sang and there was a partyish air about the gathering.
At last Ralph stopped work and stood up, smudging the sweat from his face with a dirty forearm.
'We'll have to have a small fire. This one's too big to keep up.'
Piggy sat down carefully on the sand and began to polish his glass.
'We could experiment. We could find out how to make a small hot fire and then put green branches on to make smoke. Some of them leaves must be better for that than the others.'
As the fire died down so did the excitement. The littluns stopped singing and dancing and drifted away toward the sea or the fruit trees or the shelters.
Ralph dropped down in the sand.
'We'll have to make a new list of who's to look after the fire.'
'If you can find 'em.'
He looked round. Then for the first time he saw how few biguns there were and understood why the work had been so hard.
'Where's Maurice?'
Piggy wiped his glass again.
'I expect . . . no, he wouldn't go into the forest by himself, would he?'
Ralph jumped up, ran swiftly round the fire and stood by Piggy, holding up his hair.
'But we've got to have a list! There's you and me and Samneric and-'
He would not look at Piggy but spoke casually.
'Where's Bill and Roger?'
Piggy leaned forward and put a fragment of wood on the fire.
'I expect they've gone. I expect they won't play either.'
Ralph sat down and began to poke little holes in the sand. He was surprised to see that one had a drop of blood by it. He examined his bitten nail closely and watched the little globe of blood that gathered where the quick was gnawed away.
Piggy went on speaking.
'I seen them stealing off when we was gathering wood. They went that way. The same way as he went himself.'
Ralph finished his inspection and looked up into the air. The sky, as if in sympathy with the great changes among them, was different today and so misty that in some places the hot air seemed white. The disc of the sun was dull silver as though it were nearer and not so hot, yet the air stifled.
'They always been making trouble, haven't they?'
The voice came near his shoulder and sounded anxious. 'We can do without 'em. We'll be happier now, won't we?'
Ralph sat. The twins came, dragging a great log and grinning in their triumph. They dumped the log among the embers so that sparks flew.
'We can do all right on our own, can't we?'
For a long time while the log dried, caught fire and turned red hot, Ralph sat in the sand and said nothing. He did not see Piggy go to the twins and whisper to them, nor how the three boys went together into the forest.
'Here you are.'
He came to himself with a jolt. Piggy and the other two were by him. They were laden with fruit.
'I thought perhaps,' said Piggy, 'we ought to have a feast, kind of.'
The three boys sat down. They had a great mass of the fruit with them and all of it properly ripe. They grinned at Ralph as he took some and began to eat.
'Thanks,' he said. Then with an accent of pleased surprise-'Thanks!'
'Do all right on our own,' said Piggy. 'It's them that haven't no common sense that make trouble on this island. We'll make a little hot fire-'
Ralph remembered what had been worrying him.
'Where's Simon?'
'I don't know.'
'You don't think he's climbing the mountain?'
Piggy broke into noisy laughter and took more fruit. 'He might be.' He gulped his mouthful. 'He's cracked.'
Simon had passed through the area of fruit trees but today the littluns had been too busy with the fire on the beach and they had not pursued him there. He went on among the creepers until he reached the great mat that was woven by the open space and crawled inside. Beyond the screen of leaves the sunlight pelted down and the butterflies danced in the middle their unending dance. He knelt down and the arrow of the sun fell on him. That other time the air had seemed to vibrate with heat; but now it threatened. Soon the sweat was running from his long coarse hair. He shifted restlessly but there was no avoiding the sun. Presently he was thirsty, and then very thirsty. He continued to sit.
Far off along the beach, Jack was standing before a small group of boys. He was looking brilliantly happy.
'Hunting,' he said. He sized them up. Each of them wore the remains of a black cap and ages ago they had stood in two demure rows and their voices had been the song of angels.
'We'll hunt. I'm going to be chief.'
They nodded, and the crisis passed easily.
'And then-about the beast.'
They moved, looked at the forest.
'I say this. We aren't going to bother about the beast.'
He nodded at them.
'We're going to forget the beast.'
'That's right!'
'Yes!'
'Forget the beast!'
If Jack was astonished by their fervor he did not show it.
'And another thing. We shan't dream so much down here. This is near the end of the island.'
They agreed passionately out of the depths of their tormented private lives.
'Now listen. We might go later to the castle rock. But now I'm going to get more of the biguns away from the conch and all that. We'll kill a pig and give a feast.' He paused and went on more slowly. 'And about the beast. When we kill we'll leave some of the kill for it. Then it won't bother us, maybe.'
He stood up abruptly.
'We'll go into the forest now and hunt.'
He turned and trotted away and after a moment they followed him obediently.
They spread out, nervously, in the forest. Almost at once Jack found the dung and scattered roots that told of pig and soon the track was fresh. Jack signaled the rest of the hunt to be quiet and went forward by himself. He was happy and wore the damp darkness of the forest like his old clothes. He crept down a slope to rocks and scattered trees by the sea.
The pigs lay, bloated bags of fat, sensuously enjoying the shadows under the trees. There was no wind and they were unsuspicious; and practice had made Jack silent as the shadows. He stole away again and instructed his hidden hunters. Presently they all began to inch forward sweating in the silence and heat. Under the trees an ear flapped idly. A little apart from the rest, sunk in deep maternal bliss, lay the largest sow of the lot. She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept or burrowed and squeaked.
Fifteen yards from the drove Jack stopped, and his arm, straightening, pointed at the sow. He looked round in inquiry to make sure that everyone understood and the other boys nodded at him. The row of right arms slid back.
'Now!'
The drove of pigs started up; and at a range of only ten yards the wooden spears with fire-hardened points
