Rites of Passage – William Golding - bzelbublive.info

for a while its length traced out two narrow ellipses laid endto end-illustrated, i n fact, the first harmonic, like that pointon a violin string which if touched accurately enough willgive the player the note an octave above the open one.But this ship has more strings than a violin, more than alute, more I think than a harp, and under the wind's tuitionshe makes a ferocious music. I will own that after a while Icould have done with human company, but the Church hassuccumbed and the Army too. No lady can possibly beanywhere but in her bunk. As for the Navy-well, it is literallyin its element. Its members stand here and there encasedin tarpaulin, black with faces pale only by contrast. At a littledistance they resemble nothing so much as rocks with thetide washing over them. When the light had quite faded I feltmy way back t o m y hutch and shouted for Wheeler, whocame at once, got me out of my oilskins, hung the suit onthe hook where it at once took up a drunken angle. I toldhim to bring me a lamp but he told me it was not possible.This put me in a .temper but he explained the reason wellenough. Lamps are dangerous to us all since once oversetthere is .no controlling them. But I might have a candle if Icared to pay for it since a candle dowses itself when it falls,and in any case I must take a few safety measures in themanagement of i t . Wheeler himself h a d a supply ofcandles. I replied that I ha d thought such articles werecommonly obtained from the purser. After a short pauseWheeler agreed. He had not thought I would wish to dealdirectly with the purser who lived apart and was seldom