eaves. The twins lay together and Ralph and
Piggy at the other end. For a while there was the continual creak and rustle
of leaves as they tried for comfort.
"Piggy."
"Yeah?"
"All right?"
"S'pose so."
At length, save for an occasional rustle, the shelter was silent. An
oblong of blackness relieved with brilliant spangles hung before them and
there was the hollow sound of surf on the reef. Ralph settled himself for
his nightly game of supposing. . . .
Supposing they could be transported home by jet, then before morning
they would land at that big airfield in Wiltshire. They would go by car; no,
for things to be perfect they would go by train; all the way down to Devon
and take that cottage again. Then at the foot of the garden the wild ponies
would come and look over the wall. . . .
Ralph turned restlessly in the leaves. Dartmoor was wild and so were
the ponies. But the attraction of wildness had gone.
His mind skated to a consideration of a tamed town where savagery could
not set foot. What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and
wheels?
All at once, Ralph was dancing round a lamp standard. There was a bus
crawling out of the bus station, a strange bus. . . .
"Ralph! Ralph!"
"What is it?"
"Don't make a noise like that-"
"Sorry."
From the darkness of the further end of the shelter came a dreadful
moaning and they shattered the leaves in their fear. Sam and Eric, locked in
an embrace, were fighting each other.
"Sam! Sam!"
"Hey-Eric!"
Presently all was quiet again.
Piggy spoke softly to Ralph.
"We got to get out of this."
"What d`you mean?"
"Get rescued."
For the first time that day, and despite the crowding blackness, Ralph
sniggered.
"I mean it,' whispered Piggy. "If we don't get home soon we'll be
barmy."
"Round the bend."
"Bomb happy."
"Crackers."
Ralph pushed the damp tendrils of hair out of his eyes.
"You write a letter to your auntie."
Piggy considered this solemnly.
"I don't know where she is now. And I haven't got an envelope and a
stamp. An' there isn't a mailbox. Or a postman."
The success of his tiny joke overcame Ralph. His sniggers became
uncontrollable, his body jumped and
Piggy rebuked him with dignity.
"I haven't said anything all that funny."
Ralph continued to snigger though his chest hurt. His twitchings
exhausted him till he lay, breathless and woebegone, waiting for the next
spasm. During one of these pauses he was ambushed by sleep.
"Ralph! You been making a noise again. Do be quiet, Ralph-because."
Ralph heaved over among the leaves. He had reason to be thankful that
his dream was broken, for the bus had been nearer and more distinct
"Why-because?"
"Be quiet-and listen."
Ralph lay down carefully, to the accompaniment of a long sigh from the
leaves. Eric moaned something and then lay still. The darkness, save for the
useless oblong of stars, was blanket-thick.
"I can't hear anything,"
"There's something moving outside."
Ralph's head prickled. The sound of his blood drowned all else and then
subsided.
"I still can't hear anything."
"Listen. Listen for a long time."
Quite clearly and emphatically, and only a yard or so away from the
back of the shelter, a stick cracked. The blood roared again in Ralph's
ears, confused images chased each other through his mind. A composite of
these things was prowling round the shelters. He could feel Piggy's head
against his shoulder and the convulsive grip of a hand.
"Ralph! Ralph!"
"Shut up and listen."
Desperately, Ralph prayed that the beast would prefer littluns.
A voice whispered horribly outside.
"Piggy-Piggy-"
"It's come! gasped Piggy. It's real!"
He clung to Ralph and reached to get his breath.
"Piggy, come outside. I want you, Piggy."
Ralph's mouth was against Piggy's ear.
"Don't say anything."
"Piggy-where are you, Piggy?"
Something brushed against the back of the shelter. Piggy kept still for
a moment, then he had his asthma. He arched his back and crashed among the
leaves with his legs. Ralph rolled away from him.
