"Second to the right, and straight on till morning."

That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; buteven birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners,could not have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, yousee, just said anything that came into his head.

At first his companions trusted him implicitly, and so greatwere the delights of flying that they wasted time circling roundchurch spires or any other tall objects on the way that tooktheir fancy.

John and Michael raced, Michael getting a start.

They recalled with contempt that not so long ago they hadthought themselves fine fellows for being able to fly round aroom.

Not long ago. But how long ago? They were flying over the seabefore this thought began to disturb Wendy seriously. Johnthought it was their second sea and their third night.

Sometimes it was dark and sometimes light, and now they werevery cold and again too warm. Did they really feel hungry attimes, or were they merely pretending, because Peter had such ajolly new way of feeding them? His way was to pursue birds whohad food in their mouths suitable for humans and snatch it fromthem; then the birds would follow and snatch it back; and theywould all go chasing each other gaily for miles, parting at lastwith mutual expressions of good-will. But Wendy noticed withgentle concern that Peter did not seem to know that this wasrather an odd way of getting your bread and butter, nor eventhat there are other ways.

Certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy, they were sleepy;and that was a danger, for the moment they popped off, down theyfell. The awful thing was that Peter thought this funny.

"There he goes again!" he would cry gleefully, as Michaelsuddenly dropped like a stone.

"Save him, save him!" cried Wendy, looking with horror at thecruel sea far below. Eventually Peter would dive through the air,and catch Michael just before he could strike the sea, and it waslovely the way he did it; but he always waited till the lastmoment, and you felt it was his cleverness that interested himand not the saving of human life. Also he was fond of variety,and the sport that engrossed him one moment would suddenly ceaseto engage him, so there was always the possibility that the nexttime you fell he would let you go.

He could sleep in the air without falling, by merely lying onhis back and floating, but this was, partly at least, because hewas so light that if you got behind him and blew he went faster.

"Do be more polite to him," Wendy whispered to John, when theywere playing "Follow my Leader."

"Then tell him to stop showing off," said John.

When playing Follow my Leader, Peter would fly close to thewater and touch each shark's tail in passing, just as in thestreet you may run your finger along an iron railing. Theycould not follow him in this with much success, so perhaps it wasrather like showing off, especially as he kept looking behind tosee how many tails they missed.

"You must be nice to him," Wendy impressed on her brothers. "What could we do if he were to leave us!"

"We could go back," Michael said.

"How could we ever find our way back without him?"

"Well, then, we could go on," said John.

"That is the awful thing, John. We should have to go on, forwe don't know how to stop."

This was true, Peter had forgotten to show them how to stop.

John said that if the worst came to the worst, all they had todo was to go straight on, for the world was round, and so in timethey must come back to their own window.

"And who is to get food for us, John?"

"I nipped a bit out of that eagle's mouth pretty neatly,Wendy."

"After the twentieth try," Wendy reminded him. "And eventhough we became good a picking up food, see how we bump againstclouds and things if he is not near to give us a hand."

Indeed they were constantly bumping. They could now flystrongly, though they still kicked far too much; but if they sawa cloud in front of them, the more they tried to avoid it, themore certainly did they bump into it. If Nana had been with them,she would have had a bandage round Michael's forehead by thistime.

Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt ratherlonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster thanthey that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have someadventure in which they had no share. He would come downlaughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to astar, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would comeup with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be ableto say for certain what had been happening. It was really ratherirritating to children who had never seen a mermaid.

"And if he forgets them so quickly," Wendy argued, "how can weexpect that he will go on remembering us?"

Indeed, sometimes when he returned he did not remember them, atleast not well. Wendy was sure of it. She saw recognition comeinto his eyes as he was about to pass them the time of day and goon; once even she had to call him by name.

"I'm Wendy," she said agitatedly.

He was very sorry. "I say, Wendy," he whispered to her,"always if you see me forgetting you, just keep on saying `I'mWendy,' and then I'll remember."

