Lord of the Flies - William Golding [54]
"I dunno, Ralph. I expect it's him."
"Jack?"
"Jack." A taboo was evolving round that word too.
Ralph nodded solemnly.
"Yes," he said, "I suppose it must be."
The forest near them burst into uproar. Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling, so that the littluns fled screaming. Out of the corner of his eye, Ralph saw Piggy running. Two figures rushed at the fire and he prepared to defend himself but they grabbed half-burnt branches and raced away along the beach. The three others stood still, watching Ralph; and he saw that the tallest of them, stark naked save for paint and a belt, was Jack.
Ralph had his breath back and spoke.
"Well?"
Jack ignored him, lifted his spear and began to shout.
"Listen all of you. Me and my hunters, we're living along the beach by a flat rock. We hunt and feast and have fun. If you want to join my tribe come and see us. Perhaps I'll let you join. Perhaps not."
He paused and looked round. He was safe from shame or self-consciousness behind the mask of his paint and could look at each of them in turn. Ralph was kneeling by the remains of the fire like a sprinter at his mark and his face was half-hidden by hair and smut. Samneric peered together round a palm tree at the edge of the forest. A littlun howled, creased and crimson, by the bathing pool and Piggy stood on the platform, the white conch gripped in his hands.
"Tonight we're having a feast. We've killed a pig and we've got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like."
Up in the cloud canyons the thunder boomed again. Jack and the two anonymous savages with him swayed, looking up, and then recovered. The littlun went on howling. Jack was waiting for something. He whispered urgently to the others.
"Go on―now!"
The two savages murmured. Jack spoke sharply.
"Go on!"
The two savages looked at each other, raised their spears together and spoke in time.
"The Chief has spoken."
Then the three of them turned and trotted away. Presently Ralph rose to his feet, looking at the place where the savages had vanished. Samneric came, talking in an awed whisper.
"I thought it was―"
"―and I was―"
"―scared."
Piggy stood above them on the platform, still holding the conch.
"That was Jack and Maurice and Robert," said Ralph. "Aren't they having fun?"
"I thought I was going to have asthma."
"Sucks to your ass-mar."
"When I saw Jack I was sure he'd go for the conch. Can't think why."
The group of boys looked at the white shell with affectionate respect. Piggy placed it in Ralph's hand and the littluns, seeing the familiar symbol, started to come back.
"Not here."
He turned toward the platform, feeling the need for ritual. First went Ralph, the white conch cradled, then Piggy very grave, then the twins, then the littluns and the others.
"Sit down all of you. They raided us for fire. They're having fun. But the―"
Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down.
"But the―"
They were regarding him gravely, not yet troubled by any doubts about his sufficiency. Ralph pushed the idiot hair out of his eyes and looked at Piggy.
"But the... oh... the fire! Of course, the fire!"
He started to laugh, then stopped and became fluent instead.
"The fire's the most important thing. Without the fire we can't be rescued. I'd like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning. The fire's the most important thing on the island, because, because―"
He paused again and the silence became full of doubt and wonder.
Piggy whispered urgently. "Rescue."
"Oh yes. Without the fire we can't be rescued. So we must stay by the fire and make smoke."
When he stopped no one said anything. After the many brilliant speeches that had been made on this very spot Ralph's remarks seemed lame, even to the littluns.
At last Bill held out his hands for the conch.
"Now we can't have the fire up there―because we can't have the fire up there―we need more people to keep it going. Let's go to this feast and tell them the fire's hard on the rest of us. And the hunting and all that, being savages I mean