but
Peter would not budge. He was tingling with life and also top-heavy with
conceit. "Am I not a wonder, oh, I am a wonder!" he whispered to her,
and though she thought so also, she was really glad for the sake of his
reputation that no one heard him except herself.

He signed to her to listen.

The two pirates were very curious to know what had brought their captain
to them, but he sat with his head on his hook in a position of profound
melancholy.

"Captain, is all well?" they asked timidly, but he answered with a
hollow moan.

"He sighs," said Smee.

"He sighs again," said Starkey.

"And yet a third time he sighs," said Smee.

Then at last he spoke passionately.

"The game's up," he cried, "those boys have found a mother."

Affrighted though she was, Wendy swelled with pride.

"O evil day!" cried Starkey.

"What's a mother?" asked the ignorant Smee.

Wendy was so shocked that she exclaimed. "He doesn't know!" and always
after this she felt that if you could have a pet pirate Smee would be
her one.

Peter pulled her beneath the water, for Hook had started up, crying,
"What was that?"

"I heard nothing," said Starkey, raising the lantern over the waters,
and as the pirates looked they saw a strange sight. It was the nest I
have told you of, floating on the lagoon, and the Never bird was sitting
on it.

"See," said Hook in answer to Smee's question, "that is a mother. What
a lesson! The nest must have fallen into the water, but would the mother
desert her eggs? No."

There was a break in his voice, as if for a moment he recalled innocent
days when--but he brushed away this weakness with his hook.

Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but
the more suspicious Starkey said, "If she is a mother, perhaps she is
hanging about here to help Peter."

Hook winced. "Ay," he said, "that is the fear that haunts me."

He was roused from this dejection by Smee's eager voice.

"Captain," said Smee, "could we not kidnap these boys' mother and make
her our mother?"

"It is a princely scheme," cried Hook, and at once it took practical
shape in his great brain. "We will seize the children and carry them to
the boat: the boys we will make walk the plank, and Wendy shall be our
mother."

Again Wendy forgot herself.

"Never!" she cried, and bobbed.

"What was that?"

But they could see nothing. They thought it must have been a leaf in the
wind. "Do you agree, my bullies?" as