Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean Read Free Book Online

waiting for her questing knights to come back, Tootles had begun to explore the cave. The darkness dripped. Lovely shells glistened in pools on the floor, and the walls were furry with cold, green slime. Deeper in, though, there was no colour and no gleam—only the drip-drip of water like the topmost note of a piano played over and over again. A low roof banged her on the head and knocked her crown over one ear. Soon she had to explore with fingertips, because there was no light at all. And that was when her outstretched hand felt the knobbly hide, the snout, the row of ghastly teeth that went on and on and … Tootles gave a gurgling shriek ‘DRAAAAHAAAGON!’—and ran. The low ceiling caught her on the head again and this time it knocked her crown to pieces.
    The echoes of her scream died away. Plink plink said the tone-deaf darkness. Then a grip fastened on one shoulder, and her knees crumpled with fright as she was spun round.
    ‘Tell me where and I’ll slay it dead!’ said a voice close to her ear. It was Peter, a blazing driftwood torch in his hand. One by one, the rest of Pan’s League appeared at his back. ‘Where?’ said Peter again. Tootles pointed wordlessly, and the League streamed past him while she stayed rooted to the spot, fingers absently stroking her top lip. Last to arrive, Wendy gave her a caring pat and galloped on by to catch up with the boys.
    And there it was—an eye socket, a gaping jaw, a snaggle of teeth as long as a man’s arm. ‘Stand back, men!’ cried Pan and lunged with his sword and rapped it over the skull, then sprang backwards expecting it to scuttle out of its lair, jaws snapping. In the jumping firelight from their torches, the monster appeared to shudder and writhe … but when John threw a rock at it, the rock only knocked out a rattle of teeth.
    Then Fireflyer darted in through one eye socket and out of the other, illuminating the grisly skull. ‘ Nothing in here ! ’ he complained, peering up at the skull like a tourist at a cathedral roof. The dragon was dead.
    Peter put a hand through its nostril and together they dragged it out into the daylight. It was monstrous big. When all the Lost Boys lay down end to end, they were not as long as the dead dragon from snout to tail. They rolled it on its back and found that the stomach hide was gone altogether, leaving only a ladder of ribs and a glimpse of backbone. There was a smell of rotting fish, mermaid, and, oddly enough, gunpowder.
    ‘I win!’ said Peter. ‘I quested the dragon!’
    ‘Superb!’ exclaimed Tootles.
    ‘ ’ Tain’t a dragon ,’ said Fireflyer, still sitting on the snout. Peter launched a kick at him, but he ducked. ‘ Well, it ain’t! Dragons’ve got fireproof tonsils. Everyone knows that! This here’s a nalligator .’
    ‘ ’Tis NOT a nalligator!’ insisted Tootles, who was delighted that Peter had won her hand. ‘Take no notice. That fairy is always lying.’
    ‘Nalligator or not,’ said Curly, holding his nose, ‘it’s awfully dead.’
    ‘Not a nalligator,’ muttered Tootles under her breath.
    ‘Now now, boys,’ said Wendy soberly. ‘Don’t quarrel. All that matters is that …’
    ‘Not a nalligator,’ said Tootles sulkily, several times over.
    Wendy noticed something shiny dangling from Tootles’s hair and pulled it free. It was a metal spring. Tootles explained how she had found the makings of a crown inside the cave.
    Wendy nodded sagely. ‘This one time,’ she said, ‘Fireflyer is telling the truth. It is not a nalligator …’
    ‘Told you!’ crowed Peter. ‘It’s a dragon!’
    ‘ I never tell the truth ! ’ protested Fireflyer (which was not true, of course).
    ‘Nor a dragon!’ said Wendy, holding up the spring. ‘It is a crocodile. In fact, it is THE Crocodile, with capital letters! The one who ate our direst foe. Here, dear Boys, in Tootles’s crown, you see all that remains of the alarm clock it carried in its stomach as it hunted Neverland, looking for