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The littluns who had seen few fires since the first catastrophe became wildly excited. They danced and 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 flopped down in the sand.

“We’ll have to make a new list of who's to took 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 with 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.”