They were tied to prevent their flying away , doubled up with their knees close to their ears ; and for the trussing of them the black pirate had cut a rope into nine equal pieces . All went well until Slightly 's turn came , when he was found to be like those irritating parcels that use up all the string in going round and leave no tags -LSB- ends -RSB- with which to tie a knot . The pirates kicked him in their rage , just as you kick the parcel -LRB- though in fairness you should kick the string -RRB- ; and strange to say it was Hook who told them to belay their violence . His lip was curled with malicious triumph . While his dogs were merely sweating because every time they tried to pack the unhappy lad tight in one part he bulged out in another , Hook 's master mind had gone far beneath Slightly 's surface , probing not for effects but for causes ; and his exultation showed that he had found them . Slightly , white to the gills , knew that Hook had surprised -LSB- discovered -RSB- his secret , which was this , that no boy so blown out could use a tree wherein an average man need stick . Poor Slightly , most wretched of all the children now , for he was in a panic about Peter , bitterly regretted what he had done . Madly addicted to the drinking of water when he was hot , he had swelled in consequence to his present girth , and instead of reducing himself to fit his tree he had , unknown to the others , whittled his tree to make it fit him . Sufficient of this Hook guessed to persuade him that Peter at last lay at his mercy , but no word of the dark design that now formed in the subterranean caverns of his mind crossed his lips ; he merely signed that the captives were to be conveyed to the ship , and that he would be alone . How to convey them ? Hunched up in their ropes they might indeed be rolled down hill like barrels , but most of the way lay through a morass . Again Hook 's genius surmounted difficulties . He indicated that the little house must be used as a conveyance . The children were flung into it , four stout pirates raised it on their shoulders , the others fell in behind , and singing the hateful pirate chorus the strange procession set off through the wood . I do n't know whether any of the children were crying ; if so , the singing drowned the sound ; but as the little house disappeared in the forest , a brave though tiny jet of smoke issued from its chimney as if defying Hook . Hook saw it , and it did Peter a bad service . It dried up any trickle of pity for him that may have remained in the pirate 's infuriated breast . The first thing he did on finding himself alone in the fast falling night was to tiptoe to Slightly 's tree , and make sure that it provided him with a passage . Then for long he remained brooding ; his hat of ill omen on the sward , so that any gentle breeze which had arisen might play refreshingly through his hair . Dark as were his thoughts his blue eyes were as soft as the periwinkle .
Intently he listened for any XXXXX from the nether world , but all was as silent below as above ; the house under the ground seemed to be but one more empty tenement in the void .
Hook captives knees parcels passage service singing sound string turn