Then there was a vicious snarling in the mouth of the shelter and the
plunge and thump of living things. Someone tripped over Ralph and Piggy's
corner became a complication of snarls and crashes and flying limbs. Ralph
hit out; then he and what seemed like a dozen others were rolling over and
over, hitting, biting, scratching. He was torn and jolted, found fingers in
his mouth ana bit them. A fist withdrew and came back like a piston, so that
the whole shelter exploded into light Ralph twisted sideways on top of a
writhing body and felt hot breath on his cheek He began to pound the mouth
below him, using his clenched fist as a hammer; he hit with more and more
passionate hysteria as the face became slippery. A knee jerked up between
his legs and he fell sideways, busying himself with his pain, and the fight
rolled over him. Then the shelter collapsed with smothering finality; and
the anonymous shapes fought their way out and through. Dark figures drew
themselves out of the wreckage and flitted away, till the screams of the
littluns and Piggy's gasps were once more audible.
Ralph called out in a quavering voice.
"All you littluns, go to sleep. We've bad a fight with the others. Now
go to sleep."
Samneric came close and peered at Ralph.
"Are you two all right?"
"I think so-"
"-I got busted."
"So did I. How's Piggy?"
They hauled Piggy clear of the wreckage and leaned him against a tree.
The night was cool and purged of immediate terror. Piggy's breathing was a
little easier.
"Did you get hurt, Piggy?"
"Not much."
"That was Jack and his hunters," said Ralph bitterly. "Why can't they
leave us alone?"
"We gave them something to think about," said Sam. Honestly compelled
him to go on. "At least you did. I got mixed up with myself in a corner."
"I gave one of 'em what for," said Ralph, 1 smashed him up all right.
He won't want to come and fight us again in a hurry."
"So did I," said Eric. "When I woke up one was kicking me in the
face... I got an awful bloody face, I think, Ralph. But I did him in the
end."
"What did you do?"
"I got my knee up," said Eric with simple pride, "and I hit him with it
in the pills. You should have heard him holler! He won't come back in a
hurry either. So we didn't do too badly."
Ralph moved suddenly in the dark; but then he heard Eric working at his
mouth.
"What's the matter?"
"Jus' a tooth loose."
Piggy drew up his legs.
"You all right, Piggy?"
"I thought they wanted the conch."
Ralph trotted down the pale beach and jumped on to the platform. The
conch still glimmered by the chiefs seat He gazed for a moment or two, then
went back to Piggy.
"They didn't take the conch."
"I know. They didn't come for the conch. They came for something else.
Ralph-what am I going to do?"
Far off along the bowstave of beach, three figures trotted toward the
Castle Rock. They kept away from the forest and down by the water.
Occasionally they sang softly; occasionally they turned cartwheels down by
the moving streak of phosphorescence. The chief led them, trotting steadily,
exulting in his achievement He was a chief now in truth; and he made
stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy's broken
glasses.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Castle Rock
In the short chill of dawn the four boys gathered round the black
smudge where the fire had been, while Ralph knelt and blew. Grey, feathery
ashes scurried hither and thither at his breath but no spark shone among
them The twins watched anxiously and Piggy sat expressionless behind the
luminous wall of his myopia. Ralph continued to blow till his ears were
singing with the effort, but then the first breeze of dawn took the job off
his hands and blinded him with ashes. He squatted back, swore, and rubbed
water out of his eyes.
"No use."
Eric looked down at him through a mask of dried blood. Piggy peered in
the general direction of Ralph.
" 'Course it's no use, Ralph. Now we got no fire."
Ralph brought his face within a couple of feet of Piggy`s.
"Can you see me?"
"A bit."
Ralph allowed the swollen flap of his cheek to close his eye again.
"They've got our fire."
Rage shrilled his voice.
"They stole it!"
"That's them," said Piggy. They blinded me. See? That's Jack Merridew.
You call an assembly, Ralph, we got to decide what to do."
"An assembly for only us?"
"It's all we got. Sam-let me hold on to you."
They went toward the platform.
"Blow the conch," said Piggy. "Blow as loud as you can."
The forest re-echoed; and birds lifted, crying out of the treetops, as
on that first morning ages ago. Both ways the beach was deserted. Some
littluns came from the shelters. Ralph sat down on the polished trunk and
the three others stood before him. He nodded, and Samneric sat down on the
right. Ralph pushed the conch into Piggy's hands. He held the shining tiling
carefully and blinked at Ralph.
"Go on, then."
