`` Now , listen ! '' cried Hook , and all listened . But not one dared to face the door . Yes , one , Wendy , who all this time had been bound to the mast . It was for neither a scream nor a crow that she was watching , it was for the reappearance of Peter . She had not long to wait . In the cabin he had found the thing for which he had gone in search : the key that would free the children of their manacles , and now they all stole forth , armed with such weapons as they could find . First signing them to hide , Peter cut Wendy 's bonds , and then nothing could have been easier than for them all to fly off together ; but one thing barred the way , an oath , `` Hook or me this time . '' So when he had freed Wendy , he whispered for her to conceal herself with the others , and himself took her place by the mast , her cloak around him so that he should pass for her . Then he took a great breath and crowed . To the pirates it was a voice crying that all the boys lay slain in the cabin ; and they were panic-stricken . Hook tried to hearten them ; but like the dogs he had made them they showed him their fangs , and he knew that if he took his eyes off them now they would leap at him . `` Lads , '' he said , ready to cajole or strike as need be , but never quailing for an instant , `` I 've thought it out . There 's a Jonah aboard . '' `` Ay , '' they snarled , `` a man wi ' a hook . '' `` No , lads , no , it 's the girl . Never was luck on a pirate ship wi ' a woman on board . We 'll right the ship when she 's gone . '' Some of them remembered that this had been a saying of Flint 's . `` It 's worth trying , '' they said doubtfully .
`` Fling the girl overboard , '' XXXXX Hook ; and they made a rush at the figure in the cloak .
armed bound conceal cried crying found pass said saying whispered