Page:Peter Pan (1928).pdf/171

] . What my mother hopes. John, what are

. Tie her up! Get the plank ready.

( is roped to the mast; but no one regards her, for all eyes are fixed upon the plank now protruding from the poop over the ship’s side. A great change, however, occurs in the time takes to raise his claw and point to this deadly engine. No one is now looking at the plank: for the tick, tick of the crocodile is heard. Yet it is not to bear on the crocodile that all eyes slew round, it is that they may bear on . Otherwise prisoners and captors are equally inert, like actors in some play who have found themselves ‘on’ in a scene in which they are not personally concerned. Even the iron claw hangs inactive, as if aware that the crocodile is not coming for it. Affection for their captain, now cowering from view, is not what has given  his dominance over the crew, but as the menacing sound draw nearer they close their eyes respectfully.

''There is no crocodile. It is , who''