"I just take the conch to say this. I can't see no more and I got to
get my glasses back. Awful things has been done on this island. I voted for
you for chief. He's the only one who ever got anything done. So now you
speak, Ralph, and tell us what. Or else-"
Piggy broke off, sniveling. Ralph took back the conch as he sat down.
"Just an ordinary fire. You'd think we could do that, wouldn't you?
Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what? Only now
there's no signal going up. Ships may be passing. Do you remember how he
went hunting and the fire went out and a ship passed by? And they all think
he's best as chief. Then there was, there was . . . that's his fault, too.
If it hadn't been for him it would never have happened. Now Piggy can't see,
and they came, stealing-" Ralph's voice ran up "-at night, in darkness, and
stole our fire. They stole it. We'd have given them fire if they'd asked.
But they stole it and the signal's out and we can't ever be rescued. Don't
you see what I mean? We'd have given them fire for themselves only they
stole it. I-"
He paused lamely as the curtain flickered in his brain. Piggy held out
his hands for the conch.
"What you goin' to do, Ralph? This is jus' talk without deciding. I
want my glasses."
"I'm trying to think Supposing we go, looking like we used to, washed
and hair brushed-after all we aren't savages really and being rescued isn't
a game-"
He opened the flap of his cheek and looked at the twins.
"We could smarten up a bit and then go-"
"We ought to take spears," said Sam. "Even Piggy."
"-because we may need them."
"You haven't got the conch!"
Piggy held up the shell.
"You can take spears if you want but I shan't. What's the good? I'll
have to be led like a dog, anyhow. Yes, laugh. Co on, laugh. There's them on
this island as would laugh at anything. And what happened? What's grown-ups
goin' to think? Young Simon was murdered. And there was that other kid what
had a mark on his face. Who's seen him since we first come here?"
"Piggy! Stop a minute!"
"I got the conch. I'm going to that Jack Merridew an` tell him, I am."
"You'll get hurt."
"What can he do more than he has? I'll tell him what's what. You let me
carry the conch, Ralph. I'll show him the one thing he hasn't got."
Piggy paused for a moment and peered round at the dim figures. The
shape of the old assembly, trodden in the grass, listened to him.
"I'm going to him with this conch in my hands. I'm going to hold it
out. Look, I'm goin' to say, you're stronger than I am and you haven't got
asthma. You can see, I'm goin' to say, and with both eyes. But I don't ask
for my glasses back, not as a favor. I don't ask you to be a sport, I'll
say, not because you're strong, but because what's right's right. Give me my
glasses, I'm going to say-you got to!"
Piggy ended, flushed and trembling. He pushed the conch quickly into
Ralph's hands as though in a hurry to be rid of it and wiped the tears from
his eyes. The green light was gentle about them and the conch lay at Ralph's
feet, fragile and white. A single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's
fingers now flashed on the delicate curve like a star.
At last Ralph sat up straight and drew back his hair.
"All right. I mean-you can try if you like. Well go with you."
"He'll be painted," said Sam, timidly. "You know how he`ll be-"
"-he won't think much of us-"
"-if he gets waxy we've had it-"
Ralph scowled at Sam. Dimly he remembered something that Simon had said
to him once, by the rocks.
"Don't be silly," he said. And then he added quickly, "Let's go."
He held out the conch to Piggy who flushed, this time with pride.
"You must carry it."
"When we're ready I'll carry it-"
Piggy sought in his mind for words to convey his passionate willingness
to carry the conch against all odds.
"I don't mind. I'll be glad, Ralph, only I'll have to be led."
Ralph put the conch back on the shining log. "We better eat and then
get ready." They made their way to the devastated fruit trees. Piggy was
helped to his food and found some by touch. While they ate, Ralph thought of
the afternoon.
"We'll be like we were. We'll wash-"
Sam gulped down a mouthful and protested.
"But we bathe every day!"
Ralph looked at the filthy objects before him and sighed.
"We ought to comb our hair. Only it's too long."
"I've got both socks left in the shelter," said Eric,
"so we could pull them over our heads tike caps, sort of."
"We could find some stuff," said Piggy, "and tie your hair back."
"Like a girl!"
"No. 'Course not."
"Then we must go as we are," said Ralph, "and they won't be any
better."
Eric made a detaining gesture.
"But they'll be painted! You know how it is."
The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into
savagery that the concealing paint brought.
