'Now you all look here,' he said quietly. 'This arguing has got to stop. Every time we hit a problem we start bickering. It's not sensible.' Angalo sniffed. 'Weweredoingperfectlyallright until he-' 'Shut up!' They stared at him. He was shaking with anger. 'I've had just about enough of all of you!' he shouted. 'You make me ashamed! We were doing so well! I haven't spent ages trying to make all this happen just for a, a, a steering committee to ruin it all! Now you can all get up and get this thing moving again! There's a whole truckload of nomes back there! They're depending on you! Understand?' They looked at one another. They stood up sheepishly. Angalo pulled up the steering strings. The signaller untangled his flags.
'Ahem,' said Angalo quietly. 'I think ....es, I think a little bit of first gear might be in order here, if it's all the same to everybody?' 'Good idea. Go ahead,' said Gurder.
'But carefully,' said Grimma.
'Thank you,' said Angalo politely. 'Is that all right by you Masklin?' he added.
'Hmm? Yes. Yes. Fine. Go.' At least there were no more buildings. The lorry purred along the lonely road, its one remaining headlight making a white glow in the mist. One or two vehicles passed them on the other side of the road.
Masklin knew that soon they should be looking for somewhere to stop. It would have to be somewhere sheltered, away from humans but not too far away, because he was pretty certain there were still plenty of things the nomes were going to need. Perhaps they were going north, but if they were it would be sheer luck.
It was at that moment tired, angry with his mind not entirely on what was in front of him that he saw Prices Slashed. There was no doubt about it. The human was standing in the road, waving its torch. There was a car beside him, with a blue flashing light on top.
The others had seen it, too.
'Prices Slashed!' moaned Gurder~ 'He's got here in front of us!' 'More speed,' said Angalo grimly.
'What are you going to do?' said Masklin~ 'We'll see how his torch can stand up to a lorry!' muttered Angalo.
'You can't do that! You can't drive lorries into people!' 'It's Prices Slashed!' said Angalo. 'It's not people!' 'He's right,' said Grimma. 'You said we mustn't stop now!' Masklin grabbed the steering strings and gave one a yank. The lorry skewed around just as Prices Slashed dropped his torch and, with respectable speed, jumped into the hedge. There was a bang as the rear of the lorry hit the car, and then Angalo had the threads again and was guiding them back into something like a straight line.
'You didn't have to do that,' he said sullenly. 'It's all right to run into Prices Slashed, isn't it, Gurder?' Well. Er,' said Gurder. He gave Masklin an embarrassed look. 'I'm not sure it was Prices Slashed, in fact. He had darker clothes, for one thing. And the car with the light on it.' 'Yes, but he had the peaked hat and the terrible torch!' The lorry bumped off a bank, taking away a large chunk of soil, and lurched back into the road.
'Anyway,' said Angalo, in a satisfied voice, 'that's all behind now. We left Arnold Bros (est~ 1905) behind in-the Store. We don't need that stuff. Not Outside.' Noisy though it was in the cab, the words created their own sort of silence.
Well, it's true,' said Angalo defensively. 'And Dorcas thinks the same thing. And a lot of younger nomes.' 'We shall see,' said Gurder. 'However, I suspect that if Arnold Bros (est. 1905) was ever any where, then he's everywhere.' 'What do you mean by that?' 'I'm not sure myself. I need to think about it.' Angalo sniffed. 'Well, think about it, then. But I don't believe it. It doesn't matter any more. May Bargains Galore turn against me if I'm wrong,' he added.
Masklin saw a blue light out of the corner of his eye. There were mirrors over the wheels of the lorry and, although one of them was smashed and the other one was bent, they still worked after a fashion. The light was behind the lorry.
'He's coming after us, whoever it is,' he said mildly.
'And there's that dee-dah, dee-dah noise,' said Gurder.
'I think,' Masklin went on, 'that it might be a good idea to get off this road.' Angalo glanced from side to side.
'Too many hedges,' he said.
'No, I meant on to another road. Can you do that?' 'Ten-four. No problem. Hey, he's trying to overtake! What a nerve! Ha!' The lorry swerved violently.
'I wish we could open the windows,' he added. 'One of the drivers I watched, if anyone behind him honked, he'd wave his hand out of the window and shout things. I think that's what you're supposed to do.' He waved his arm up and shouted 'yahgerronyerr.' 'Don't worry about that. Just find another road, a small road,' said Masklin soothingly. 'I'll be back in a minute.' He lowered himself down the swaying ladder to Dorcas and his people. There wasn't too much going on at the moment, just little tugs on the big wheel from the steering groups and a steady pressure on the go-faster pedal. Many of the nomes were sitting down and trying to relax. There was a ragged cheer when Masklin joined them.
Dorcas was sitting by himself, scribbling things on a piece of paper.
'Oh, it's you,' he said. 'Everything working now? Have we run out of things to bump into?' We're being followed by someone who wants to make us stop,' said Masklin.
'Another lorry?' 'A car, I think. With humans in it.' Dorcas scratched his chin.
'What do you want me to do about it?' 'You used things to cut the lorry wires when you didn't want it to go,' said Masklin.
'Pliers. What about them?' 'Have you still got them?' 'Oh, yes. But you need two nomes to use them.' 'Then I shall need another nome.' Masklin told Dorcas what he had in mind.
The old nome looked at him with something like admiration, and then shook his head.
'It'll never work,' he said. We won't have the time. Nice idea, though.' 'But we're so much faster than humans! We could do it, and be back at the lorry before they know!' 'Hmm.' Dorcas grinned nastily. 'You going to come?' 'Yes. I, er, I'm not sure nomes who've never been outside the Store will be able to cope.' Dorcas stood and yawned. 'Well, I'd like to try some of this "fresh air" stuff,' he said. 'I'm told it's very good for you.' If there had been watchers, peering over the hedge into that mist-wreathed country lane, they would have seen a lorry come thundering along at quite an unsafe speed.
They might have thought: that's an unusual vehicle, it seems to have lost quite a few things it should have, like one headlight, a bumper and most of the paint down one side, and picked up a number of things it shouldn't have, like some bits of bush and more dents than a sheet of corrugated iron.
They might have wondered why it had a 'Road Works Ahead' sign hanging from one door-handle.
And they would have certainly wondered why it rolled to a stop.
The police car behind it stopped rather more impressively, in a shower of gravel. Two men almost fell out of it and ran to the lorry, wrenching open the doors.
If the watchers had been able to understand Human, they'd have heard someone say, All right, chummy, that's it for tonight and then say, Where's he gone? There's just a load of string in here! And then someone else would say, I bet he's nipped out and has legged it over the fields.
And while this was going on, and while the policemen poked vaguely in the hedge and shone their torches into the mist, the watchers might have noticed a couple of very small shadows run from under the rear of the lorry and disappear under the car. They moved very fast, like mice. Like mice, their voices were high-pitched, fast and squeaky.
They were carrying a pair of pliers.
A few seconds later they scurried back again. And, almost as soon as they'd disappeared under the lorry, it started up.