'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. As 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 kind 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 like 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.'
