if knowing that it was no intrinsic
part of what the attacking force wanted. Left so fearfully alone, any
other man would have lain with his eyes shut where he fell: but the
gigantic brain of Hook was still working, and under its guidance he
crawled on the knees along the deck as far from the sound as he could
go. The pirates respectfully cleared a passage for him, and it was only
when he brought up against the bulwarks that he spoke.

"Hide me!" he cried hoarsely.

They gathered round him, all eyes averted from the thing that was coming
aboard. They had no thought of fighting it. It was Fate.

Only when Hook was hidden from them did curiosity loosen the limbs of
the boys so that they could rush to the ship's side to see the crocodile
climbing it. Then they got the strangest surprise of the Night of
Nights; for it was no crocodile that was coming to their aid. It was
Peter.

He signed to them not to give vent to any cry of admiration that might
rouse suspicion. Then he went on ticking.

Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME"

Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our
noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an instance,
we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we don't know
how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience had come that
night to Peter. When last we saw him he was stealing across the island
with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the ready. He had seen the
crocodile pass by without noticing anything peculiar about it, but by
and by he remembered that it had not been ticking. At first he thought
this eerie, but soon concluded rightly that the clock had run down.

Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a
fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion, Peter
began to consider how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use;
and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should believe he was the
crocodile and let him pass unmolested. He ticked superbly, but with one
unforeseen result. The crocodile was among those who heard the sound,
and it followed him, though whether with the purpose of regaining what
it had lost, or merely as a friend under the belief that it was again
ticking itself, will never be certainly known, for, like slaves to a
fixed idea, it was a stupid beast.

Peter reached the shore without mishap, and went straight on, his legs
encountering the water as if quite unaware tha