05.1-CHAPTER 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE part1-kv

CHAPTER 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE  part1

Feeling that Peter was on his way back,the Neverland had again woke into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and saywakened, but woke is better and was always used by Peter.

In his absence things are usually quieton the island. The fairies take an hour longer in the morning, the beastsattend to their young, the Indians feed heavily for six days and nights, andwhen pirates and lost boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other.But with the coming of Peter, who hates lethargy, they are under way again: ifyou put your ear to the ground now, you would hear the whole island seethingwith life.

On this evening the chief forces of theisland were disposed as follows. The lost boys were out looking for Peter, thepirates were out looking for the lost boys, the Indians were out looking forthe pirates, and the beasts were out looking for the Indians. They were goinground and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at thesame rate.

All wanted blood except the boys, wholiked it as a rule, but to-night were out to greet their captain. The boys onthe island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on;and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thinsthem out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two.Let us pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal byin single file, each with his hand on his dagger.

They are forbidden by Peter to look inthe least like him, and they wear the skins of the bears slain by themselves,in which they are so round and furry that when they fall they roll. They havetherefore become very sure-footed.

The first to pass is Tootles, not theleast brave but the most unfortunate of all that gallant band. He had been infewer adventures than any of them, because the big things constantly happenedjust when he had stepped round the corner; all would be quiet, he would takethe opportunity of going off to gather a few sticks for firewood, and then whenhe returned the others would be sweeping up the blood. This ill-luck had givena gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature hadsweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys. Poor kind Tootles,there is danger in the air for you to-night. Take care lest an adventure is nowoffered you, which, if accepted, will plunge you in deepest woe. Tootles, thefairy Tink, who is bent on mischief this night is looking for a tool (for doingher mischief), and she thinks you are the most easily tricked of the boys. WareTinker Bell.

Would that he could hear us, but we arenot really on the island, and he passes by, biting his knuckles.

Next comes Nibs, the gay and debonair,followed by Slightly, who cuts whistles out of the trees and dancesecstatically to his own tunes. Slightly is the most conceited of the boys. Hethinks he remembers the days before he was lost, with their manners andcustoms, and this has given his nose an offensive tilt. Curly is fourth; he isa pickle, and so often has he had to deliver up his person when Peter saidsternly, "Stand forth the one who did this thing," that now at thecommand he stands forth automatically whether he has done it or not. Last comethe Twins, who cannot be described because we should be sure to be describingthe wrong one. Peter never quite knew what twins were, and his band were notallowed to know anything he did not know, so these two were always vague aboutthemselves, and did their best to give satisfaction by keeping close togetherin a apologetic sort of way.

The boys vanish in the gloom, and aftera pause, but not a long pause, for things go briskly on the island, come thepirates on their track. We hear them before they are seen, and it is always thesame dreadful song: "Avast belay, yo ho, heave to, A-pirating wego, And if we're parted by a shot We're sure to meetbelow!" A more villainous-looking lot never hung in a row onExecution dock. Here, a little in advance, ever and again with his head to theground listening, his great arms bare, pieces of eight in his ears asornaments, is the handsome Italian Cecco, who cut his name in letters of bloodon the back of the governor of the prison at Gao. That gigantic black behindhim has had many names since he dropped the one with which dusky mothers stillterrify their children on the banks of the Guadjo-mo. Here is Bill Jukes, everyinch of him tattooed, the same Bill Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS fromFlint before he would drop the bag of moidores; and Cookson, said to be BlackMurphy's brother (but this was never proved), and Gentleman Starkey, once anusher in a public school and still dainty in his ways of killing; and Skylights(Morgan's Skylights); and the Irish bo'sun Smee, an oddly genial man whostabbed, so to speak, without offence, and was the only Non-conformist inHook's crew; and Noodler, whose hands were fixed on backwards; and Robt. Mullinsand Alf Mason and many another ruffian long known and feared on the SpanishMain.

In the midst of them, the blackest andlargest in that dark setting, reclined James Hook, or as he wrote himself, Jas.Hook, of whom it is said he was the only man that the Sea-Cook feared.

He lay at his ease in a rough chariotdrawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right hand he had the ironhook with which ever and anon he encouraged them to increase their pace. Asdogs this terrible man treated and addressed them, and as dogs they obeyed him.In person he was cadaverous and blackavized, and his hair was dressed in longcurls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave asingularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes were ofthe blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he wasplunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them andlit them up horribly. In manner, something of the grand seigneur still clung tohim, so that he even ripped you up with an air, and I have been told that hewas a RACONTEUR of repute. He was never more sinister than when he was mostpolite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of hisdiction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of hisdemeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew. A man ofindomitable courage, it was said that the only thing he shied at was the sightof his own blood, which was thick and of an unusual colour. In dress hesomewhat aped the attire associated with the name of Charles II, having heardit said in some earlier period of his career that he bore a strange resemblanceto the ill-fated Stuarts; and in his mouth he had a holder of his owncontrivance which enabled him to smoke two cigars at once. But undoubtedly thegrimmest part of him was his iron claw.

Observe how they pass over fallen twigswithout making the slightest noise. Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook'smethod. Skylights will do. As they pass, Skylights lurches clumsily againsthim, ruffling his lace collar; the hook shoots forth, there is a tearing soundand one screech, then the body is kicked aside, and the pirates pass on. He hasnot even taken the cigars from his mouth.

Such is the terrible man against whomPeter Pan is pitted. Which will win? On the trail of the pirates, stealingnoiselessly down the war-path, which is not visible to inexperienced eyes, comethe Indians, every one of them with his eyes peeled. They carry tomahawks andknives, and their naked bodies gleam with paint and oil. Strung around them arescalps, of boys as well as of pirates, for these are the Piccaninny tribe, andnot to be confused with the softer-hearted Delawares or the Hurons. In the van,on all fours, is Great Big Little Panther, a brave of so many scalps that inhis present position they somewhat impede his progress. Bringing up the rear,the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, proudly erect, a princess inher own right. She is the most beautiful of dusky Dianas (Diana = goddess ofthe woods) and the belle of the Piccaninnies, coquettish, cold and amorous byturns; there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, butshe staves off the altar with a hatchet.

The only sound to be heard is theirsomewhat heavy breathing. The fact is that they are all a little fat just nowafter the heavy gorging, but in time they will work this off. For the moment,however, it constitutes their chief danger.

The Indians disappear as they have comelike shadows, and soon their place is taken by the beasts, a great and motleyprocession: lions, tigers, bears, and the innumerable smaller savage thingsthat flee from them, for every kind of beast, and, more particularly, all theman-eaters, live cheek by jowl on the favoured island. Their tongues arehanging out, they are hungry to-night.

When they have passed, comes the lastfigure of all, a gigantic crocodile. We shall see for whom she is lookingpresently.

The crocodile passes, but soon the boysappear again, for the procession must continue indefinitely until one of theparties stops or changes its pace. Then quickly they will be on top of eachother.

All are keeping a sharp look-out infront, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind. Thisshows how real the island was.

The first to fall out of the movingcircle was the boys. They flung themselves down on the sward, close to theirunderground home.

"I do wish Peter would comeback," every one of them said nervously, though in height and still morein breadth they were all larger than their captain.

"I am the only one who is notafraid of the pirates," Slightly said, in the tone that prevented his beinga general favourite; but perhaps some distant sound disturbed him, for he addedhastily, "but I wish he would come back, and tell us whether he has heardanything more about Cinderella." They talked of Cinderella, andTootles was confident that his mother must have been very like her.