Peter Pan
DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?
The more this is of the better. The to from his tree was Curly. He rose out of it into the arms of Cecco, who him to Smee, who him to Starkey, who him to Bill Jukes, who him to Noodler, and so he was from one to another till he at the of the black pirate. All the boys were from their trees in this manner; and of them were in the air at a time, like of from hand to hand.
A different was to Wendy, who came last. With Hook his to her, and, her his arm, her to the spot where the others were being gagged. He did it with such an air, he was so distingué, that she was too to out. She was only a little girl.
Perhaps it is tell-tale to that for a moment Hook her, and we tell on her only her to results. Had she him (and we should have loved to it of her), she would have been through the air like the others, and then Hook would not have been present at the of the children; and had he not been at the he would not have Slightly’s secret, and without the he not presently have his attempt on Peter’s life.
They were to prevent their away, up with their close to their ears; and for the of them the black had cut a rope into nine equal pieces. All well until Slightly’s turn came, when he was to be like those that use up all the in going and no with which to tie a knot. The him in their rage, just as you the parcel (though in you should the string); and to say it was Hook who told them to their violence. His lip was with triumph. While his dogs were every time they to pack the tight in one part he out in another, Hook’s master mind had gone Slightly’s surface, not for but for causes; and his that he had them. Slightly, white to the gills, that Hook had his secret, which was this, that no boy so out use a tree an man need stick. Poor Slightly, most of all the children now, for he was in a panic about Peter, what he had done. Madly to the of water when he was hot, he had in to his present girth, and of himself to fit his tree he had, unknown to the others, his tree to make it fit him.
Sufficient of this Hook to him that Peter at last at his mercy, but no word of the dark design that now in the of his mind his lips; he that the were to be to the ship, and that he would be alone.
How to them? Hunched up in their they might be rolled hill like barrels, but most of the way through a morass. Again Hook’s difficulties. He that the little house must be used as a conveyance. The children were into it, four it on their shoulders, the others in behind, and the the set off through the wood. I don’t know any of the children were crying; if so, the the sound; but as the little house in the forest, a though of from its as if Hook.
Hook saw it, and it did Peter a service. It up any of for him that may have in the pirate’s breast.
The thing he did on himself alone in the fast night was to to Slightly’s tree, and make sure that it provided him with a passage. Then for long he brooding; his of on the sward, so that any which had might play through his hair. Dark as were his his were as soft as the periwinkle. Intently he for any from the world, but all was as as above; the house under the ground to be but one more empty in the void. Was that boy asleep, or did he waiting at the of Slightly’s tree, with his in his hand?
There was no way of knowing, save by going down. Hook let his to the ground, and then his till a blood on them, he into the tree. He was a man, but for a moment he had to stop there and his brow, which was like a candle. Then, silently, he let himself go into the unknown.
He at the of the shaft, and still again, at his breath, which had almost left him. As his to the light objects in the home under the trees took shape; but the only one on which his rested, long for and at last, was the great bed. On the Peter fast asleep.
Unaware of the being above, Peter had continued, for a little time after the children left, to play on his pipes: no a attempt to prove to himself that he did not care. Then he not to take his medicine, so as to Wendy. Then he on the the coverlet, to her still more; for she had always them it, you know that you may not at the turn of the night. Then he nearly cried; but it him how she would be if he laughed instead; so he laughed a laugh and asleep in the middle of it.
Sometimes, though not often, he had dreams, and they were more painful than the of other boys. For hours he not be from these dreams, though he in them. They had to do, I think, with the of his existence. At such times it had been Wendy’s to take him out of and with him on her lap, him in dear of her own invention, and when he to put him to he up, so that he should not know of the to which she had him. But on this occasion he had at once into a sleep. One arm over the of the bed, one leg was arched, and the part of his laugh was on his mouth, which was open, the little pearls.
Thus Hook him. He at the of the tree looking across the at his enemy. Did no of his breast? The man was not evil; he loved flowers (I have been told) and sweet music (he was himself no on the harpsichord); and, let it be admitted, the nature of the him profoundly. Mastered by his self he would have returned up the tree, but for one thing.
What him was Peter’s as he slept. The open mouth, the arm, the knee: they were such a of as, taken together, will again, one may hope, be presented to so to their offensiveness. They Hook’s heart. If his had him into a hundred pieces every one of them would have the incident, and at the sleeper.
Though a light from the one lamp on the bed, Hook in himself, and at the step he an obstacle, the door of Slightly’s tree. It did not the aperture, and he had been looking over it. Feeling for the catch, he to his that it was low down, his reach. To his brain it then that the quality in Peter’s and visibly increased, and he the door and himself against it. Was his enemy to him after all?
