o."

"Suppose," John said, a little huskily, "he were to wake up."

Peter spoke indignantly. "You don't think I would kill him while he was
sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That's the way I
always do."

"I say! Do you kill many?"

"Tons."

John said "How ripping," but decided to have tea first. He asked if
there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had
never known so many.

"Who is captain now?"

"Hook," answered Peter, and his face became very stern as he said that
hated word.

"Jas. Hook?"

"Ay."

Then indeed Michael began to cry, and even John could speak in gulps
only, for they knew Hook's reputation.

"He was Blackbeard's bo'sun," John whispered huskily. "He is the worst
of them all. He is the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid."

"That's him," said Peter.

"What is he like? Is he big?"

"He is not so big as he was."

"How do you mean?"

"I cut off a bit of him."

"You!"

"Yes, me," said Peter sharply.

"I wasn't meaning to be disrespectful."

"Oh, all right."

"But, I say, what bit?"

"His right hand."

"Then he can't fight now?"

"Oh, can't he just!"

"Left-hander?"

"He has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and he claws with it."

"Claws!"

"I say, John," said Peter.

"Yes."

"Say, 'Ay, ay, sir.'"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"There is one thing," Peter continued, "that every boy who serves under
me has to promise, and so must you."

John paled.

"It is this, if we meet Hook in open fight, you must leave him to me."

"I promise," John said loyally.

For the moment they were feeling less eerie, because Tink was flying
with them, and in her light they could distinguish each other.
Unfortunately she could not fly so slowly as they, and so she had to go
round and round them in a circle in which they moved as in a halo. Wendy
quite liked it, until Peter pointed out the drawbacks.

"She tells me," he said, "that the pirates sighted us before the
darkness came, and got Long Tom out."

"The big gun?"

"Yes. And of course they must see her light, and if they guess we are
near it they are sure to let fly."

"Wendy!"

"John!"

"Michael!"

"Tell her to go away at once, Peter," the three cried simultaneously,
but he refused.

"She thinks we have lost the way," he replied stiffly, "and she is
rather frightened. You don't think I would send her away all by herself
when she is frightened!"

For a moment the circle of light