"Well, we won't be painted," said Ralph, "because we aren't savages."
Samneric looked at each other.
"All the same-" Ralph shouted.
"No paint!"
He tried to remember.
"Smoke," he said, "we want smoke."
He turned on the twins fiercely.
"I said 'smoke'! We've got to have smoke."
There was silence, except for the multitudinous murmur of the bees. At
last Piggy spoke, kindly.
"Course we have. 'Cos the smoke's a signal and we can't be rescued if
we don't have smoke."
"I knew that!" shouted Ralph. He pulled his arm away from Piggy. "Are
you suggesting-?"
"I'm jus' saying what you always say," said Piggy hastily. "I'd thought
for a moment-"
"I hadn't," said Ralph loudly. "I knew it all the time. I hadn't
forgotten."
Piggy nodded propitiatingly.
"You're chief, Ralph. You remember everything."
"I hadn't forgotten."
"'Course not."
The twins were examining Ralph curiously, as though they were seeing
him for the first time.
They set off along the beach in formation. Ralph went first, limping a
little, his spear carried over one shoulder. He saw things partially,
through the tremble of the heat haze over the flashing sands, and his own
long hair and injuries. Behind him came the twins, worried now for a while
but full of unquenchable vitality. They said little but trailed the butts of
their wooden spears; for Piggy had found that, by looking down and shielding
his tired sight from the sun, he could just see these moving along the sand.
He walked between the trailing butts, therefore, the conch held carefully
between his two hands. The boys made a compact little group that moved over
the beach, four plate-like shadows dancing and mingling beneath them. There
was no sign left of the storm, and the beach was swept clean like a blade
that has been scoured. The sky and the mountain were at an immense distance,
shimmering in the heat; and the reef was lifted by mirage, floating in a
land of silver pool halfway up the sky.
They passed the place where the tribe had danced. The charred sticks
still lay on the rocks where the rain had quenched them but the sand by the
water was smooth again. They passed this in silence. No one doubted that the
tribe would be found at the Castle Rock and when they came in sight of it
they stopped with one accord. The densest tangle on the island, a mass of
twisted stems, black and green and impenetrable, lay on their left and tall
grass swayed before them. Now Ralph went forward.
Here was the crushed grass where they had all lain when he had gone to
prospect. There was the neck of land, the ledge skirting the rock, up there
were the red pinnacles.
Sam touched his arm.
"Smoke."
There was a tiny smudge of smoke wavering into the air on the other
side of the rock.
"Some fire-I don't think."
Ralph turned.
"What are we hiding for?"
He stepped through the screen of grass on to the little open space that
led to the narrow neck.
"You two follow behind. I'll go first, then Piggy a pace behind me.
Keep your spears ready."
Piggy peered anxiously into the luminous veil that hung between him and
the world.
"Is it safe? Ain't there a cliff? I can hear the sea."
"You keep right close to me."
Ralph moved forward on to the neck. He kicked a stone and it bounded
into the water. Then the sea sucked down, revealing a red, weedy square
forty feet beneath Ralph's left arm.
"Am I safe?" quavered Piggy. "I feel awful-"
High above them from the pinnacles came a sudden shout and then an
imitation war-cry that was answered by a dozen voices from behind the rock.
"Give me the conch and stay still."
"Halt! Who goes there?"
Ralph bent back his head and glimpsed Roger's dark face at the top.
"You can see who I am!" he shouted. "Stop being silly!"
He put the conch to his lips and began to blow. Savages appeared,
painted out of recognition, edging round the ledge toward the neck. They
carried spears and disposed themselves to defend the entrance. Ralph went on
blowing and ignored Piggy's terrors.
Roger was shouting.
"You mind out-see?"
At length Ralph took his lips away and paused to get his breath back.
His first words were a gasp, but audible.
"-calling an assembly."
The savages guarding the neck muttered among themselves but made no
motion. Ralph walked forwards a couple of steps. A voice whispered urgently
behind him.
"Don't leave me, Ralph."
"You kneel down," said Ralph sideways, "and wait till I come back."
He stood halfway along the neck and gazed at the savages intently.
