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 [hesitate] 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 redskins have won," he said, "they will beat the tom-tom; it is always their sign of victory." Now Smee had found the tom-tom, and was at that moment sitting on it.
"You will never hear the tom-tom again," he muttered, but inaudibly of course, for strict silence had been enjoined [urged].

To his amazement Hook signed him to beat the tom-tom, and slowly there came to Smee an understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order.

Never, probably, had this simple man admired Hook so much.
Twice Smee beat upon the instrument, and then stopped to listen gleefully.
"The tom-tom," the miscreants heard Peter cry; "an Indian victory!" The doomed children answered with a cheer that was music to the black hearts above, and almost immediately they repeated their good-byes to Peter.