The Beach

Richard awakes the next day early and finds Sal and Jed talking about what to do about the rafters. They instruct Richard to intercept them and try to turn them away, or at least delay them until after Christo’s death. Sal wants Richard to wait for them at the top of the waterfall, and Richard wonders how turning them away will do any good if they go back to the mainland and tell others what they found. Richard also suspects that Sal has a backup plan she isn’t mentioning. He goes up to his post to wait and finds Daffy there, armed with a rifle and in full army gear.

Richard finds Daffy distracting as he awaits the visitors’ arrival. Daffy fumbles with his gun and is overly loud, and soon Richard decides it is best if Daffy throws his gun away, “seeing as it couldn’t kill anything real” (350). He asks Daffy to wait behind while he goes ahead to meet the rafters. Richard spots Sammy and Zeph along with some other people on