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Slowly the waters sank among the rocks, revealing pink tables of granite, strange
growths of coral, polyp, and weed. Down, down, the waters went, whispering like the
wind among the heads of the forest. There was one flat rock there, spread like a
table, and the waters sucking down on the four weedy sides made them seem like
cliffs. Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out, the waters rose, the weed
streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar. There was no sense
of the passage of waves; only this minute-long fall and rise and fall.
Ralph turned away to the red cliff. They were waiting behind him in the long grass,
waiting to see what he would do. He noticed that the sweat in his palm was cool now;
realized with surprise that he did not really expect to meet any beast and didn't
know what he would do about it if he did.
He saw that he could climb the cliff but this was not necessary. The squareness of
the rock allowed a sort of plinth round it, so that to the right, over the lagoon,
one could inch along a ledge and turn the corner out of sight. It was easy going,
and soon he was peering round the rock.
Nothing but what you might expect: pink, tumbled boulders with guano layered on them
like icing; and a steep slope up to the shattered rocks that crowned the bastion.
A sound behind him made him turn. Jack was edging along the ledge.
"Couldn't let you do it on your own."
Ralph said nothing. He led the way over the rocks, inspected a sort of half-cave
that held nothing more terrible than a clutch of rotten eggs, and at last sat down,
looking round him and tapping the rock with the butt of his spear.
Jack was excited.
"What a place for a fort!"
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Lord of the Flies
A column of spray wetted them.
"No fresh water."
"What's that then?"
There was indeed a long green smudge half-way up the rock. They climbed up and
tasted the trickle of water.
"You could keep a coconut shell there, filling all the time."
"Not me. This is a rotten place."
Side by side they scaled the last height to where the diminishing pile was crowned
by the last broken rock. Jack struck the near one with his fist and it grated
slightly.
"Do you remember--?"
Consciousness of the bad times in between came to them both. Jack talked quickly.
"Shove a palm trunk under that and if an enemy came-- look!"
A hundred feet below them was the narrow causeway, then the stony ground, then the
grass dotted with heads, and behind that the forest.
"One heave," cried Jack, exulting, "and--wheee--!"
He made a sweeping movement with his hand. Ralph looked toward the mountain.
"What's the matter?"
Ralph turned.
"Why?"
"You were looking--I don't know why."
"There's no signal now. Nothing to show."
"You're nuts on the signal."
The taut blue horizon encircled them, broken only by the mountain-top.
"That's all we've got."
He leaned his spear against the rocking stone and pushed back two handfuls of hair.
"We'll have to go back and climb the mountain. That's where they saw the beast."
"The beast won't be there."
"What else can we do?"
The others, waiting in the grass, saw Jack and Ralph unharmed and broke cover into
the sunlight. They forgot the beast in the excitement of exploration. They swarmed
across the bridge and soon were climbing and shouting. Ralph stood now, one hand
against an enormous red block, a block large as a mill wheel that had been split off
and hung, tottering. Somberly he watched the mountain. He clenched his fist and beat
hammer-wise on the red wall at his right. His lips were tightly compressed and his
eyes yearned beneath the fringe of hair.
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Lord of the Flies
"Smoke."
He sucked his bruised fist.
"Jack! Come on."
But Jack was not there. A knot of boys, making a great noise that he had not
noticed, were heaving and pushing at a rock. As he turned, the base cracked and the
whole mass toppled into the sea so that a thunderous plume of spray leapt half-way
up the cliff.
"Stop it! Stop it!"
His voice struck a silence among them.
"Smoke."
A strange thing happened in his head. Something flittered there in front of his mind
like a bat's wing, obscuring his idea.
"Smoke."
At once the ideas were back, and the anger.
"We want smoke. And you go wasting your time. You roll rocks."
Roger shouted.
"We've got plenty of time!"
Ralph shook his head.
"We'll go to the mountain."
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