But what was that? The red in his had of Peter’s medicine on a easy reach. He what it was straightaway, and that the was in his power.
Lest he should be taken alive, Hook always about his person a drug, by himself of all the death-dealing that had come into his possession. These he had into a yellow liquid unknown to science, which was the most in existence.
Five of this he now added to Peter’s cup. His hand shook, but it was in than in shame. As he did it he at the sleeper, but not should him; to avoid spilling. Then one long look he upon his victim, and turning, his way with up the tree. As he at the top he looked the very of from its hole. Donning his at its most angle, he his around him, one end in as if to his person from the night, of which it was the part, and to himself, away through the trees.
Peter slept on. The light and out, the in darkness; but still he slept. It must have been not less than ten o’clock by the crocodile, when he sat up in his bed, by he not what. It was a soft on the door of his tree.
Soft and cautious, but in that it was sinister. Peter for his till his hand it. Then he spoke.
“Who is that?”
For long there was no answer: then again the knock.
“Who are you?”
No answer.
He was thrilled, and he loved being thrilled. In two he the door. Unlike Slightly’s door, it the aperture, so that he not see it, the one see him.
“I won’t open unless you speak,” Peter cried.
Then at last the visitor spoke, in a bell-like voice.
“Let me in, Peter.”
It was Tink, and he to her. She in excitedly, her and her dress with mud.
“What is it?”
“Oh, you guess!” she cried, and offered him three guesses. “Out with it!” he shouted, and in one sentence, as long as the that from their mouths, she told of the of Wendy and the boys.
Peter’s up and as he listened. Wendy bound, and on the ship; she who loved to be just so!
“I’ll her!” he cried, at his weapons. As he he of something he do to her. He take his medicine.
His hand closed on the draught.
“No!” Tinker Bell, who had Hook about his as he through the forest.
“Why not?”
“It is poisoned.”
“Poisoned? Who have it?”
“Hook.”
“Don’t be silly. How Hook have got here?”
Alas, Tinker Bell not this, for she did not know the dark of Slightly’s tree. Nevertheless Hook’s had left no room for doubt. The cup was poisoned.
“Besides,” said Peter, himself, “I asleep.”
He the cup. No time for now; time for deeds; and with one of her movements Tink got his and the draught, and it to the dregs.
“Why, Tink, how you drink my medicine?”
But she did not answer. Already she was in the air.
“What is the with you?” Peter, afraid.
“It was poisoned, Peter,” she told him softly; “and now I am going to be dead.”
“O Tink, did you drink it to save me?”
“Yes.”
“But why, Tink?”
Her would her now, but in reply she on his and gave his nose a bite. She in his ear “You ass,” and then, to her chamber, on the bed.
His almost the fourth of her little room as he near her in distress. Every moment her light was fainter; and he that if it out she would be no more. She liked his so much that she put out her and let them over it.
Her voice was so low that at he not make out what she said. Then he it out. She was saying that she she well again if children in fairies.
Peter out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he all who might be of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and in their from trees.
“Do you believe?” he cried.
Tink sat up in almost to to her fate.
She she in the affirmative, and then again she wasn’t sure.
“What do you think?” she asked Peter.
“If you believe,” he to them, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.”
Many clapped.
Some didn’t.
A hissed.
The stopped suddenly; as if mothers had to their to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved. First her voice strong, then she out of bed, then she was through the room more and than ever. She of those who believed, but she would have liked to at the ones who had hissed.
“And now to Wendy!”
The moon was in a cloudy when Peter rose from his tree, with and little else, to set out upon his quest. It was not such a night as he would have chosen. He had to fly, not from the ground so that nothing should his eyes; but in that light to have low would have meant his through the trees, thus and a that he was astir.
He now that he had the of the such names that they are very wild and difficult of approach.
There was no other but to press in fashion, at which he was an adept. But in what direction, for he not be sure that the children had been taken to the ship? A light of had all footmarks; and a the island, as if for a space Nature still in of the carnage. He had the children something of the that he had himself learned from Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell, and that in their hour they were not likely to it. Slightly, if he had an opportunity, would the trees, for instance, Curly would seeds, and Wendy would her at some place. The was needed to search for such guidance, and he not wait. The upper world had called him, but would give no help.
The passed him, but not another thing, not a sound, not a movement; and yet he well that death might be at the next tree, or him from behind.
He this terrible oath: “Hook or me this time.”
Now he like a snake, and again erect, he across a space on which the moonlight played, one on his lip and his at the ready. He was happy.
