'How did you do that?'
Eric felt his face.
'I'm all rough. Am I bleeding?'
The circle of boys shrank away in horror. Johnny, yawning still, burst into noisy tears and was slapped by Bill till he choked on them. The bright morning was full of threats and the circle began to change. It faced out, rather than in, and the spears of sharpened wood were like a fence. Jack called them back to the center.
'This'll be a real hunt! Who'll come?'
Ralph moved impatiently.
'These spears are made of wood. Don't be silly.'
Jack sneered at him.
'Frightened?'
''Course I'm frightened. Who wouldn't be?'
He turned to the twins, yearning but hopeless.
'I suppose you aren't pulling our legs?'
The reply was too emphatic for anyone to doubt them.
Piggy took the conch.
'Couldn't we-kind of-stay here? Maybe the beast won't come near us.'
But for the sense of something watching them, Ralph would have shouted at him.
'Stay here? And be cramped into this bit of the island, always on the lookout? How should we get our food? And what about the fire?'
'Let's be moving,' said Jack relentlessly, 'we're wasting time.'
'No we're not. What about the littluns?'
'Sucks to the littluns!'
'Someone's got to look after them.'
'Nobody has so far.'
'There was no need! Now there is. Piggy'll look after them.'
'That's right. Keep Piggy out of danger.'
'Have some sense. What can Piggy do with only one eye?'
The rest of the boys were looking from Jack to Ralph, curiously.
'And another thing. You can't have an ordinary hunt because the beast doesn't leave tracks. If it did you'd have seen them. For all we know, the beast may swing through the trees like what's its name.'
They nodded.
'So we've got to think.'
Piggy took off his damaged glasses and cleaned the remaining lens.
'How about us, Ralph?'
'You haven't got the conch. Here.'
'I mean-how about us? Suppose the beast comes when you're all away. I can't see proper, and if I get scared-'
Jack broke in, contemptuously.
'You're always scared.'
'I got the conch-'
'Conch! Conch!' shouted Jack. 'We don't need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us.'
Ralph could no longer ignore his speech. The blood was hot in his cheeks.
'You haven't got the conch,' he said. 'Sit down.'
Jack's face went so white that the freckles showed as clear, brown flecks. He licked his lips and remained standing.
'This is a hunter's job.'
The rest of the boys watched intently. Piggy, finding himself uncomfortably embroiled, slid the conch to Ralph's knees and sat down. The silence grew oppressive and Piggy held his breath.
'This is more than a hunter's job,' said Ralph at last, 'because you can't track the beast. And don't you want to be rescued?'
He turned to the assembly.
'Don't you all want to be rescued?'
He looked back at Jack.
'I said before, the fire is the main thing. Now the fire must be out-'
The old exasperation saved him and gave him the energy to attack.
'Hasn't anyone got any sense? We've got to relight that fire. You never thought of that, Jack, did you? Or don't any of you want to be rescued?'
Yes, they wanted to be rescued, there was no doubt about that; and with a violent swing to Ralph's side, the crisis passed. Piggy let out his breath with a gasp, reached for it again and failed. He lay against a log, his mouth gaping, blue shadows creeping round his lips. Nobody minded him.
'Now think, Jack. Is there anywhere on the island you haven't been?'
Unwillingly Jack answered.
'There's only-but of course! You remember? The tail-end part, where the rocks are all piled up. I've been near there. The rock makes a sort of bridge. There's only one way up.'
'And the thing might live there.'
All the assembly talked at once.
'Quite! All right. That's where we'll look. If the beast isn't there we'll go up the mountain and look; and light the fire.'
'Let's go.'
'We'll eat first. Then go.' Ralph paused. 'We'd better take spears.'
After they had eaten, Ralph and the biguns set out along the beach. They left Piggy propped up on the platform. This day promised, like the others, to be a sunbath under a blue dome. The beach stretched away before them in a gentle curve till perspective drew it into one with the forest; for the day was not advanced enough to be obscured by the shifting veils of mirage. Under Ralph's direction, they picked up a careful way along the palm terrace, rather than dare the hot sand down by the water. He let Jack lead the way; and Jack trod with theatrical caution though they could have seen an enemy twenty yards away. Ralph walked in the rear, thankful to have escaped responsibility for a time.
Simon, walking in front of Ralph, felt a flicker of incredulity-a beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric. However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.
He sighed. Other people could stand up and speak to an assembly, apparently, without that dreadful feeling of the pressure of personality; could say what they would as though they were speaking to only one person. He stepped aside and looked back. Ralph was coming along, holding his spear over his shoulder. Diffidently, Simon allowed his pace to slacken until he was walking side by side with Ralph and looking up at him through the coarse black hair that now fell to his eyes. Ralph glanced sideways, smiled constrainedly as though he had forgotten that Simon had made a fool of himself, then looked away again at nothing. For a moment or two Simon was happy to be accepted and then he ceased to think about himself. When he bashed into a tree Ralph looked sideways impatiently and Robert sniggered. Simon reeled and a white spot on his forehead turned red and trickled. Ralph dismissed Simon and returned to his personal hell. They would reach the castle some time; and the chief would have to go forward.
Jack came trotting back. 'We're in sight now.'
'All right. We'll get as close as we can.'
He followed Jack toward the castle where the ground rose slightly. On their left was an impenetrable tangle of creepers and trees.
'Why couldn't there be something in that?'
'Because you can see. Nothing goes in or out.'