Freed by the paint, they had tied their hair back and were more comfortable
than he was. Ralph made a resolution to tie his own back afterwards. Indeed
he felt Eke telling them to wait and doing it there and then; but that was
impossible. The savages sniggered a bit and one gestured at Ralph with his
spear. High above, Roger took his hands off the lever and leaned out to see
what was going on. The boys on the neck stood in a pool of their own shadow,
diminished to shaggy heads. Piggy crouched, his back shapeless as a sack.
"I'm calling an assembly."
Silence.
Roger took up a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to
miss. They started and Sam only just kept his footing. Some source of power
began to pulse in Roger's body.
Ralph spoke again, loudly.
"I'm calling an assembly."
He ran his eye over them.
"Where's Jack?"
The group of boys stirred and consulted. A painted face spoke with the
voice of Robert.
"He's hunting. And he said we weren't to let you in."
"I've come to see about the fire," said Ralph, "and about Piggy's
specs."
The group in front of him shifted and laughter shivered outwards from
among them, light, excited laughter that went echoing among the tall rocks.
A voice spoke from behind Ralph.
"What do you want?"
The twins made a bolt past Ralph and got between him and the entry. He
turned quickly. Jack, identifiable by personality and red hair, was
advancing from the forest A hunter crouched on either side. All three were
masked in black and green. Behind them on the grass the headless and
paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it.
Piggy wailed.
"Ralph! Don't leave me!"
With ludicrous care he embraced the rock, pressing himself to it above
the sucking sea. The sniggering of the savages became a loud derisive jeer.
Jack shouted above the noise.
"You go away, Ralph. You keep to your end. This is my end and my tribe.
You leave me alone."
The jeering died away.
"You pinched Piggy`s specs," said Ralph, breathlessly. "You've got to
give them back."
"Got to? Who says?"
Ralph's temper blazed out.
"I say! You voted for me for chief. Didn't you hear the conch? You
played a dirty trick-we'd have given you fire if you'd asked for it-"
The blood was flowing in his cheeks and the bunged-up eye throbbed.
"You could have had fire whenever you wanted. But you didn't. You came
sneaking up like a thief and stole Piggy's glasses!"
"Say that again!"
"Thief! Thief!"
Piggy screamed.
"Ralph! Mind me!"
Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph's chest with his spear. Ralph
sensed the position of the weapon from the glimpse he caught of Jack's arm
and put the thrust aside with his own butt. Then he brought the end round
and caught Jack a stinger across the ear. They were chest to chest,
breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring.
"Who's a thief?"
"You are!"
Jack wrenched free and swung at Ralph with his spear. By common consent
they were using the spears as sabers now, no longer daring the lethal
points. The blow struck Ralph's spear and slid down, to fall agonizingly on
his fingers. Then they were apart once more, their positions reversed, Jack
toward the Castle Rock and Ralph on the outside toward the island.
Both boys were breathing very heavily.
"Come on then-"
"Come on-"
Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting
distance.
"You come on and see what you get!"
"You come on-"
Piggy clutching the ground was trying to attract Ralph's attention.
Ralph moved, bent down, kept a wary eye on Jack.
"Ralph-remember what we came for. The fire. My specs."
Ralph nodded. He relaxed his fighting muscles, stood easily and
grounded the butt of his spear Jack watched him inscrutably through his
paint. Ralph glanced up at the pinnacles, then toward the group of savages
"Listen. We've come to say this. First you've got to give back Piggy's
specs. If he hasn't got them he can't see You aren't playing the game-"
The tribe of painted savages giggled and Ralph's mind faltered. He
pushed his hair up and gazed at the green and black mask before him, trying
to remember what Jack looked like.
Piggy whispered.
"And the fire."
"Oh yes. Then about the fire. I say this again. I've been saying it
ever since we dropped in."
He held out his spear and pointed at the savages.
"Your only hope is keeping a signal fire going as long as there's light
to see. Then maybe a ship`ll notice the smoke and come and rescue us and
take us home. But without that smoke we've got to wait till some ship comes
by accident. We might wait years; till we were old-"
The shivering, silvery, unreal laughter of the savages sprayed out and
echoed away. A gust of rage shook Ralph His voice cracked.
"Don't you understand, you painted fools? Sam, Eric, Piggy and me-we
aren't enough. We tried to keep the fire going, but we couldn't. And then
you, playing at hunting. . . ."
