Fain -LSB- gladly -RSB- would his dogs have known , as breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses , they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook , and squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man . Elation must have been in his heart , but his face did not reflect it : ever a dark and solitary enigma , he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance . The night 's work was not yet over , for it was not the redskins he had come out to destroy ; they were but the bees to be smoked , so that he should get at the honey . It was Pan he wanted , Pan and Wendy and their band , but chiefly Pan . Peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man 's hatred of him . True he had flung Hook 's arm to the crocodile , but even this and the increased insecurity of life to which it led , owing to the crocodile 's pertinacity -LSB- persistance -RSB- , hardly account for a vindictiveness so relentless and malignant . The truth is that there was a something about Peter which goaded the pirate captain to frenzy . It was not his courage , it was not his engaging appearance , it was not -- . There is no beating about the bush , for we know quite well what it was , and have got to tell . It was Peter 's cockiness . This had got on Hook 's nerves ; it made his iron claw twitch , and at night it disturbed him like an insect . While Peter lived , the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had come . The question now was how to get down the trees , or how to get his dogs down ? He ran his greedy eyes over them , searching for the thinnest ones . They wriggled uncomfortably , for they knew he would not scruple -LSB- hesitate -RSB- to ram them down with poles . In the meantime , what of the boys ? We have seen them at the first clang of the weapons , turned as it were into stone figures , open-mouthed , all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter ; and we return to them as their mouths close , and their arms fall to their sides . The pandemonium above has ceased almost as suddenly as it arose , passed like a fierce gust of wind ; but they know that in the passing it has determined their fate . Which side had won ? The pirates , listening avidly at the mouths of the trees , heard the question put by every boy , and alas , they also heard Peter 's answer .
`` If the XXXXX have won , '' he said , `` they will beat the tom-tom ; it is always their sign of victory . ''
Fain Hook Peter Wendy cockiness cutlasses first pertinacity redskins vindictiveness