THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY CHEER: 180+ Novels, Tales & Poems in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Лаймен Фрэнк Баум

have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one to choose the easy way.

      There was almost nothing he could not do, and he now imitated the voice of Hook.

      'Ahoy there, you lubbers,' he called. It was a marvellous imitation.

      'The captain,' said the pirates, staring at each other in surprise.

      'He must be swimming out to us,' Starkey said, when they had looked for him in vain.

      'We are putting the redskin on the rock,' Smee called out.

      'Set her free,' came the astonishing answer.

      'Free!'

      'Yes, cut her bonds and let her go.'

      'But, captain——'

      'At once, d'ye hear,' cried Peter, 'or I'll plunge my hook in you.'

      'This is queer,' Smee gasped.

      'Better do what the captain orders,' said Starkey nervously.

      'Ay, ay,' Smee said, and he cut Tiger Lily's cords. At once like an eel she slid between Starkey's legs into the water.

      Of course Wendy was very elated over Peter's cleverness; but she knew that he would be elated also and very likely crow and thus betray himself, so at once her hand went out to cover his mouth. But it was stayed even in the act, for 'Boat ahoy!' rang over the lagoon in Hook's voice, and this time it was not Peter who had spoken.

      Peter may have been about to crow, but his face puckered in a whistle of surprise instead.

      'Boat ahoy!' again came the cry.

      Now Wendy understood. The real Hook was also in the water.

      He was swimming to the boat, and as his men showed a light to guide him he had soon reached them. In the light of the lantern Wendy saw his hook grip the boat's side; she saw his evil swarthy face as he rose dripping from the water, and, quaking, she would have liked to swim away, but Peter would not budge. He was tingling with life and also top-heavy with conceit. 'Am I not a wonder, oh, I am a wonder!' he whispered to her; and though she thought so also, she was really glad for the sake of his reputation that no one heard him except herself.

      He signed to her to listen.

      The two pirates were very curious to know what had brought their captain to them, but he sat with his head on his hook in a position of profound melancholy.

      'Captain, is all well?' they asked timidly, but he answered with a hollow moan.

      'He sighs,' said Smee.

      'He sighs again,' said Starkey.

      'And yet a third time he sighs,' said Smee.

      'What's up, captain?'

      Then at last he spoke passionately.

      'The game's up,' he cried, 'those boys have found a mother.'

      Affrighted though she was, Wendy swelled with pride.

      'O evil day,' cried Starkey.

      'What's a mother?' asked the ignorant Smee.

      Wendy was so shocked that she exclaimed, 'He doesn't know!' and always after this she felt that if you could have a pet pirate Smee would be her one.

      Peter pulled her beneath the water, for Hook had started up, crying, 'What was that?'

      'I heard nothing,' said Starkey, raising the lantern over the waters, and as the pirates looked they saw a strange sight. It was the nest I have told you of, floating on the lagoon, and the Never bird was sitting on it.

      'See,' said Hook in answer to Smee's question, 'that is a mother. What a lesson. The nest must have fallen into the water, but would the mother desert her eggs? No.'

      There was a break in his voice, as if for a moment he recalled innocent days when—but he brushed away this weakness with his hook.

      Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but the more suspicious Starkey said, 'If she is a mother, perhaps she is hanging about here to help Peter.'

      Hook winced. 'Ay,' he said, 'that is the fear that haunts me.'

      He was roused from this dejection by Smee's eager voice.

      'Captain,' said Smee, 'could we not kidnap these boys' mother and make her our mother?'

      'It is a princely scheme,' cried Hook, and at once it took practical shape in his great brain. 'We will seize the children and carry them to the boat: the boys we will make walk the plank, and Wendy shall be our mother.'

      Again Wendy forgot herself.

      'Never!' she cried, and bobbed.

      'What was that?'

      But they could see nothing. They thought it must have been but a leaf in the wind. 'Do you agree, my bullies?' asked Hook.

      'There is my hand on it,' they both said.

      'And there is my hook. Swear.'

      'They all swore. By this time they were on the rock, and suddenly Hook remembered Tiger Lily.

      'Where is the redskin?' he demanded abruptly.

      He had a playful humour at moments, and they thought this was one of the moments.

      'That is all right, captain,' Smee answered complacently; 'we let her go.'

      'Let her go!' cried Hook.

      ''Twas your own orders,' the bo'sun faltered.

      'You called over the water to us to let her go,' said Starkey.

      'Brimstone and gall,' thundered Hook, 'what cozening is here?' His face had gone black with rage, but he saw that they believed their words, and he was 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