He pointed past them to where the trickle of smoke dispersed in the
pearly air.
"Look at that! Call that a signal fire? That's a cooking fire Now
you'll eat and there'll be no smoke. Don't you understand? There may be a
ship out there-"
He paused, defeated by the silence and the painted anonymity of the
group guarding the entry. Jack opened a pink mouth and addressed Samneric,
who were between him and his tribe.
"You two. Get back."
No one answered him. The twins, puzzled, looked at each Other; while
Piggy, reassured by the cessation of violence, stood up carefully. Jack
glanced back at Ralph and then at the twins.
"Grab them!"
No one moved. Jack shouted angrily.
"I said 'grab them'!"
The painted group moved round Samneric nervously and unhandily. Once
more the silvery laughter scattered.
Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization.
"Oh, I say!"
"-honestly!"
Their spears were taken from them.
"Tie them up!"
Ralph cried out hopelessly against the black and green mask.
"Jack!"
"Go on. Tie them."
Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in
their own hands. They felled the twins clumsily and excitedly. Jack was
inspired. He knew that Ralph would attempt a rescue. He struck in a humming
circle behind him and Ralph only just parried the blow. Beyond them the
tribe and the twins were a loud and writhing heap. Piggy crouched again.
Then the twins lay, astonished, and the tribe stood round them. Jack turned
to Ralph and spoke between his teeth.
"See? They do what I want."
There was silence again. The twins lay, inexpertly tied up, and the
tribe watched Ralph to see what he would do. He numbered them through his
fringe, glimpsed the ineffectual smoke.
His temper broke. He screamed at Jack.
"You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!"
He charged.
Jack, knowing this was the crisis, charged too. They met with a jolt
and bounced apart. Jack swung with his fist at Ralph and aught him on the
ear. Ralph hit Jack in the stomach and made him grunt. Then they were facing
each other again, panting and furious, but unnerved by each other's
ferocity. They became aware of the noise that was the background to this
fight, the steady shrill cheering of the tribe behind them.
Piggy's voice penetrated to Ralph.
"Let me speak."
He was standing in the dust of the fight, and as the tribe saw his
intention the shrill cheer changed to a steady booing.
Piggy held up the conch and the booing sagged a little, then came up
again to strength.
"I got the conch!"
He shouted.
"I tell you, I got the conch!"
Surprisingly, there was silence now; the tribe were curious to hear
what amusing thing he might have to say.
Silence and pause; but in the silence a curious air-noise, close by
Ralphs head. He give it half his attention-and there it was again; a faint
"Zup!" Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them, his one hand
still on the lever. Below him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of
fat.
"I got this to say. You're acting like a crowd of lads."
The booing rose and died again as Piggy lifted the white, magic shell.
"Which is better-to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be
sensible like Ralph is?"
A great clamor rose among the savages. Piggy shouted again.
"Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?"
Again the clamor and again--"Zup!"
Ralph shouted against the noise.
"Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?"
Now Jack was veiling too and Ralph could no longer make himself heard.
Jack had backed right against the tribe and they were a solid mass of menace
that bristled with spears. The intention of a charge was forming among them;
they were working up to it and the neck would be swept clear. Ralph stood
facing them, a little to one side, his spear ready. By him stood Piggy still
holding out the talisman, the fragile, shining beauty of the shell. The
storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred. High overhead, Roger,
with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.
Ralph heard the great rock long before he saw it. He was aware of a
jolt in the earth that came to him through the soles of his feet, and the
breaking sound of stones at the top of the cliff. Then the monstrous red
thing, bounded across the neck and he flung himself fiat while the tribe
shrieked.
The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch
exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying
nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways
from the rock, turning over as he went. The rock bounded twice and was lost
in the forest. Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across that
square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned
red. Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been
killed. Then the sea breathed again in a long, slow sigh, the water boiled
white and pink over the rock; and when it went, sucking back again, the body
of Piggy was gone.
This time the silence was complete. Ralph's lips formed a word but no
sound came.
Suddenly Jack bounded out from the tribe and began screaming wildly.
"See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe
for you any morel The conch is gone-"
He ran forward, stooping.
