Shall we still be respectful subjects of the King? John inquired.
Through Hook s teeth came the answer: You would have to swear, Down
with the King.
Perhaps John had not behaved very well so far, but he shone out now.
Then I refuse, he cried, banging the barrel in front of Hook.
And I refuse, cried Michael.
Rule Britannia! squeaked Curly.
The infuriated pirates buffeted them in the mouth; and Hook roared out,
That seals your doom. Bring up their mother. Get the plank ready.
They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco
preparing the fatal plank. But they tried to look brave when Wendy was
brought up.
No words of mine can tell you how Wendy despised those pirates. To the
boys there was at least some glamour in the pirate calling; but all
that she saw was that the ship had not been tidied for years. There was
not a porthole on the grimy glass of which you might not have written
with your finger Dirty pig ; and she had already written it on
several. But as the boys gathered round her she had no thought, of
course, save for them.
So, my beauty, said Hook, as if he spoke in syrup, you are to see
your children walk the plank.
Fine gentlemen though he was, the intensity of his communings had
soiled his ruff, and suddenly he knew that she was gazing at it. With a
hasty gesture he tried to hide it, but he was too late.
Are they to die? asked Wendy, with a look of such frightful contempt
that he nearly fainted.
They are, he snarled. Silence all, he called gloatingly, for a
mother s last words to her children.
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