` These are my last words , dear boys , ' she said firmly . ' I feel that I have a message to you from your real mothers , and it is this : `` We hope our sons will die like English gentlemen . '' ' Even the pirates were awed ; and Tootles cried out hysterically , ' I am going to do what my mother hopes . What are you to do , Nibs ? ' ` What my mother hopes . What are you to do , Twin ? ' ` What my mother hopes . John , what are -- ' But Hook had found his voice again . ` Tie her up , ' he shouted . It was Smee who tied her to the mast . ` See here , honey , ' he whispered , ` I 'll save you if you promise to be my mother . ' But not even for Smee would she make such a promise . ' I would almost rather have no children at all , ' she said disdainfully . It is sad to know that not a boy was looking at her as Smee tied her to the mast ; the eyes of all were on the plank : that last little walk they were about to take . They were no longer able to hope that they would walk it manfully , for the capacity to think had gone from them ; they could stare and shiver only . Hook smiled on them with his teeth closed , and took a step toward Wendy . His intention was to turn her face so that she should see the boys walking the plank one by one . But he never reached her , he never heard the cry of anguish he hoped to wring from her . He heard something else instead . It was the terrible tick-tick of the crocodile .
They all heard it -- pirates , boys , XXXXX ; and immediately every head was blown in one direction ; not to the water whence the sound proceeded , but toward Hook .
English John Nibs Smee Wendy capacity children crocodile tick-tick walk