"I'm chief!"
Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph. The point
tore the skin and flesh over Ralph's ribs, then sheared off and fell in the
water. Ralph stumbled, feeling not pain but panic, and the tribe, screaming
now like the chief, began to advance. Another spear, a bent one that would
not fly straight, went past his face and one fell from on high where Roger
was. The twins lay hidden behind the tribe and the anonymous devils' faces
swarmed across the neck. Ralph turned and ran. A great noise as of sea gulls
rose behind him. He obeyed an instinct that he did not know he possessed and
swerved over the open space so that the spears went wide. He saw the
headless body of the sow and jumped in time. Then he was crashing through
foliage and small boughs and was hidden by the forest.
The chief stopped by the pig, turned and held up his hands.
"Back! Back to the fort!"
Presently the tribe returned noisily to the neck where Roger joined
them.
The chief spoke to him angrily.
"Why aren't you on watch?"
Roger looked at him gravely.
"I just came down-"
The hangman's horror clung round him. The chief said no more to him but
looked down at Samneric.
"You got to join the tribe."
"You lemme go-"
"-and me."
The chief snatched one of the few spears that were left and poked Sam
in the ribs.
"What d'you mean by it, eh?" said the chief fiercely, "What d'you mean
by coming with spears? What d'you mean by not joining my tribe?"
The prodding became rhythmic. Sam yelled.
"That's not the way."
Roger edged past the chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his
shoulder. The yelling ceased, and Samneric lay looking up in quiet terror.
Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Cry of the Hunters
Ralph lay in a covert, wondering about his wounds. The bruised flesh
was inches in diameter over his right ribs, with a swollen and bloody scar
where the spear had hit him. His hair was full of dirt and tapped like the
tendrils of a creeper. All over he was scratched and bruised from his flight
through the forest. By the time his breathing was normal again, he had
worked out that bathing these injuries would have to wait. How could you
listen for naked feet if you were splashing in water? How could you be safe
by the little stream or on the open beach?
Ralph listened. He was not really far from the Castle Rock, and during
the first panic he had thought he heard sounds of pursuit But the hunters
had only sneaked into the fringes of the greenery, retrieving spears
perhaps, and then had rushed back to the sunny rock as if terrified of the
darkness under the leaves. He had even glimpsed one of them, striped brown,
black, and red, and had judged that it was Bill. But really, thought Ralph,
this was not Bill. This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that
ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt.
The afternoon died away; the circular spots of sunlight moved steadily
over green fronds and brown fiber but no sound came from behind the rock. At
last Ralph wormed out of the ferns and sneaked forward to the edge of that
impenetrable thicket that fronted the neck of land. He peered with elaborate
caution between branches at the edge and could see Robert sitting on guard
at the top of the cliff. He held a spear in his left hand and was tossing up
a pebble and catching it again with the right. Behind him a column of smoke
rose thickly, so that Ralph's nostrils flared and his mouth dribbled. He
wiped his nose and mouth with the back of his hand and for the first time
since the morning felt hungry. The tribe must be sitting round the gutted
pig, watching the fat ooze and burn among the ashes. They would be intent
Another figure, an unrecognizable one, appeared by Robert and gave him
something, then turned and went back behind the rock. Robert laid his spear
on the rock beside him and began to gnaw between his raised hands. So the
feast was beginning and the watchman had been given his portion.
Ralph saw that for the time being he was safe. He limped away through
the fruit trees, drawn by the thought of the poor food yet bitter when he
remembered the feast. Feast today, and then tomorrow. . . .
He argued unconvincingly that they would let him alone, perhaps even
make an outlaw of him. But then the fatal unreasoning knowledge came to him
again. The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon lay over
the island like a vapor. These painted savages would go further and further.
Then there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who
therefore would never let him alone; never.
He paused, sun-flecked, holding up a bough, prepared to duck under it A
spasm of terror set him shaking and he cried aloud.
"No. They're not as bad as that. It was an accident."
He ducked under the bough, ran clumsily, then stopped and listened.
He came to the smashed acres of fruit and ate greedily. He saw two
littluns and, not having any idea of his own appearance, wondered why they
screamed and ran.
