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the pirates must have been to them, they remained stationary for a moment, not a muscle moving; as
if the foe had come by invitation. Then, indeed, the tradition gallantly upheld, they seized their
weapons, and the air was torn with the war-cry; but it was now too late.
It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a fight. Thus perished many of the
flower of the Piccaninny tribe. Not all unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell Alf Mason, to
disturb the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. Scourie, Chas.
Turley, and the Alsatian Foggerty. Turley fell to the tomahawk of the terrible Panther, who
ultimately cut a way through the pirates with Tiger Lily and a small remnant of the tribe.
To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for the historian to decide. Had he
waited on the rising ground till the proper hour he and his men would probably have been butchered;
and in judging him it is only fair to take this into account. What he should perhaps have done was to
acquaint his opponents that he proposed to follow a new method. On the other hand, this, as
destroying the element of surprise, would have made his strategy of no avail, so that the whole
question is beset with difficulties. One cannot at least withhold a reluctant admiration for the wit that
had conceived so bold a scheme, and the fell [deadly] genius with which it was carried out.
What were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment? Fain [gladly] would his dogs
have known, as breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance
from his hook, and squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man. Elation must have
been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever a dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from
his followers in spirit as in substance.
The night's work was not yet over, for it was not the redskins he had come out to destroy; they were
but the bees to be smoked, so that he should get at the honey. It was Pan he wanted, Pan and Wendy
and their band, but chiefly Pan.
Peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man's hatred of him. True he had flung
Hook's arm to the crocodile, but even this and the increased insecurity of life to which it led, owing
to the crocodile's pertinacity [persistance], hardly account for a vindictiveness so relentless and
malignant. The truth is that there was a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to
frenzy. It was not his courage, it was not his engaging appearance, it was not . There is no beating
about the bush, for we know quite well what it was, and have got to tell. It was Peter's cockiness.
This had got on Hook's nerves; it made his iron claw twitch, and at night it disturbed him like an
insect. While Peter lived, the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had
come.
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Peter Pan Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF
The question now was how to get down the trees, or how to get his dogs down? He ran his greedy
eyes over them, searching for the thinnest ones. They wriggled uncomfortably, for they knew he
would not scruple [hesitate] to ram them down with poles.
In the meantime, what of the boys? We have seen them at the first clang of the weapons, turned as it
were into stone figures, open-mouthed, all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter; and we return
to them as their mouths close, and their arms fall to their sides. The pandemonium above has ceased
almost as suddenly as it arose, passed like a fierce gust of wind; but they know that in the passing it
has determined their fate.
Which side had won?
The pirates, listening avidly at the mouths of the trees, heard the question put by every boy, and alas,
they also heard Peter's answer.
"If the redskins have won," he said, "they will beat the tom- tom; it is always their sign of victory."
Now Smee had found the tom-tom, and was at that moment sitting on it. "You will never hear the
tom-tom again," he muttered, but inaudibly of course, for strict silence had been enjoined [urged].
To his amazement Hook signed him to beat the tom-tom, and slowly there came to Smee an
understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order. Never, probably, had this simple man
admired Hook so much.
Twice Smee beat upon the instrument, and then stopped to listen gleefully.
"The tom-tom," the miscreants heard Peter cry; "an Indian victory!"
The doomed children answered with a cheer that was music to the black hearts above, and almost
immediately they repeated their good-byes to Peter. This puzzled the pirates, but all their other
feelings were swallowed by a base delight that the enemy were about to come up the trees. They
smirked at each other and rubbed their hands. Rapidly and silently Hook gave his orders: one man to
each tree, and the others to arrange themselves in a line two yards apart.
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