Of course this was rather unsatisfactory. However, to makeamends he showed them how to lie out flat on a strong wind thatwas going their way, and this was such a pleasant change thatthey tried it several times and found that they could sleep thus withsecurity. Indeed they would have slept longer, but Peter tiredquickly of sleeping, and soon he would cry in his captain voice,"We get off here." So with occasional tiffs, but on the wholerollicking, they drew near the Neverland; for after many moonsthey did reach it, and, what is more, they had been going prettystraight all the time, not perhaps so much owing to the guidanceof Peter or Tink as because the island was looking for them. Itis only thus that any one may sight those magic shores.

"There it is," said Peter calmly.

"Where, where?"

"Where all the arrows are pointing."

Indeed a million golden arrows were pointing it out to thechildren, all directed by their friend the sun, who wantedthem to be sure of their way before leaving them for the night.

Wendy and John and Michael stood on tip-toe in the air to gettheir first sight of the island. Strange to say, they allrecognized it at once, and until fear fell upon them they hailedit, not as something long dreamt of and seen at last, but as afamiliar friend to whom they were returning home for the holidays.

"John, there's the lagoon."

"Wendy, look at the turtles burying their eggs in the sand."

"I say, John, I see your flamingo with the broken leg!"

"Look, Michael, there's your cave!"

"John, what's that in the brushwood?"

"It's a wolf with her whelps. Wendy, I do believe that's yourlittle whelp!"

"There's my boat, John, with her sides stove in!"

"No, it isn't. Why, we burned your boat."

"That's her, at any rate. I say, John, I see the smoke of theredskin camp!"

"Where? Show me, and I'll tell you by the way smoke curlswhether they are on the war-path."

"There, just across the Mysterious River."

"I see now. Yes, they are on the war-path right enough."

Peter was a little annoyed with them for knowing so much, butif he wanted to lord it over them his triumph was at hand, forhave I not told you that anon fear fell upon them?

It came as the arrows went, leaving the island in gloom.

In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to looka little dark and threatening by bedtime. Then unexploredpatches arose in it and spread, black shadows moved about inthem, the roar of the beasts of prey was quite different now, andabove all, you lost the certainty that you would win. You werequite glad that the night-lights were on. You even liked Nana tosay that this was just the mantelpiece over here, and that theNeverland was all make-believe.

Of course the Neverland had been make-believe in those days,but it was real now, and there were no night-lights, and it wasgetting darker every moment, and where was Nana?

They had been flying apart, but they huddled close to Peternow. His careless manner had gone at last, his eyes weresparkling, and a tingle went through them every time they touchedhis body. They were now over the fearsome island, flying so lowthat sometimes a tree grazed their feet. Nothing horrid wasvisible in the air, yet their progress had become slow andlaboured, exactly as if they were pushing their way throughhostile forces. Sometimes they hung in the air until Peter hadbeaten on it with his fists.

"They don't want us to land," he explained.

"Who are they?" Wendy whispered, shuddering.

But he could not or would not say. Tinker Bell had been asleepon his shoulder, but now he wakened her and sent her on in front.

Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, withhis hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes sobright that they seemed to bore two holes to earth. Having donethese things, he went on again.

His courage was almost appalling. "Would you like an adventurenow," he said casually to John, "or would you like to have yourtea first?"

Wendy said "tea first" quickly, and Michael pressed her handin gratitude, but the braver John hesitated.

"What kind of adventure?" he asked cautiously.

"There's a pirate asleep in the pampas just beneath us," Petertold him. "If you like, we'll go down and kill him."

"I don't see him," John said after a long pause.

"I do."

"Suppose," John said, a little huskily, "he were to wake up."

Peter spoke indignantly. "You don't think I would kill himwhile he was sleeping! I would wake him first, and then killhim. That's the way I always do."

"I say! Do you kill many?"

"Tons."

John said "How ripping," but decided to have tea first. Heasked if there were many pirates on the island just now, andPeter said he had never known so many.

"Who is captain now?"

"Hook," answered Peter, and his face became very stern as hesaid that hated word.

"Jas. Hook?"

"Ay."

Then indeed Michael began to cry, and even John could speak ingulps only, for they knew Hook's reputation.

"He was Blackbeard's bo'sun," John whispered huskily. "He isthe worst of them all. He is the only man of whom Barbecue wasafraid."

"That's him," said Peter.

"What is he like? Is he big?"

"He is not so big as he was."

"How do you mean?"

"I cut off a bit of him."

"You!"

"Yes, me," said Peter sharply.

