
have."
"And another name?"
"Ay, ay."
"Vegetable?" asked Hook.
"No."
"Mineral?"
"No."
"Animal?"
"Yes."
"Man?"
"No!" This answer rang out scornfully.
"Boy?"
"Yes."
"Ordinary boy?"
"No!"
"Wonderful boy?"
To Wendy's pain the answer that rang out this time was "Yes."
"Are you in England?"
"No."
"Are you here?"
"Yes."
Hook was completely puzzled. "You ask him some questions," he said to the others,
wiping his damp brow.
Smee reflected. "I can't think of a thing," he said regretfully.
"Can't guess, can't guess!" crowed Peter. "Do you give it up?"
Of course in his pride he was carrying the game too far, and the miscreants [villains]
saw their chance.
"Yes, yes," they answered eagerly.
"Well, then," he cried, "I am Peter Pan."
Pan!
In a moment Hook was himself again, and Smee and Starkey were his faithful
henchmen.
"Now we have him," Hook shouted. "Into the water, Smee. Starkey, mind the boat. Take
him dead or alive!"
He leaped as he spoke, and simultaneously came the gay voice of Peter.
"Are you ready, boys?"
"Ay, ay," from various parts of the lagoon.
"Then lam into the pirates."
The fight was short and sharp. First to draw blood was John, who gallantly climbed into
the boat and held Starkey. There was fierce struggle, in which the cutlass was torn from
the pirate's grasp. He wriggled overboard and John leapt after him. The dinghy drifted
away.
Here and there a head bobbed up in the water, and there was a flash of steel followed by
a cry or a whoop. In the confusion some struck at their own side. The corkscrew of Smee
got Tootles in the fourth rib, but he was himself pinked [nicked] in turn by Curly. Farther
from the rock Starkey was pressing Slightly and the twins hard.
Where all this time was Peter? He was seeking bigger game.
The others were all brave boys, and they must not be blamed for backing from the pirate
captain. His iron claw made a circle of dead water round him, from which they fled like
affrighted fishes.
But there was one who did not fear him: there was one prepared to enter that circle.
Strangely, it was not in the water that they met. Hook rose to the rock to breathe, and at
the same moment Peter scaled it on the opposite side. The rock was slippery as a ball, and
they had to crawl rather than climb. Neither knew that the other was coming. Each
feeling for a grip met the other's arm: in surprise they raised their heads; their faces were
almost touching; so they met.
Some of the greatest heroes have confessed that just before they fell to [began combat]
they had a sinking [feeling in the stomach]. Had it been so with Peter at that moment I
would admit it. After all, he was the only man that the Sea-Cook had feared. But Peter
had no sinking, he had one feeling only, gladness; and he gnashed his pretty teeth with
joy. Quick as thought he snatched a knife from Hook's belt and was about to drive it
home, when he saw that he was higher up the rock that his foe. It would not have been
fighting fair. He gave the pirate a hand to help him up.
It was then that Hook bit him.
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