Peter was on his way back, and the Neverland woke again into life. Far away in the Neverland the Lost Boys lived in the depths of the forest, on the banks of a lake. The trees were bare without their summer dress, and wolves prowled and howled in the distance, and wild beasts snarled in the undergrowth, and pirates sailed villainously, and Indians, who were friends of the boys, lived secretly in their wigwams in the woods. In Peter’s absence things are usually quiet on the island. The fairies take an hour longer in the morning, the Indians eat and drink heavily for six days and nights, and when pirates and Lost Boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other[41]. But with Peter, who hates lethargy, everything is different.
On this evening the Lost Boys were looking for Peter, the pirates were looking for the Lost Boys, the Indians were looking for the pirates, and the beasts were looking for the Indians. They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same speed.
The boys wanted to see their Captain, they were six. The first one is Tootles[42], not the least brave but the most unfortunate of all. Poor kind Tootles, there is danger in the air for you tonight. The fairy Tink wants to play a joke with you. Beware Tinker Bell!
Next comes debonair Nibs[43], followed by Slightly[44], who cuts whistles out of the trees[45] and dances. Slightly thinks he remembers the days before he was lost.
Curly[46] is fourth; he is a pickle. Last come the Twins[47], who cannot be described. They are so much alike! Peter never knew what twins were, and his band were not allowed to know anything he did not know.
They lived like moles under the ground, for fear of the Pirates and the wolves. Each one had a special staircase hollowed in a tree-trunk, so that they could easily run down among the roots of the trees into their home.
Next come the pirates. They sing a dreadful song. Here, a little in advance[48], comes handsome Cecco[49]. Here is Bill Jukes[50], every inch of him tattooed; and Cookson[51], and Black Murphy[52], and Gentleman Starkey[53], who was a school teacher; and Skylights[54]; and Noodler[55], and many other scoundrels.
In the midst of them, the blackest and largest, was James Hook[56], or as he wrote himself, Jas. Hook. You could not imagine a more dreadful-looking villain than that man was. He had two most evil-looking black eyes, his face was marked with his wicked thoughts, his hair was long and black, and it hung around his face in greasy curls. He was singing a horrible song about himself. Instead of a right hand he had the iron hook. That man was the most wicked pirate who ever lived. Even his own crew dreaded him and obeyed him as dogs. And he was the biggest enemy of Peter Pan.
The Indians disappear moving like shadows, and soon the beasts take their place, a great and motley procession: lions, tigers, bears, all the man-eaters, they are hungry tonight.
“Where is Peter?” said the boys nervously.
“I am the only one who is not afraid of the pirates,” Slightly said, “but I want to see him and learn more about Cinderella.”
The Lost Boys darted like rabbits to their cave.
Captain Hook most of all wanted to find Peter Pan, for it was Peter who, a long time before, in an encounter between the Pirates and the Lost Boys, had cut off his right arm and flung it to a passing crocodile. The crocodile liked the taste of it so much that ever since he began to wander from land to land and from sea to sea and to look for the rest of the Captain.
The Captain had naturally some reason to hate Peter, because he had a dreadful time. The crocodile followed him on and on and on wherever he went.
Fortunately for Hook, the crocodile once swallowed an alarum clock. It ticked so loudly that the Captain could always hear it, and it was the signal for him.
Hook sat down on one of the big forest mushrooms (in the Neverland mushrooms grow to a gigantic size) to rest a little. He felt his seat getting not only warm, but much too warm.
The pirates examined the mushroom; they tried to pull it up, and it came away at once in their hands, for it had no root. The pirates looked at each other. “A chimney!” they exclaimed.
So Captain Hook realised that he was really sitting on a chimney of the underground home which Peter cleverly disguised. The pirates discovered the chimney of the home under the ground. The boys stopped it with a mushroom when enemies were in the neighbourhood. He also understood at once that the Lost Boys were living in safety down below.
Very soon he made a wicked, treacherous plan. He cooked a huge cake, with beautiful green sugar and poisoned it inside. “We will leave the cake on the shore of the Mermaids’ Lagoon[57]. These boys are always swimming there, playing with the mermaids. They will find the cake and they will eat it, because they don’t know how dangerous it is to eat cakes. Aha, they will die!”
Smee[58] listened with growing admiration.
Tick tick tick tick!
“The crocodile!” Hook cried, and ran away, followed by his band. It was indeed the crocodile. It had passed the Indians. It was looking for Hook. The Pirates disappeared in the depths of the forest when the Indians crept silently up in pursuit of them.
Once more the boys emerged. Nibs said, “I saw a wonderfuller thing, a great white bird. It is flying this way.”
“What kind of a bird, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Nibs said, “but it looked so tired, and it cried ‘Poor Wendy.’”
“Poor Wendy?”
“See, it comes!” cried Curly, pointing to Wendy in the heavens.
Wendy was now almost overhead, and they could hear her cry. But more distinct came the shrill voice of Tinker Bell. The jealous fairy cried, “Peter wants you to shoot the Wendy.”
Tinker was rather a bad little fairy sometimes.
“Let us do what Peter wishes!” cried the boys. “Quick, bows and arrows!”
All but Tootles popped down their trees. He had a bow and arrow with him, and Tink noted it, and rubbed her little hands.