Page:Peter Pan (1928).pdf/120

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Their hands are tied, so that they can’t swim. When the tide is full this rock is covered with water, and then the sailor drowns.

(WENDY is uneasy as she surveys the rock, which is the only one in the lagoon and no larger than a table. Since she last looked around a threatening change has come over the scene. The sun has gone, but the moon has not come. What has come is a cold shiver across the waters which has sent all the wiser mermaids to their coral recesses. They know that evil is creeping over the lagoon. Of the boys PETER is of course the first to scent it, and he has leapt to his feet before the words strike the rock—

‘And if we’re parted by a shot
We’re sure to meet below.’

The games on the rock and around it end so abruptly that several divers are checked in the air. There they hang waiting for the word of command from PETER. When they get it they strike the water simultaneously, and the rock is at once as bare as if suddenly