Повелитель мух / Lord of the Flies

He held the conch under his arm.

Ralph shouted at him.

“Piggy! Have you got any matches?”

The other boys took up the cry till the mountain rang. Piggy shook his head and came to the pile.

“My! You’ve made a big heap, haven’t you?”

Jack pointed suddenly.

“His specs—use them as burning glasses!”

Piggy was surrounded before he could back away.

“Here—let me go!” His voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face. “Mind out! Give ’em back! I can hardly see! You’ll break the conch!”

Ralph elbowed him to the side[10 - elbowed him to the side – отпихнул его локтем] and knelt by the pile.

“Stand out of the light.”

There was pushing and pulling and officious cries. Ralph moved the lenses back and forth, this way and that, till a glossy white image of the declining sun lay on a piece of rotten wood. Almost at once a thin trickle of smoke rose up and made him cough. Jack knelt too and blew gently, so that the smoke drifted away, thickening, and a tiny flame appeared.

The flame, nearly invisible at first in that bright sunlight, enveloped a small twig, grew, was enriched with color and reached up to a branch which exploded with a sharp crack. The flame flapped higher and the boys broke into a cheer.

“My specs!” howled Piggy. “Give me my specs!”

Ralph stood away from the pile and put the glasses into Piggy’s groping hands. His voice subsided to a mutter.

“Jus’ blurs, that’s all.

Hardly see my hand—”

The boys were dancing. The pile was so rotten, and now so tinder-dry, that whole limbs yielded passionately to the yellow flames that poured upwards and shook a great beard of flame twenty feet in the air. For yards round the fire the heat was like a blow, and the breeze was a river of sparks. Trunks crumbled to white dust.

Ralph shouted.

“More wood! All of you get more wood!”

Life became a race with the fire and the boys scattered through the upper forest.

To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further. Even the smallest boys, unless fruit claimed them, brought little pieces of wood and threw them in. The air moved a little faster and became a light wind, so that leeward and windward side were clearly differentiated. On one side the air was cool, but on the other the fire thrust out a savage arm of heat that crinkled hair on the instant.