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1"Now then," cried Peter, "no fuss, no blubbering; good-bye, Wendy;" and he held out his hand cheerily, quite as if they
2must really go now, for he had something important to do. She had to take his hand, and there was no indication that he
3would prefer a thimble. "You will remember about changing your flannels, Peter?" she said, lingering over him. She was
4always so particular about their flannels. "Yes." "And you will take your medicine?" "Yes." That seemed to be
5everything, and an awkward pause followed. Peter, however, was not the kind that breaks down before other people. "Are
6you ready, Tinker Bell?" he called out. "Ay, ay." "Then lead the way." Tink darted up the nearest tree; but no one
7followed her, for it was at this moment that the pirates made their dreadful attack upon the redskins. Above, where all
8had been so still, the air was rent with shrieks and the clash of steel. Below, there was dead silence. Mouths opened
9and remained open. Wendy fell on her knees, but her arms were extended toward Peter. All arms were extended to him, as
10if suddenly blown in his direction; they were beseeching him mutely not to desert them. As for Peter, he seized his
11sword, the same he thought he had slain Barbecue with, and the lust of battle was in his eye. Chapter XII. THE CHILDREN
12ARE CARRIED OFF The pirate attack had been a complete surprise: a sure proof that the unscrupulous Hook had conducted it
13improperly, for to surprise redskins fairly is beyond the wit of the white man. By all the unwritten laws of savage
14warfare it is always the redskin who attacks, and with the wiliness of his race he does it just before the dawn, at
15which time he knows the courage of the whites to be at its lowest ebb. The white men have in the meantime made a rude
16stockade on the summit of yonder undulating ground, at the foot of which a stream runs, for it is destruction to be too
17far from water. There they await the onslaught, the inexperienced ones clutching their revolvers and treading on twigs,
18but the old hands sleeping tranquilly until just before the dawn. Through the long black night the savage scouts
19wriggle, snake-like, among the grass without stirring a blade. The brushwood closes behind them, as silently as sand
20into which a mole has dived. Not a sound is to be heard, save when they give vent to a wonderful imitation of the lonely
21call of the coyote. The cry is answered by other braves; and some of them do it even better than the coyotes, who are
22not very good at it. So the chill hours wear on, and the long suspense is horribly trying to the paleface who has to
23live through it for the first time; but to the trained hand those ghastly calls and still ghastlier silences are but an
24intimation of how the night is marching. That this was the usual procedure was so well known to Hook that in
25disregarding it he cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance. The Piccaninnies, on their part, trusted implicitly to
26his honour, and their whole action of the night stands out in marked contrast to his. They left nothing undone that was
27consistent with the reputation of their tribe. With that alertness of the senses which is at once the marvel and despair
28of civilised peoples, they knew that the pirates were on the island from the moment one of them trod on a dry stick; and
29in an incredibly short space of time the coyote cries began. Every foot of ground between the spot where Hook had landed
30his forces and the home under the trees was stealthily examined by braves wearing their mocassins with the heels in
31front. They found only one hillock with a stream at its base, so that Hook had no choice; here he must establish himself
32and wait for just before the dawn. Everything being thus mapped out with almost diabolical cunning, the main body of the
33redskins folded their blankets around them, and in the phlegmatic manner that is to them, the pearl of manhood squatted
34above the children's home, awaiting the cold moment when they should deal pale death. Here dreaming, though wide-awake,
35of the exquisite tortures to which they were to put him at break of day, those confiding savages were found by the
36treacherous Hook. From the accounts afterwards supplied by such of the scouts as escaped the carnage, he does not seem
37even to have paused at the rising ground, though it is certain that in that grey light he must have seen it: no thought
38of waiting to be attacked appears from first to last to have visited his subtle mind; he would not even hold off till
39the night was nearly spent; on he pounded with no policy but to fall to. What could the bewildered scouts do, masters as
40they were of every war-like artifice save this one, but trot helplessly after him, exposing themselves fatally to view,
41while they gave pathetic utterance to the coyote cry. Around the brave Tiger Lily were a dozen of her stoutest warriors,
42and they suddenly saw the perfidious pirates bearing down upon them. Fell from their eyes then the film through which
43they had looked at victory. No more would they torture at the stake. For them the happy hunting-grounds was now. They
44knew it; but as their father's sons they acquitted themselves. Even then they had time to gather in a phalanx that would
45have been hard to break had they risen quickly, but this they were forbidden to do by the traditions of their race. It
46is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in the presence of the white. Thus terrible as the sudden
47appearance of the pirates must have been to them, they remained stationary for a moment, not a muscle moving; as if the
48foe had come by invitation. Then, indeed, the tradition gallantly upheld, they seized their weapons, and the air was
49torn with the war-cry; but it was now too late. It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a
50fight. Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. Not all unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell
51Alf Mason, to disturb the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. Scourie, Chas. Turley, and
52the Alsatian Foggerty. Turley fell to the tomahawk of the terrible Panther, who ultimately cut a way through the pirates
53with Tiger Lily and a small remnant of the tribe. To what extent Hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is
54for the historian to decide. Had he waited on the rising ground till the proper hour he and his men would probably have
55been butchered; and in judging him it is only fair to take this into account. What he should perhaps have done was to
56acquaint his opponents that he proposed to follow a new method. On the other hand, this, as destroying the element of
57surprise, would have made his strategy of no avail, so that the whole question is beset with difficulties. One cannot at
58least withhold a reluctant admiration for the wit that had conceived so bold a scheme, and the fell genius with which it
59was carried out. What were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment? Fain would his dogs have known, as
60breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses, they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook, and squinted through
61their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man. Elation must have been in his heart, but his face did not reflect it: ever
62a dark and solitary enigma, he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance. The night's work was not yet
63over, for it was not the redskins he had come out to destroy; they were but the bees to be smoked, so that he should get
64at the honey. It was Pan he wanted, Pan and Wendy and their band, but chiefly Pan. Peter was such a small boy that one
65tends to wonder at the man's hatred of him. True he had flung Hook's arm to the crocodile, but even this and the
66increased insecurity of life to which it led, owing to the crocodile's pertinacity, hardly account for a vindictiveness
67so relentless and malignant. The truth is that there was a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to
68frenzy. It was not his courage, it was not his engaging appearance, it was not--. There is no beating about the bush,
69for we know quite well what it was, and have got to tell. It was Peter's cockiness.
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