Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson Read Free Book Online Page A

come alone, boy?” asked Hook. “Where are the sav—ah, there they are.” Fierce Clam and Running Snail had slipped silently into the clearing. They stood calmly at the jungle’s edge, watching the pirate, who moved his hook near James’s throat. He addressed Peter.
    “Do they understand the agreement, boy? If they approach me, if they take so much as a step toward me, your friend is in pieces.”
    “They understand,” said Peter.
    “Excel ent,” said Hook. “Now, here’s how we do this, boy. You lower yourself to me, nice and easy. When you’re within reach, I let go of your friend.”
    “Al right,” said Peter. Slowly, he drifted lower, but he also moved closer to the spring. Come on….
    Peter’s legs hung close to Hook now, his shoes just out of the pirate’s reach. Hook, stil gripping James firmly, eagerly edged closer, looking at Peter with hatred in his eyes.
    Peter glanced over at the spring— Am I close enough ?—and drifted just a bit nearer to it. His legs dipped a bit lower, the right one now within Hook’s grasp.
    With a ferocious roar fueled by months of pent-up fury, Hook released James and, with a snake-quick motion, latched hard onto Peter’s leg. “GOT YOU NOW, BOY!” he bel owed in triumph. Then: “GET THEM, MEN!”
    In an instant, a dozen pirates sprang from their concealment and into the clearing, racing toward the Mol usk warriors. Hook, gripping the leg of the boy, felt a surge of elation.
    His plan had worked. At last, at long last, he had the boy. The hated boy was his!
    And then, in the next instant, Hook saw it al go wrong. His first inkling of trouble came when he yanked on Peter’s leg to pul him down, stil undecided as to whether he would kil him then and there, or take his time, make it last for the pleasure of it.
    He yanked, and the leg came down—both legs came down, in fact—but not the boy.
    The boy was still hovering up there.
    Hook looked down at the leg in his hand, stil inside the trousers, eel-skin shoes stil sticking out the bottom….
    Long trousers. Shoes.
    The boy didn’t wear long trousers or shoes.
    His triumph turning to horror, Hook looked up to see Peter wearing his customary cutoff shorts. Peter was grinning as he demonstrated to Hook how he’d tucked his legs up in front of him inside the trousers that Hook was now holding. Bel owing in rage, the captain slashed his hook through those trousers, which was an unfortunate decision, as the Mol usks had fashioned the false legs using rancid fish guts wrapped in animal skin. These foul innards exploded al over Hook, fil ing the air with putrid fumes, which mingled with…
    Laughter. The boy was laughing.
    Hook lunged upward at Peter, stumbling forward as he slashed the air with his hook. This was exactly what Peter wanted him to do, as it took Hook away from James. Peter drew him forward a few more steps, then darted over the pirate’s head—the arcing hook missing him by perhaps an inch—and swooped down to James, who stil stood exactly where Hook had released him, frozen in fright.
    Not daring even to land—for Hook had whirled and was charging back toward them—Peter took James by his shoulders and, to James’s utter shock, shoved him into the spring.
    “HOLD YOUR BREATH, JAMES,” he shouted, and spun to see Hook and two of his pirate crew coming for him. Peter, leaping up, felt Hook’s hand on his leg—his real leg, this time—but just as the grip was closing, Hook yel ed “YOW!” and clapped the hand to his eye, which had just received a hard poke from a tiny but amazingly potent fist.
    “Thanks, Tink!” shouted Peter, shooting upward and out of Hook’s reach. He stopped and looked down just in time to see James’s moonlit face—the expression of shock stil intact—disappearing beneath the dark surface of the spring.
    “GET THAT ONE!” screamed Hook to one of the crewmen, shoving him into the spring after James. The crewman ducked beneath the surface, reappearing a few moments