'I've thought about it for ages,' he said. He felt they were the only two he could trust.
The cardboard door slid open and a small, cheerful face appeared.
'You'll like this one, Mr Masklin,' he said, 'I've been doing some more reading.' 'Not now, Vinto. We're a bit busy,' said Masklin. Vinto's face fell.
'Oh, you might as well listen to him,' said Grimma. 'It's not as if we've got anything more important to do now.' Masklin hung his head.
'Well, lad,' said Gurder, with forced cheerfulness, 'what idea have you come with this time, eh? Pulling the lorry with wild hamsters, eh?' 'No, sir,' said Vinto.
'Maybe you think we could make it grow wings and fly away in the sky?' 'No, sir. I found this book, it's how to capture humans, sir. And then we can get a gnu-' Masklin gave the others a sick little smile.
'I explained to him that we can't use humans,' he said. 'I told you, Vinto. And I'm really not certain about threatening people with antelopes-' With a grunt of effort, the boy swung the book open.
'It's got a picture in it, sir.' They looked at the picture. It showed a human lying down. He was surrounded by nomes, and covered with ropes.
'Gosh,' said Grimma, 'they've got books with pictures of us!' 'Oh, I know this one,' said Gurder dismissively 'It's Gulliver's Travels. It's just stories, it's not real' 'Pictures of us in a book,' said Grimma. 'Imagine that. You see it, Masklin?' Masklin stared.
'Yes, you're a good boy, well done,' said Gurder, his voice sounding far off. 'Thank you very much, Vinto, and now please go away.' Masklin stared. His mouth dropped open. He felt the ideas fizz up inside him and slosh into his head.
'The ropes,' he said.
'It's just a picture,' said Gurder.
'The ropes! Grimma, the ropes!' 'The ropes?' Masklin raised his fists and stared up at the ceiling. At times like this, it was almost possible to believe that there was someone up there, above Kiddies Klothes.
'I can see the way!' he shouted, while the three of them watched in astonishment. 'I can see the way! Arnold Bros (est. 1905), I can see the way!' After Closing Tune that evening several dozen small and stealthy figures crept across the garage floor and disappeared under one of the parked lorries. Anyone listening would have heard the occasional tiny clink, thud or swear word. After ten minutes they were in the cab.
They stood in wonder, looking around. :Masklin wandered over to one of the pedals, which was taller than he was, and gave it an experimental push. It didn't so much as wobble. Several of the others came over and helped, and managed to get it to move a little One nome stood and watched them thoughtfully It was Dorcas, wearing a belt from which hung a variety of home-made tools, and he was idly twiddling the pencil lead that was kept permanently behind one ear when it wasn't being used.
Masklin walked back to him.
'What d'you think?' he said.
Dorcas rubbed his nose. 'It's all down to levers and pulleys,' he said. 'Amazing things, levers. Give me a lever long enough, and a firm enough place to stand, and I could move the Store.' 'Just one of these pedals would be enough for now,' said Masklin politely.
Dorcas nodded. 'We'll give it a try,' he said. 'All right, lads. Bring it up.' A length of wood, carried all the way down from the Home Handyman Department, was nomehandled into the cab. Dorcas ambled around, measuring distances with a piece of thread, and finally had them wedge one end into a crack in the metal floor. Four nomes lined up at the other end and hauled the wood across until it was resting on the lever.
'Right, lads,' said Dorcas again.
They pushed down. The pedal went all the way to the floor. There was a ragged cheer.
'How did you do that?' said Masklin.
'That's levers for you,' said Dorcas. '0-kay.' He looked around, scratching his chin. 'So we'll need three levers.' He looked up at the great circle of the steering wheel. 'You have any ideas about that?' he said.
'I thought ropes,' said Masklin.
'How d'you mean?' 'It's got those spokes in it, so if we tie ropes to them and have teams of nomes on the ropes, they could pull it one way or the other and that'll make the lorry go the way we want,' said Masklin.
Dorcas squinted at the wheel. He paced the floor. He looked up. He looked down. His lips moved as he worked things out.
'They won't see where they're going,' he said finally.
thought, someone could stand right up there, by the big window in the front, and sort of tell them what to do?' said Masklin, looking hopefully at the old nome.
'These're powerful noisy things, young Angalo said,' said Dorcas. He scratched his chin again. 'I reckon I can do something about that. Then there's this big lever here, the Beer Lever-' 'Gear Lever,' said Masklin.
'Ah. Ropes again?' 'I thought so,' said Masklin earnestly. 'What do you think?' Dorcas sucked in his breath. 'We-ell,' he said. 'What with teams pulling the wheel, and teams shifting the Gear Lever, and people working the pedals with levers, and someone up there telling them all what to do, it's going to take a powerful lot of practising. Supposing I rig up all the tackle, all the ropes and such: how many nights will we have to practise? You know, get the hang of it?' 'Including the night we, er, leave?' 'Yes,' said Dorcas.
'One,' said Masklin.
Dorcas sniffed. He stared upwards for a while, bumming under his breath.
'It's impossible,' he said.
'We'll only have one chance, you see,' said Masklin 'If It's a problem with all the equipment-' 'Oh, no problem there,' said Dorcas. 'That's just bits of wood and string, I can have that ready by tomorrow I was thinking of the people, see You're going to need a powerful lot of nomes to do all this. And they're going to need training.' 'But, but all that they'd have to do is pull and push when they're told, won't they?' Dorcas hummed under his breath again. Masklin got the impression that he always did that if he was going to break some bad news.
'Well, laddie,' he said, 'I'm six, I've seen a lot of people, and I've got to tell you, if you lined up ten nomes and shouted "Pull!", four of them would push and two of them would say "Pardon?" That's how people are. It's just nomish nature.' He grinned at Masklin's crestfallen expression. 'What you ought to do,' he said, 'is find us a little lorry. To practise on.' Masklin nodded gloomily.
'And,' said Dorcas, 'have you thought again about how you're going to get everyone on? Two thousand nomes, mind. Plus all this stuff we're taking. You can't have old grannies and little babbies shinning up ropes or crawling through holes, can you?' Masklin shook his head. Dorcas was watching him with his normal mild grin.
This nome, Masklin thought, knows his stuff. But if I say to him leave it all to me, he'll leave it all to me, just to serve me right. Oh, critical path analysis! Why is it always people? 'Have you got any ideas?' he said. 'I really would appreciate your help.' Dorcas gave him a long thoughtful look, and then patted him on the shoulder.
'I've been looking around this place,' he Said.
'Maybe there's a way we can practise and solve the other problem. You come down here tomorrow night and we'll see, shall we?' Masklin nodded.
The trouble was, he thought as he walked back, that there weren't enough people. A lot of the Ironmongri were helping, and some of the other departments, and quite a few young nomes were sneaking off to help because it was all exciting and unusual. As far as the rest of them were concerned, though, life was going on as normal.
In fact the Store was, if anything, busier than usual Of all the family heads, only the Count seemed at all willing to take an interest, and Masklin suspected that even he didn't really think the Store was going to end. It just meant that the Ironmongri could learn to read and it annoyed the Haberdasheri, which amused the Count. Even Gurder didn't seem so sure as he had been.