"You cowards!" cried Captain Hook. Grabbing a lantern, he raised his claw.
"I'll bring that thing out here myself." Hook angrily dashed into the cabin.
"Five?" wondered Slightly.
But soon Hook came staggering out without his lantern.
"Something blew out my light," he said nervously.
"What about Cecco?" asked Noodler.
"He's as dead as Bill Jukes," replied Hook.
The pirates were scared, but they saw that Hook was afraid too.
They started to make fun of him.
The mutiny that Captain Hook had joked about seemed to be really happening.
"Are you scared, Captain Hook?" asked Cookson.
"They say that a ship is cursed when a stranger is aboard.
Does the crowing thing have crocodile teeth and a tail?"
"Does it have a hook?" asked Robert Mullins. "Is it the devil?"
"This ship is doomed! Let's mutiny!" cried Skylights.
One by one, all the pirates repeated the cry: "We're doomed! Mutiny!"
Hearing the pirates, the boys let out a cheer.
But Hook wasn't beaten yet, and his face lit up with a wicked idea.
He looked at the boys. "My sweet lads," he said, in an evil tone, turning to his pirates.
"Open the cabin door and push the prisoners in.
Let them fight the crowing thing! If they kill it, wonderful!
If it kills them, we are no worse than before."
The brilliance of this plan surprised the other pirates, and they stopped their mutiny.
For one last time, they obeyed.
Still chained, the boys pretended to struggle but allowed themselves to be pushed into the cabin.
With a yell, the pirates closed the cabin door.
"Now let's listen!" cried Hook. He stepped back and they all turned away.
Even though the door was closed, none of the pirates could bear to look at it.
They listened, waiting for the screams and the crowing.
Meanwhile Wendy, still bound to the mast, watched.
She wasn't waiting for the screams or the crowing, but for Peter to appear.
She knew he had come to save them all.
Inside the cabin, Peter found what he had hoped would be there—the keys to free the boys.
After Peter removed their chains, the boys found some weapons and snuck out onto the deck.
Hook and the pirates still had their backs turned.
The boys hid, while Peter crept to the mast and cut Wendy's ropes.
Now Peter, the boys, and Wendy were free to fly back home.
But Peter remembered his vow: "This time, it's Hook or me!"
Wendy joined the boys in hiding, and Peter took her place at the mast.
He put her cloak around him, covered his head, took a deep breath, and crowed loudly.
Hearing this sound, the pirates immediately believed all the boys were dead in the cabin. They were terrified.
Seeing the wild look in his men's eyes, Hook grew afraid they might turn on him again.
"Lads, listen to me," he said, thinking quickly.
"It's the girl! Our bad luck comes from having a girl on board.
Everything will be right again when she's gone."
The men thought for a moment.
"He's right," Cookson said.
"I recall an old saying about girls bringing bad luck."
"Throw the girl overboard!" the pirates cried as they rushed to the mast.
"No one can save you now, missy," Hook hissed to the figure in the cloak.
"There's one that can save me," the figure replied.
"Who's that?" Hook said.
"Peter Pan, the avenger!" came the answer.
And with those words, Peter flung off the cloak.