Выбрать главу

'What!' 'It isn't so important, you see.' Gurder thumped the wall. 'Why in the name of Arnold Bros (est. 1905) didn't you ask my per-'mission first?' Would you have given it?' 'No!' 'That's why, you see,' said Masklin.

When I said I'd help you I didn't expect this!' shouted Gurder.

'Nor did I!' snapped Masklin.

The new Abbot paused.

'What do you mean?' he said.

'I thought you'd help,' said Masklin, simply.

Gurder sagged. 'All right, all right,' he said. 'You know I can't forbid it now, not in front of everyone. Do whatever is necessary. Take what­ever people you must.' 'Good,' said Masklin, 'when can you start?' 'Me? But-' 'You said yourself that you're the best reader.' Well, yes, of course, this is the case, but-' 'Good.' They grew used to that word, later. Masklin developed a way of saying it that indicated that everything was all sorted out, and there was no point in saying anything more.

Gurder waved his hands wildly. What do you want me to do?' he said. 'How many books are there?' said Masklin. 'Hundreds! Thousands!' 'Do you know what they're all about?' Gurder looked at him blankly. 'Do you know what you're saying?' he said.

'No. But I want to find out.' They're about everything! You'd never believe it! They're full of words even I don't under­stand!' 'Can you find a book which tells you how to understand words you don't understand?' said Masklin. This is critical path analysis, he thought. Gosh, I'm doing it without thinking.

Gurder hesitated. 'It's an intriguing thought,' he said.

'I want to find out everything about lorries, and electric, and food,' said Masklin. 'And then I want you to find a book about, about...' Well?' Masklin looked desperate. 'Is there a book that tells you how nomes can drive a lorry built for humans?' he said.

'Don't you know?' 'Not... exactly. I was sort of hoping we could work it out as we went along.' 'But you said all we needed to do was learn The High Way Code!' 'Ye-ss,' said Masklin uncertainly, 'and it says you have to know The High Way Code before you can drive. But somehow I get the feeling that it might not be as simple as that.' 'Bargains Galore preserve us!' 'I hope so,' said Masklin. 'I really do.' And then it was time to put it all to the test. It was cold in the lorry nest, and stank of all. It was also a long way to the ground if they fell off the girder. Masklin tried not to look down. There was a lorry below them. It looked much bigger indoors. Huge,. red and terrible in the gloom.

'This is about far enough,' he said. We're right over the sticking-out bit where the driver site.' The cab,' said Angalo.

Right. The cab.' Angalo had been a surprise. He'd turned up in the Stationery Department, breathing heavily, his face red, and demanding to be taught to read.

So he could learn about lorries. They fascinated him.

'But your father objects to the whole idea,' Masklin had said.

'That doesn't matter,' said Angalo shortly. 'It's all right for you, you've been there! I want to see all those things, I want to go Outside, I want to know if it's real!' He hadn't been very good at reading, but he'd tried until his brain hurt when the Stationeri found him some books with lorries on the front.

Now he probably knew more about them than any other nome. Which wasn't a lot, Masklin had to admit.

He listened to Angalo muttering to himself as he struggled into the straps.

'Gear,' he said. 'Shift. Steering Wheel. Wipers. Auto Transmission. Breaker Break Good Bud­dy. Smoky. Double Egg And Chips And Beans. Yorkiebar. Truckers.' He looked up and smiled thinly at Masklin. 'Ready,' he said.

'Now remember,' said Masklin, 'they don't always leave the windows open, so if they're closed, one pull on the rope and we'll pull you back up, okay?' 'Ten-four.' What?' 'It's Lorry driver for "yes",' explained Angalo. 'Oh. Fine. Now, when you're in, find somewhere to hide so you can watch the driver-' 'Yes, yes. You explained it all before,' said Angalo impatiently.

'Yes. Well. Have you got your sandwiches?' Angalo patted the package at his waist. 'And my notebook,' he said. 'Ready to go. Put the Pedal to the Metal.' What?' 'It means "go" in Lorry.' Masklin looked puzzled. 'Do we have to know all this to drive one?' 'Negatory,' said Angalo proudly.

'Oh? Well, so long as you understand yourself, that's the main thing.' Dorcas, who was in charge of the rope detail, tapped Angalo on the shoulder.

'You sure you won't take the Outside suit?' he said hopefully.

It was cone-shaped, made out of heavy cloth over a sort of umbrella frame of sticks so that it folded up, and had a little window to look out of. Dorcas had insisted on building it, to protect Outsidegoers.

'After all,' he'd said to Masklin, 'you might be u8ed to the Rain and the Wind, perhaps your heads have grown specially hard. Can't be too careful.' 'I don't think so, thank you,' said Angalo polite­ly. 'It's so heavy, and I don't expect I'll go outside the lorry this trip.' 'Good,' said Masklin. Well, let's not hang about. Except for you, Angalo. Haha. Ready to take the strain, lads? Over you go, Angalo,' he said, and then, because it paid to be on the safe side and you never knew, it might help, he added, 'May Arnold Bros (est. 1905) watch over you.' Angalo eased himself over the edge and slowly became a small spinning shape in the gloom as the team carefully let the thread out. Masklin prayed that they'd brought enough of it, there hadn't been time to come and measure.

There was a desperate tugging on the thread. Masklin peered down. Angalo was a small shape a metre or so below him.

'If anything should happen to me, no one is to eat Bobo,' he called up.

'Don't you worry,' said Masklin. 'You're going to be all right.' 'Yes, I know. But if I'm not, Bobo is to go to a good home,' said Angalo.

'Right you are. A good home. Yes.' Where they don't eat rat. Promise?' 'No rat-eating. Fine,' said Masklin.

Angato nodded. The gang started to pay out the thread again.

Then Angalo was down, and hurrying across the sloping roof to the side of the cab. It made Masklin dizzy just to look down at him.

The figure disappeared. After a while came two tugs, meaning 'pay out more thread'. They let it slip past gradually. And then there were three tugs, faint but - well, three. And a few seconds later they came again.

Masklin let out his breath in a whoosh.

'Angalo has landed,' he said. 'Pull the thread back up. We'll leave it here, in case I mean, for when he comes back.' He risked another look at the forbidding bulk of the lorry. The lorries went out, the lorries came back, and it was the considered opinion of nomes like Dorcas that they were the same lorries. They went out loaded with goods, and they came back loaded with goods, and why Arnold Bros (est. 1905) felt the need to let goods out for the day was beyond anyone's understanding. All that was known with any certainty was that they were always back within a day, or two at the outside.

Masklin looked down at the lorry which now contained the explorer. Where would it go, what would happen to it? What would Angalo see, before he came back again? If he didn't come back, what would Masklin tell his parents? That someone had to go, that he'd begged to go, that they had to see how a lorry was driven, that everything depended on him? Somehow, he knew, it wouldn't sound very convincing in those circumstances.

Dorcas leaned over next to him.

'It'll be a job and a half getting everyone down this way,' he said.

'I know. We'll have to think of some better way.' The inventor pointed down towards one of the other silent lorries. 'There's a little step there,' he said, 'just by the driver's door, look. If we could get to that and get a rope around the handle-' Masklin shook his head.