When he had eaten he went toward the beach. The sunlight was slanting
now into the palms by the wrecked shelter. There was the platform and the
pool. The best thing to do was to ignore this leaden feeling about the heart
and rely on their common sense, their daylight sanity. Now that the tribe
had eaten, the thing to do was to try again. And anyway, he couldn't stay
here all night in an empty shelter by the deserted platform. His flesh crept
and he shivered in the evening sun. No fire; no smoke; no rescue. He turned
and limped away through the forest toward Jack's end of the island.
The slanting sticks of sunlight were lost among the branches. At length
he came to a clearing in the forest where rock prevented vegetation from
growing. Now it was a pool of shadows and Ralph nearly flung himself behind
a tree when he saw something standing in the center; but then he saw that
the white face was bone and that the pig's skull grinned at him from the top
of a stick. He walked slowly into the middle of the clearing and looked
steadily at the skull that gleamed as white as ever the conch had done and
seemed to jeer at him cynically. An inquisitive ant was busy in one of the
eye sockets but otherwise the thing was lifeless.
Or was it?
Little prickles of sensation ran up and down his back. He stood, the
skull about on a level with his face, and held up his hair with two hands.
The teeth grinned, the empty sockets seemed to hold his gaze masterfully and
without effort.
What was it?
The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won't
tell. A sick fear and rage swept him. Fiercely he hit out at the filthy
thing in front of him that bobbed like a toy and came back, still grinning
into his face, so that he lashed and cried out in loathing. Then he was
licking his bruised knuckles and looking at the bare stick, while the skull
lay in two pieces, its grin now six feet across. He wrenched the quivering
stick from the crack and held it as a spear between him and the white
pieces. Then he backed away, keeping his face to the skull that lay grinning
at the sky.
When the green glow had gone from the horizon and night was fully
accomplished, Ralph came again to the thicket in front of the Castle Rock.
Peeping through, he could see that the height was still occupied, and
whoever it was up there had a spear at the ready.
He knelt among the shadows and felt his isolation bitterly. They were
savages it was true; but they were human, and the ambushing fears of the
deep night were coming on.
Ralph moaned faintly. Tired though he was, he could not relax and fall
into a well of sleep for fear of the tribe. Might it not be possible to walk
boldly into the fort, say-"I've got pax," laugh lightly and sleep among the
others? Pretend they were still boys, schoolboys who had said, "Sir, yes,
Sir"-and worn caps? Daylight might have answered yes; but darkness and the
horrors of death said no. Lying there in the darkness, he knew he was an
outcast.
" 'Cos I had some sense."
He rubbed his cheek along his forearm, smelling the acrid scent of salt
and sweat and the staleness of dirt. Over to the left, the waves of ocean
were breathing, sucking down, then boiling back over the rock.
There were sounds coming from behind the Castle Rock Listening
carefully, detaching his mind from the swing of the sea, Ralph could make
out a familiar rhythm.
"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"
The tribe was dancing. Somewhere on the other side of this rocky wall
there would be a dark circle, a glowing fire, and meat. They would be
savoring food and the comfort of safety.
A noise nearer at hand made him quiver. Savages were clambering up the
Castle Rock, right up to the top, and he could hear voices. He sneaked
forward a few yards and saw the shape at the top of the rock change and
enlarge. There were only two boys on the island who moved or talked like
that.
Ralph put his head down on his forearms and accepted this new fact like
a wound. Samneric were part of the tribe now. They were guarding the Castle
Rock against him. There was no chance of rescuing them and building up an
outlaw tribe at the other end of the island. Samneric were savages like the
rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder.
At length the guard climbed down. The two that remained seemed nothing
more than a dark extension of the rock. A star appeared behind them and was
momentarily eclipsed by some movement.
Ralph edged forward, feeling his way over the uneven surface as though
he were bund. There were miles of vague water at his right and the restless
ocean lay under his left hand, as awful as the shaft of a pit. Every minute
the water breathed round the death rock and flowered into a field of
whiteness. Ralph crawled until he found the ledge of the entry in his grasp.
The lookouts were immediately above him and he could see the end of a spear
projecting over the rock.
He called very gently.
"Samneric-"
There was no reply. To carry he must speak louder; and this would rouse
those striped and inimical creatures from their feasting by t