"The thing is-fear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island." He looked along the row of whispering littluns.
"Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry babies! But there is no animal-"
Ralph interrupted him testily.
"What is all the other day. Who said anything about an animal?
"You did, the other day. You said they dream and cry out. Now they talk-not only the littluns, but my hunters sometimes-talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal. I've heard. You thought not, didn't you? Now listen. You don't get big animals on small islands.
