14 The Pirate Ship

CHAPTER 14 The Pirate Ship The Jolly Roger lurked low in the water like a waiting crocodile. The pirates sat on deck in the

cool fog of the night, playing cards or napping. Hook could not play, or rest. Distracted, he paced the deck. It wasn't that he was unhappy. After all, Peter had been removed, and the lost boys were soon to walk the plank. And yet, for some reason, his happiness was incomplete. Like Mr. Darling, Hook worried about things like breeding and class—what he liked to call "good form." He, too, cared very much what people—especially people with good form— thought about him. Whenever he did something, or wanted something, he would ask himself, Is it good form to do or want such a thing? Sometimes he worried that it was not good form to think so much about good form. But Hook wasn't just unhappy; he was also lonely. As hard as it was to believe, Hook hurt. He had no children to love him. It was strange that this should bother him, but it was true all the same.

In a way, Hook envied Smee. Smee was the least threatening of the pirates, and yet the children loved him. Michael had even tried on his spectacles. Thinking about the children's preference for Smee made Hook angry, and he decided to finish off the boys once and for all. "Are the children tied up so they can't fly away?" he yelled. "Ay, ay," came the reply. "Well, then, hoist them up!" The boys were brought up on deck before him. "Six of you will walk the plank tonight," Hook announced, "but I have room for two cabin boys. Who will it be? Which of you will come to work for me?" Tootles stepped forward. "I would, sir, but I don't think my mother would want me to be a pirate. Would yours, Slightly?" "I don't think so," Slightly said. The twins agreed, as did the others. None of their mothers would approve.

"Enough!" Hook cried. He pointed to John. "You!" he said. "You look like you have a little pluck in you. Do you want to be a pirate?" Secretly, John had always dreamed of being a pirate. He even had a pirate name picked out: Red-Handed Jack. In a low voice, he now confessed this to Hook. "Why, Red-Handed Jack is a fine name!" Hook said. "What would my name be if I joined?" Michael asked. "Blackbeard Joe," Hook said. Michael was impressed. "Will we still be respectful subjects of the king of England?" John asked. "No!" Hook replied. "You would have to swear, Down with the king!" "Oh," John said, his face falling. He could never turn his back on England. "Well, then, never mind." "Then you shall walk the plank, too!" Hook

roared. The boys went pale as they saw Jukes and Cecco preparing the piece of wood off which they would walk before falling into the water. But they tried to look brave, especially when Wendy was brought up. She was the brave one. She emerged from belowdecks wearing a dark scowl. "Are you ready to watch your boys walk the plank?" Hook asked her sweetly. "Do you have any last words for them?" "I do," Wendy replied in a loud, clear voice. "I have a message from their real mothers, and it is a hope that their sons will die bravely and with their heads held high, like proper English gentlemen." The boys all stood up a little higher, trying to be brave, to do this one last thing for their mothers and Wendy. "Tie her up to the mast," Hook yelled, and Smee obeyed.

"I'll save you if you promise to be my mother," Smee whispered to Wendy. "I would rather have no children at all," she replied scornfully, even though she had to admit that Smee was the nicest pirate of them all. The boys tried to be brave as they were put on the plank. In the end, however, they were only little boys, and they could not stop themselves from shaking and shivering with fear. Wendy turned her head. She couldn't look. Hook took a step toward her. He wanted her to watch the boys walk, one by one, off the end of the plank. But he never reached her. He never got to hear her beg for the boys' lives. Instead he heard tick, tick, tick. It was the terrible tick, he realized, of the crocodile. All eyes were suddenly on Hook. It was almost a sad sight to see this brave pirate captain positively freeze in terror as the ticking sound came nearer and nearer. Even his claw hung inactive, as if it, too, were afraid.