“Can’t guess, can’t guess!” crowed Peter. “‘Do you give it up?”
Of course in his pride he was carrying the game too far, and the miscreants saw their chance.
“Yes, yes,” they answered eagerly.
“Well, then,” he cried, “I am Peter Pan!”
Pan!
In a moment Hook was himself again, and Smee and Starkey were his faithful henchmen.
“Now we have him,” Hook shouted. ‘‘Into the water, Smee. Starkey, mind the boat. Take him dead or alive!”
He leaped as he spoke, and simultaneously came the gay voice of Peter.
“Are you ready, boys?”
“Ay, ay,” from various parts of the lagoon.
“Then lam into the pirates.”
The fight was short and sharp. First to draw blood was John, who gallantly climbed into the boat and held Starkey. There was a fierce struggle, in which the cutlass was torn from the pirate’s grasp. He wriggled overboard and John leapt after him. The dinghy drifted away.
