Повелитель мух / Lord of the Flies

“Wacco.”

“Wizard.”

“Smashing.”

The cause of their pleasure was not obvious. All three were hot, dirty and exhausted.

Ralph was badly scratched. The creepers were as thick as their thighs and left little but tunnels for further penetration. Ralph shouted experimentally and they listened to the muted echoes.

“This is real exploring,” said Jack. “I bet nobody’s been here before.”

“We ought to draw a map,” said Ralph, “only we haven’t any paper.”

“We could make scratches on bark,” said Simon, “and rub black stuff in.

”

Again came the solemn communion of shining eyes in the gloom.

“Wacco.”

“Wizard.”

There was no place for standing on one’s head. This time Ralph expressed the intensity of his emotion by pretending to knock Simon down; and soon they were a happy, heaving pile in the under-dusk.

When they had fallen apart Ralph spoke first.

“Got to get on.”

The pink granite of the next cliff was further back from the creepers and trees so that they could trot up the path.

This again led into more open forest so that they had a glimpse of the spread sea. With openness came the sun; it dried the sweat that had soaked their clothes in the dark, damp heat. At last the way to the top looked like a scramble over pink rock, with no more plunging through darkness. The boys chose their way through defiles and over heaps of sharp stone.

“Look! Look!”

High over this end of the island, the shattered rocks lifted up their stacks and chimneys.

This one, against which Jack leaned, moved with a grating sound when they pushed.

“Come on—”

But not “Come on” to the top. The assault on the summit must wait while the three boys accepted this challenge. The rock was as large as a small motor car.

“Heave!”

Sway back and forth, catch the rhythm.

“Heave!”

Increase the swing of the pendulum, increase, increase, come up and bear against that point of furthest balance—increase—increase—

“Heave!”

The great rock loitered, poised on one toe, decided not to return, moved through the air, fell, struck, turned over, leapt droning through the air and smashed a deep hole in the canopy of the forest.

Echoes and birds flew, white and pink dust floated, the forest further down shook as with the passage of an enraged monster: and then the island was still.