whoever is holding the conch shell will be allowed to speak, and the others
             must silently listen. Piggy haughtily informs the group that they should focus
             on increasing their chances of rescue, but he is largely ignored; one of the
             younger children claims that he saw a snake-like beast or monster the night
             before, and, though half-frightened, the older boys tell him that it was only a
             nightmare. Ralph then proposes that the group should build a signal fire on
             top of the island's central mountain, so that if a ship passes, it will know
             someone is trapped there. The boys rush off to the mountain, while Ralph
             and Piggy lag behind--Piggy whining again about the childishness and
             The boys collect a mound of dead wood and use Piggy's glasses as
             a lens to set it alight. They get a large fire going, but it quickly dies down; in
             their frenzied, disorganized efforts to rekindle it, they set a swath of trees
             ablaze. Piggy angrily declares that the boys need to act more proficiently if
             they want to get off the island, but his words carry little weight. Piggy tells
             them furiously that one of the littlest boys has been missing since the fire
             started, and has probably burned to death. The boys are crestfallen and
             struck with shame, but they are unable to discuss their feelings and instead
             pretend among themselves that nothing has happened.
             Jack trails a pig through the thick jungle, but he is unable to catch it.
             At the beach, he finds Ralph and Simon at work building huts, while most
             of the other boys splash about and play in the lagoon. Ralph gripes that few
             of the boys are willing to do any work, and implies that Jack and the
             hunters use their hunting duties as an excuse to avoid the real work; they
             have failed to catch a single pig. Jack protests that the work of the hunters
             is central to the group's survival, and claims that they will soon have more
             success. The bond...