📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 69
1"Peter Pan the avenger!" came the terrible answer; and as he spoke Peter flung off his cloak. Then they all knew who
2'twas that had been undoing them in the cabin, and twice Hook essayed to speak and twice he failed. In that frightful
3moment I think his fierce heart broke. At last he cried, "Cleave him to the brisket!" but without conviction. "Down,
4boys, and at them!" Peter's voice rang out; and in another moment the clash of arms was resounding through the ship. Had
5the pirates kept together it is certain that they would have won; but the onset came when they were still unstrung, and
6they ran hither and thither, striking wildly, each thinking himself the last survivor of the crew. Man to man they were
7the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry.
8Some of the miscreants leapt into the sea; others hid in dark recesses, where they were found by Slightly, who did not
9fight, but ran about with a lantern which he flashed in their faces, so that they were half blinded and fell as an easy
10prey to the reeking swords of the other boys. There was little sound to be heard but the clang of weapons, an occasional
11screech or splash, and Slightly monotonously counting--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten--eleven. I think all were gone
12when a group of savage boys surrounded Hook, who seemed to have a charmed life, as he kept them at bay in that circle of
13fire. They had done for his dogs, but this man alone seemed to be a match for them all. Again and again they closed upon
14him, and again and again he hewed a clear space. He had lifted up one boy with his hook, and was using him as a buckler,
15when another, who had just passed his sword through Mullins, sprang into the fray. "Put up your swords, boys," cried the
16newcomer, "this man is mine." Thus suddenly Hook found himself face to face with Peter. The others drew back and formed
17a ring around them. For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange
18smile upon his face. "So, Pan," said Hook at last, "this is all your doing." "Ay, James Hook," came the stern answer,
19"it is all my doing." "Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man," Peter
20answered, "have at thee." Without more words they fell to, and for a space there was no advantage to either blade. Peter
21was a superb swordsman, and parried with dazzling rapidity; ever and anon he followed up a feint with a lunge that got
22past his foe's defence, but his shorter reach stood him in ill stead, and he could not drive the steel home. Hook,
23scarcely his inferior in brilliancy, but not quite so nimble in wrist play, forced him back by the weight of his onset,
24hoping suddenly to end all with a favourite thrust, taught him long ago by Barbecue at Rio; but to his astonishment he
25found this thrust turned aside again and again. Then he sought to close and give the quietus with his iron hook, which
26all this time had been pawing the air; but Peter doubled under it and, lunging fiercely, pierced him in the ribs. At the
27sight of his own blood, whose peculiar colour, you remember, was offensive to him, the sword fell from Hook's hand, and
28he was at Peter's mercy. "Now!" cried all the boys, but with a magnificent gesture Peter invited his opponent to pick up
29his sword. Hook did so instantly, but with a tragic feeling that Peter was showing good form. Hitherto he had thought it
30was some fiend fighting him, but darker suspicions assailed him now. "Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily.
31"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg." This, of course,
32was nonsense; but it was proof to the unhappy Hook that Peter did not know in the least who or what he was, which is the
33very pinnacle of good form. "To't again," he cried despairingly. He fought now like a human flail, and every sweep of
34that terrible sword would have severed in twain any man or boy who obstructed it; but Peter fluttered round him as if
35the very wind it made blew him out of the danger zone. And again and again he darted in and pricked. Hook was fighting
36now without hope. That passionate breast no longer asked for life; but for one boon it craved: to see Peter show bad
37form before it was cold forever. Abandoning the fight he rushed into the powder magazine and fired it. "In two minutes,"
38he cried, "the ship will be blown to pieces." Now, now, he thought, true form will show. But Peter issued from the
39powder magazine with the shell in his hands, and calmly flung it overboard. What sort of form was Hook himself showing?
40Misguided man though he was, we may be glad, without sympathising with him, that in the end he was true to the
41traditions of his race. The other boys were flying around him now, flouting, scornful; and he staggered about the deck
42striking up at them impotently, his mind was no longer with them; it was slouching in the playing fields of long ago, or
43being sent up for good, or watching the wall-game from a famous wall. And his shoes were right, and his waistcoat was
44right, and his tie was right, and his socks were right. James Hook, thou not wholly unheroic figure, farewell. For we
45have come to his last moment. Seeing Peter slowly advancing upon him through the air with dagger poised, he sprang upon
46the bulwarks to cast himself into the sea. He did not know that the crocodile was waiting for him; for we purposely
47stopped the clock that this knowledge might be spared him: a little mark of respect from us at the end. He had one last
48triumph, which I think we need not grudge him. As he stood on the bulwark looking over his shoulder at Peter gliding
49through the air, he invited him with a gesture to use his foot. It made Peter kick instead of stab. At last Hook had got
50the boon for which he craved. "Bad form," he cried jeeringly, and went content to the crocodile. Thus perished James
51Hook. "Seventeen," Slightly sang out; but he was not quite correct in his figures. Fifteen paid the penalty for their
52crimes that night; but two reached the shore: Starkey to be captured by the redskins, who made him nurse for all their
53papooses, a melancholy come-down for a pirate; and Smee, who henceforth wandered about the world in his spectacles,
54making a precarious living by saying he was the only man that Jas. Hook had feared. Wendy, of course, had stood by
55taking no part in the fight, though watching Peter with glistening eyes; but now that all was over she became prominent
56again. She praised them equally, and shuddered delightfully when Michael showed her the place where he had killed one;
57and then she took them into Hook's cabin and pointed to his watch which was hanging on a nail. It said "half-past one!"
58The lateness of the hour was almost the biggest thing of all. She got them to bed in the pirates' bunks pretty quickly,
59you may be sure; all but Peter, who strutted up and down on the deck, until at last he fell asleep by the side of Long
60Tom. He had one of his dreams that night, and cried in his sleep for a long time, and Wendy held him tightly. Chapter
61XVI. THE RETURN HOME By three bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps; for there was a big sea running;
62and Tootles, the bo'sun, was among them, with a rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco. They all donned pirate
63clothes cut off at the knee, shaved smartly, and tumbled up, with the true nautical roll and hitching their trousers. It
64need not be said who was the captain. Nibs and John were first and second mate. There was a woman aboard. The rest were
65tars before the mast, and lived in the fo'c'sle. Peter had already lashed himself to the wheel; but he piped all hands
66and delivered a short address to them; said he hoped they would do their duty like gallant hearties, but that he knew
67they were the scum of Rio and the Gold Coast, and if they snapped at him he would tear them. The bluff strident words
68struck the note sailors understood, and they cheered him lustily. Then a few sharp orders were given, and they turned
69the ship round, and nosed her for the mainland.
🎉 全部完成！共 69 行