beneath Slightly s surface, probing not for effects but for causes; and
his exultation showed that he had found them. Slightly, white to the
gills, knew that Hook had surprised his secret, which was this, that no
boy so blown out could use a tree wherein an average man need stick.
Poor Slightly, most wretched of all the children now, for he was in a
panic about Peter, bitterly regretted what he had done. Madly addicted
to the drinking of water when he was hot, he had swelled in consequence
to his present girth, and instead of reducing himself to fit his tree
he had, unknown to the others, whittled his tree to make it fit him.
Sufficient of this Hook guessed to persuade him that Peter at last lay
at his mercy, but no word of the dark design that now formed in the
subterranean caverns of his mind crossed his lips; he merely signed
that the captives were to be conveyed to the ship, and that he would be
alone.
How to convey them? Hunched up in their ropes they might indeed be
rolled down hill like barrels, but most of the way lay through a
morass. Again Hook s genius surmounted difficulties. He indicated that
the little house must be used as a conveyance. The children were flung
into it, four stout pirates raised it on their shoulders, the others
fell in behind, and singing the hateful pirate chorus the strange
procession set off through the wood. I don t know whether any of the
children were crying; if so, the singing drowned the sound; but as the
little house disappeared in the forest, a brave though tiny jet of
smoke issued from its chimney as if defying Hook.
Hook saw it, and it did Peter a bad service. It dried up any trickle of
pity for him that may have remained in the pirate s infuriated breast.
The first thing he did on finding himself alone in the fast falling
night was to tiptoe to Slightly s tree, and make sure that it provided
him with a passage. Then for long he remained brooding; his hat of ill
omen on the sward, so that any gentle breeze which had arisen might
play refreshingly through his hair. Dark as were his thoughts his blue
eyes were as soft as the periwinkle. Intently he listened for any sound
from the nether world, but all was as silent below as above; the house
under the ground seemed to be but one more empty tenement in the void.
Was that boy asleep, or did he stand waiting at the foot of Slightly s
tree, with his dagger in his hand?
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