He waited till the platform was very still.
'Things are breaking up. I don't understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then-'
He moved the conch gently, looking beyond them at nothing, remembering the beastie, the snake, the fire, the talk of fear.
'Then people started getting frightened.'
A murmur, almost a moan, rose and passed away. Jack had stopped whittling. Ralph went on, abruptly.
'But that's littluns' talk. We'll get that straight. So the last part, the bit we can all talk about, is kind of deciding on the fear.'
The hair was creeping into his eyes again.
'We've got to talk about this fear and decide there's nothing in it. I'm frightened myself, sometimes; only that's nonsense! Like bogies. Then, when we've decided, we can start again and be careful about things like the fire.' A picture of three boys walking along the bright beach flitted through his mind. 'And be happy.'
Ceremonially, Ralph laid the conch on the trunk beside him as a sign that the speech was over. What sunlight reached them was level.
Jack stood up and took the conch.
'So this is a meeting to find out what's what. I'll tell you what's what. You littluns started all this, with the fear talk. Beasts! Where from? Of course we're frightened sometimes but we put up with being frightened. Only Ralph says you scream in the night. What does that mean but nightmares? Anyway, you don't hunt or build or help-you're a lot of cry-babies and sissies. That's what. And as for the fear-you'll have to put up with that like the rest of us.'
Ralph looked at Jack open-mouthed, but Jack took no notice.
'The thing is-fear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island.' He looked along the row of whispering littluns. 'Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies! But there is no animal-'
Ralph interrupted him testily.
'What is all this? Who said anything about an animal?'
'You did, the other day. You said they dream and cry out. Now they talk-not only the littluns, but my hunters sometimes-talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal. I've heard. You thought not, didn't you? Now listen. You don't get big animals on small islands. Only pigs. You only get lions and tigers in big countries like Africa and India-'
'And the Zoo-'
'I've got the conch. I'm not talking about the fear. I'm talking about the beast. Be frightened if you like. But as for the beast-'
Jack paused, cradling the conch, and turned to his hunters with their dirty black caps.
'Am I a hunter or am I not?'
They nodded, simply. He was a hunter all right. No one doubted that.
'Well then-I've been all over this island. By myself. If there were a beast I'd have seen it. Be frightened because you're like that-but there is no beast in the forest.'
Jack handed back the conch and sat down. The whole assembly applauded him with relief. Then Piggy held out his hand.
'I don't agree with all Jack said, but with some. 'Course there isn't a beast in the forest. How could there be? What would a beast eat?'
'Pig.'
'We eat pig.'
'Piggy!'
'I got the conch!' said Piggy indignantly. 'Ralph– they ought to shut up, oughtn't they? You shut up, you littluns! What I mean is that I don't agree about this here fear. Of course there isn't nothing to be afraid of in the forest. Why-I been there myself! You'll be talking about ghosts and such things next. We know what goes on and if there's something wrong, there's someone to put it right.'
He took off his glasses and blinked at them. The sun had gone as if the light had been turned off.
He proceeded to explain.
'If you get a pain in your stomach, whether it's a little one or a big one-'
'Yours is a big one.'
'When you done laughing perhaps we can get on with the meeting. And if them littluns climb back on the twister again they'll only fall off in a sec. So they might as well sit on the ground and listen. No. You have doctors for everything, even the inside of your mind. You don't really mean that we got to be frightened all the time of nothing? Life,' said Piggy expansively, 'is scientific, that's what it is. In a year or two when the war's over they'll be traveling to Mars and back. I know there isn't no beast-not with claws and all that, I mean-but I know there isn't no fear, either.'
Piggy paused.
'Unless-'
Ralph moved restlessly.
'Unless what?'
'Unless we get frightened of people.'
A sound, half-laugh, half-jeer, rose among the seated boys. Piggy ducked his head and went on hastily.
'So let's hear from that littlun who talked about a beast and perhaps we can show him how silly he is.'
The littluns began to jabber among themselves, then one stood forward.
'What's your name?'
'Phil.'
For a littlun he was self-confident, holding out his hands, cradling the conch as Ralph did, looking round at them to collect their attention before he spoke.
'Last night I had a dream, a horrid dream, fighting with things. I was outside the shelter by myself, fighting with things, those twisty things in the trees.'
He paused, and the other littluns laughed in horrified sympathy.
'Then I was frightened and I woke up. And I was outside the shelter by myself in the dark and the twisty things had gone away.'
The vivid horror of this, so possible and so nakedly terrifying, held them all silent. The child's voice went piping on from behind the white conch.
'And I was frightened and started to call out for Ralph and then I saw something moving among the trees, something big and horrid.'
He paused, half-frightened by the recollection yet proud of the sensation he was creating.
'That was a nightmare,' said Ralph. 'He was walking in his sleep.'
The assembly murmured in subdued agreement.
The littlun shook his head stubbornly.
'I was asleep when the twisty things were fighting and when they went away I was awake, and I saw something big and horrid moving in the trees.'
Ralph held out his hands for the conch and the littlun sat down.
'You were asleep. There wasn't anyone there. How could anyone be wandering about in the forest at night? Was anyone? Did anyone go out?'
There was a long pause while the assembly grinned at the thought of anyone going out in the darkness. Then Simon stood up and Ralph looked at him in astonishment.
'You! What were you mucking about in the dark for?'
Simon grabbed the conch convulsively.
'I wanted-to go to a place-a place I know.'
'What place?'
'Just a place I know. A place in the jungle.' He hesitated.
Jack settled the question for them with that contempt in his voice that could sound so funny and so
