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"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
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Lord of the Flies
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."
"What about the castle then?"
"Look."
Ralph parted the screen of grass and looked out. There were only a few more yards of
stony ground and then the two sides of the island came almost together so that one
expected a peak of headland. But instead of this a narrow ledge of rock, a few yards
wide and perhaps fifteen long, continued the island out into the sea. There lay
another of those pieces of pink squareness that underlay the structure of the
island. This side of the castle, perhaps a hundred feet high, was the pink bastion
they had seen from the mountain-top. The rock of the cliff was split and the top
littered with great lumps that seemed to totter.
Behind Ralph the tall grass had filled with silent hunters. Ralph looked at Jack.
"You're a hunter."
Jack went red.
"I know. All right."
Something deep in Ralph spoke for him.
"I'm chief. I'll go. Don't argue."
He turned to the others.
"You. Hide here. Wait for me."
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Lord of the Flies
He found his voice tended either to disappear or to come out too loud. He looked at
Jack.
"Do you--think?"
Jack muttered.
"I've been all over. It must be here."
"I see."
Simon mumbled confusedly: "I don't believe in the beast."
Ralph answered him politely, as if agreeing about the weather.
"No. I suppose not."
His mouth was tight and pale. He put back his hair very slowly.
"Well. So long."
He forced his feet to move until they had carried him out on to the neck of land.
He was surrounded on all sides by chasms of empty air. There was nowhere to hide,
even if one did not have to go on. He paused on the narrow neck and looked down.
Soon, in a matter of centuries, the sea would make an island of the castle. On the
right hand was the lagoon, troubled by the open sea; and on the left-- Ralph
shuddered. The lagoon had protected them from the Pacific: and for some reason only
Jack had gone right down to the water on the other side. Now he saw the landsman's
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