Then they got the strangest surprise of this Night of Nights ; for it was no crocodile that was coming to their aid . It was Peter . He signed to them not to give vent to any cry of admiration that might rouse suspicion . Then he went on ticking . CHAPTER XV ` HOOK OR ME THIS TIME ' Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time that they have happened . Thus , to take an instance , we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we do n't know how long , but , say , half an hour . Now such an experience had come that night to Peter . When last we saw him he was stealing across the island with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the ready . He had seen the crocodile pass by without noticing anything peculiar about it , but by and by he remembered that it had not been ticking . At first he thought this eerie , but soon he concluded rightly that the clock had run down . Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion , Peter at once considered how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use ; and he decided to tick , so that wild beasts should believe he was the crocodile and let him pass unmolested . He ticked superbly , but with one unforeseen result . The crocodile was among those who heard the sound , and it followed him , though whether with the purpose of regaining what it had lost , or merely as a friend under the belief that it was again ticking itself , will never be certainly known , for , like all slaves to a fixed idea , it was a stupid beast . Peter reached the shore without mishap , and went straight on ; his legs encountering the water as if quite unaware that they had entered a new element . Thus many animals pass from land to water , but no other human of whom I know . As he swam he had but one thought : ` Hook or me this time . ' He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing that he was doing it . Had he known he would have stopped , for to board the brig by the help of the tick , though an ingenious idea , had not occurred to him . -LSB- Illustration : HOOK OR ME THIS TIME -RSB- On the contrary , he thought he had scaled her side as noiseless as a mouse ; and he was amazed to see the pirates cowering from him , with Hook in their midst as abject as if he had heard the crocodile . The crocodile !
No sooner did XXXXX remember it than he heard the ticking .
CHAPTER Peter XV crocodile dagger first help hour stealing use