"I wasn't meaning to be disrespectful."

"Oh, all right."

"But, I say, what bit?"

"His right hand."

"Then he can't fight now?"

"Oh, can't he just!"

"Left-hander?"

"He has an iron hook instead of a right hand, and he claws withit."

"Claws!"

"I say, John," said Peter.

"Yes."

"Say, `Ay, ay, sir.'"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"There is one thing," Peter continued, "that every boy whoserves under me has to promise, and so must you."

John paled.

"It is this, if we meet Hook in open fight, you must leave himto me."

"I promise," John said loyally.

For the moment they were feeling less eerie, because Tink wasflying with them, and in her light they could distinguish eachother. Unfortunately she could not fly so slowly as they, andso she had to go round and round them in a circle in which theymoved as in a halo. Wendy quite liked it, until Peter pointedout the drawbacks.

"She tells me," he said, "that the pirates sighted us beforethe darkness came, and got Long Tom out."

"The big gun?"

"Yes. And of course they must see her light, and if they guesswe are near it they are sure to let fly."

"Wendy!"

"John!"

"Michael!"

"Tell her to go away at once, Peter," the three criedsimultaneously, but he refused.

"She thinks we have lost the way," he replied stiffly, "and sheis rather frightened. You don't think I would send her away allby herself when she is frightened!"

For a moment the circle of light was broken, and something gavePeter a loving little pinch.

"Then tell her," Wendy begged, "to put out her light."

"She can't put it out. That is about the only thing fairiescan't do. It just goes out of itself when she falls asleep, sameas the stars."

"Then tell her to sleep at once," John almost ordered.

"She can't sleep except when she's sleepy. It is the onlyother thing fairies can't do."

"Seems to me," growled John, "these are the only two thingsworth doing."

Here he got a pinch, but not a loving one.

"If only one of us had a pocket," Peter said, "we could carryher in it." However, they had set off in such a hurry that therewas not a pocket between the four of them.

He had a happy idea. John's hat!

Tink agreed to travel by hat if it was carried in the hand. John carried it, though she had hoped to be carried by Peter. Presently Wendy took the hat, because John said it struck againsthis knee as he flew; and this, as we shall see, led to mischief,for Tinker Bell hated to be under an obligation to Wendy.

In the black topper the light was completely hidden, and theyflew on in silence. It was the stillest silence they had everknown, broken once by a distant lapping, which Peter explainedwas the wild beasts drinking at the ford, and again by a raspingsound that might have been the branches of trees rubbingtogether, but he said it was the redskins sharpening theirknives.

Even these noises ceased. To Michael the loneliness wasdreadful. "If only something would make a sound!" he cried.

As if in answer to his request, the air was rent by the mosttremendous crash he had ever heard. The pirates had fired LongTom at them.

The roar of it echoed through the mountains, and the echoesseemed to cry savagely, "Where are they, where are they, whereare they?"

Thus sharply did the terrified three learn the differencebetween an island of make-believe and the same island come true.When at last the heavens were steady again, John and Michaelfound themselves alone in the darkness. John was treading theair mechanically, and Michael without knowing how to float wasfloating.

"Are you shot?" John whispered tremulously.

"I haven't tried [myself out] yet," Michael whispered back.

We know now that no one had been hit. Peter, however, had beencarried by the wind of the shot far out to sea, while Wendy wasblown upwards with no companion but Tinker Bell.

It would have been well for Wendy if at that moment she haddropped the hat.

I don't know whether the idea came suddenly to Tink, or whethershe had planned it on the way, but she at once popped out of thehat and began to lure Wendy to her destruction.

Tink was not all bad; or, rather, she was all bad just now,but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies haveto be one thing or the other, because being so small theyunfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. Theyare, however, allowed to change, only it must be a completechange. At present she was full of jealousy of Wendy. What shesaid in her lovely tinkle Wendy could not of course understand,and I believe some of it was bad words, but it sounded kind, andshe flew back and forward, plainly meaning "Follow me, and allwill be well."

What else could poor Wendy do? She called to Peter and Johnand Michael, and got only mocking echoes in reply. She did notyet know that Tink hated her with the fierce hatred of a verywoman. And so, bewildered, and now staggering in her flight, shefollowed Tink to her doom.