me this
time.' He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing
that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for to board
the brig by the help of the tick, though an ingenious idea, had not
occurred to him.

[Illustration: HOOK OR ME THIS TIME]

On the contrary, he thought he had scaled her side as noiseless as a
mouse; and he was amazed to see the pirates cowering from him, with Hook
in their midst as abject as if he had heard the crocodile.

The crocodile! No sooner did Peter remember it than he heard the
ticking. At first he thought the sound did come from the crocodile, and
he looked behind him swiftly. Then he realised that he was doing it
himself, and in a flash he understood the situation. 'How clever of me,'
he thought at once, and signed to the boys not to burst into applause.

It was at this moment that Ed Teynte the quartermaster emerged from the
forecastle and came along the deck. Now, reader, time what happened by
your watch. Peter struck true and deep. John clapped his hands on the
ill-fated pirate's mouth to stifle the dying groan. He fell forward.
Four boys caught him to prevent the thud. Peter gave the signal, and the
carrion was cast overboard. There was a splash, and then silence. How
long has it taken?

'One!' (Slightly had begun to count.)

None too soon, Peter, every inch of him on tiptoe, vanished into the
cabin; for more than one pirate was screwing up his courage to look
round. They could hear each other's distressed breathing now, which
showed them that the more terrible sound had passed.

'It's gone, captain,' Smee said, wiping his spectacles. 'All's still
again.'

Slowly Hook let his head emerge from his ruff, and listened so intently
that he could have caught the echo of the tick. There was not a sound,
and he drew himself up firmly to his full height.

'Then here's to Johnny Plank,' he cried brazenly, hating the boys more
than ever because they had seen him unbend. He broke into the villainous
ditty:

'Yo ho, yo ho, the frisky plank,
You walks along it so,
Till it goes down and you goes down
To Davy Jones below!'

To terrorise the prisoners the more, though with a certain loss of
dignity, he danced along an imaginary plank, grimacing at them as he
sang; and when he finished he cried, 'Do you want a touch of the cat
before you walk the plank?'

At that they fell on their knees. 'No, no,' they cried so piteously
that