ook.

'Seventeen,' Slightly sang out; but he was not quite correct in his
figures. Fifteen paid the penalty for their crimes that night; but two
reached the shore: Starkey to be captured by the redskins, who made him
nurse for all their papooses, a melancholy come-down for a pirate; and
Smee, who henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles, making
a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had
feared.

Wendy, of course, had stood by taking no part in the fight, though
watching Peter with glistening eyes; but now that all was over she
became prominent again. She praised them equally, and shuddered
delightfully when Michael showed her the place where he had killed one;
and then she took them into Hook's cabin and pointed to his watch which
was hanging on a nail. It said 'half-past one'!

The lateness of the hour was almost the biggest thing of all. She got
them to bed in the pirates' bunks pretty quickly, you may be sure; all
but Peter, who strutted up and down on deck, until at last he fell
asleep by the side of Long Tom. He had one of his dreams that night, and
cried in his sleep for a long time, and Wendy held him tight.

CHAPTER XVI

THE RETURN HOME

By two bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps; for there
was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bo'sun, was among them, with a
rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco. They all donned pirate
clothes cut off at the knee, shaved smartly, and tumbled up, with the
true nautical roll and hitching their trousers.

It need not be said who was the captain. Nibs and John were first and
second mate. There was a woman aboard. The rest were tars before the
mast, and lived in the fo'c'sle. Peter had already lashed himself to the
wheel; but he piped all hands and delivered a short address to them;
said he hoped they would do their duty like gallant hearties, but that
he knew they were the scum of Rio and the Gold Coast, and if they
snapped at him he would tear them. His bluff strident words struck the
note sailors understand, and they cheered him lustily. Then a few sharp
orders were given, and they turned the ship round, and nosed her for the
mainland.

Captain Pan calculated, after consulting the ship's chart, that if this
weather lasted they should strike the Azores about the 21st of June,
after which it would save time to fly.

Some of them wanted it to be an honest ship and others were in favour of
keeping it