“There it is, the island,” said Peter calmly.
“Where, where?”
Wendy and John and Michael recognized it at once.
“John, there’s the lagoon.”
“Wendy, look at the turtles in the sand.”
“John, I see your flamingo!”
“Look, Michael, there’s your cave!”
“John, what’s that in the brushwood?”
“There’s my boat!”
“No, it isn’t. Why, we burned your boat.”
“That’s it, John, I see the smoke of the Indian camp!”
“Where? Show me.”
“There, just across the Mysterious River[36].”
“I see now.”
Children have talked about the Neverland before. Of course the Neverland was a make-believe[37] in those days, but it was real now.
“They don’t want us to land[38],” said Peter.
“Who are they?” Wendy whispered, shuddering.
“Pirates.”
John asked,” Are there many pirates on the island now?”
“A lot of them,” answered Peter.
“Who is the captain now?”
“Hook,” answered Peter, and his face became very stern. “He is the worst of them all.”
“What is he like? Is he big?”
“He is not so big as he was.”
“What do you mean?”
“I cut off his right hand. But he has an iron hook instead of a right hand.”
“Tink tells me,” said Peter, “that the pirates sighted us before the darkness came, and got Long Tom out[39].”
“The big gun?”
“Yes. Be careful.”
The pirates fired Long Tom at them.
“Are you alive?” John whispered.
“I dont know yet,” Michael answered.
Wendy disappeared. She followed Tinker Bell, but she did not know that Tink hated her.
Chapter 5
The Island Come True[40]
Peter was on his way back, and the Neverland woke again into life. Far away in the Neverland the Lost Boys lived in the depths of the forest, on the banks of a lake. The trees were bare without their summer dress, and wolves prowled and howled in the distance, and wild beasts snarled in the undergrowth, and pirates sailed villainously, and Indians, who were friends of the boys, lived secretly in their wigwams in the woods. In Peter’s absence things are usually quiet on the island. The fairies take an hour longer in the morning, the Indians eat and drink heavily for six days and nights, and when pirates and Lost Boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other[41]. But with Peter, who hates lethargy, everything is different.
On this evening the Lost Boys were looking for Peter, the pirates were looking for the Lost Boys, the Indians were looking for the pirates, and the beasts were looking for the Indians. They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same speed.