The nomes crouched where they could, listening fearfully to the soundsabove them. There weren't many hiding places for two thousand nomes, small though they were.
It was a very long day. In the shadows under some of the sheds, in thedarkness behind crates, in some cases even on the dusty rafters under thetin roofs, the nomes passed it as best they could.
There were escapes so narrow a postcard couldn't have got through them.
Old Munby Confectioner! and most of his family were left blinking inthe light when a human moved the beat-up old box they were coweringbehind. Only a quick dash to the shelter of a stack of cans saved them.
And, of course, the fact that humans never really looked hard at whatthey were doing.
That wasn't the worst part, though.
The worst part was much worse.
The nomes sat in the noisy darkness, not daring even to speak, and felttheir world vanishing. Not because the humans hated nomes. Because theydidn't notice them.
There was Dorcas's electricity, for example. He'd spent a long timetwisting bits of wire together and finding a safe way to stealelectricity from the fusebox. A human pulled the wire bits out withoutthinking, fiddled inside with a screwdriver, and then put up a new boxwith a lock on it.
The Store nomes needed electricity. They couldn't remember a time whenthey had been without it. It was a natural thing, like air. And nowtheirs was a world of endless darkness.
And still the terror went on. The rough floorboards shook overhead, raining dust and splinters. Metal drums boomed like thunder. There wasthe continual sound of hammering. The humans were back, and they meant tostay.
They did go eventually, though. When the daylight drained from thewinter sky, like steel growing cold, some of the humans got into theirvehicles and drove off down the dirt road.
They did one puzzling thing before they left. Nomes had to scramble overone another to get out of the way when one of the floorboards in the manager's office was pulled up. A huge hand reached down and put a littletray on the packed earth under the floor. Then the darkness came backas the board was replaced.
The nomes sat in the gloom and wondered why on earth the humans, after aday like this, were giving them food.
The tray was piled with flour. It wasn't much, compared to Store food, but to nomes who had spent all day hungry and miserable it smelled good.
A couple of younger ones crawled closer. It had the most tantalizingsmell.
One of them took a handful of the stuff.
"Don't eat it!"
Grimma pushed her way through the packed bodies.
"But it smells so-" one of the nomes warbled.
"Have you ever smelled anything like it before?" she said.
"Well, no-"
"So you don't know it's good to eat, do you? Listen. I know about stufflike this. Where we-where I used to live, in the hole ... there was aplace along the highway where humans came to eat, and sometimes we'd findstuff like this among the trash at the back. It kills you if you eat it!"
The nomes looked at the innocent little tray. Food that killed you? Thatdidn't make sense.
"I remember there was some canned meat we had once in the Store," said anelderly nome. "Gave us all a nasty upset, I remember." He gave Grimma ahopeful look.
She shook her head. "This isn't like that," she said. "We used to finddead rats near it. They didn't die in a very nice way," she added, shuddering at the memory.
"Oh."
The nomes stared at the tray again. And there was a thump from overhead.
There was still a human in the quarry.
It was sitting in the old swivel chair in the manager's office, readinga paper.
From a knothole near the floor the nomes watched carefully. There werehuge boots, great sweeps of trouser, a mountain range of jacket and, farabove, the distant gleam of electric light on a bald head.
After a long while the human put the paper down and reached over to thedesk by its side. The watching nomes gazed at a pack of sandwiches bigger than they were, and a Thermos flask that steamed when it was openedand filled the shed with the smell of soup.
They climbed back down and reported to Grimma. She was sitting by thefood tray, and had ordered six of the older and more sensible nomes tostand guard around it to keep children away.
"It's not doing anything," she was told. "It's just sitting there. We sawit look out of the window once or twice."
"Then it'll be here all night," said Grimma. "I expect the humans arewondering who's causing all this trouble."
"What shall we dor'
Grimma sat with her chin on her hands.
"There's those big old tumbledown sheds across the quarry," she said atlast. "We could go there."
"Dorcas said-Dorcas used to say it was very dangerous in the old sheds," said a nome cautiously. "Because of all the old metal and stuff-Verydangerous, he said."
"More dangerous than here?" said Grimma, with Just a trace of her oldsarcasm.
"You've got a point."
"Please, ma'am."
It was one of the younger female nomes. They "eld Grimma in awe becauseof the way she Touted at the men and read better than anyone.
This one held a baby in her arms, and kept curtsying every time shefinished a sentence.
"What it is, Sorrit?" said Grimma.
"Please, ma'am, some of the children are very hungry, ma'am. There isn'tanything wholesome to eat down here, you see." She gave Grimma a pleading look.
Grimma nodded. The stores were under the other sheds, what was left ofthem. The main potato store had been found by some of the humans, whichwas perhaps why the poison had been put down. Anyway, they couldn't lighta fire and there was no meat. No one had been doing any proper huntingfor days, because Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) would provide, according toNisodemus.
"As soon as it gets light I think all the hunters we can spare should goout," said Grimma.
They considered this. The dawn was a long way away. To a nome, a nightwas as long as three whole days.
"There's plenty of snow," said a nome. "That means we've got water."
"We might be able to manage without food, but the children won't," saidGrimma.
"And the old people too," said a nome. "It's going to freeze againtonight. We haven't got the electric and we can't light a fireoutside."
They sat staring glumly at the dirt.
What Grimma was thinking was: They're not bickering. They're notgrumbling. Things are so serious they're actually not arguing and blamingeach other.
"All right," she said. "And what do you all think we should do?"
Chapter 11
I. We will come out of the woodwork.
II. We will come out of the floor.
III. They will wish they had never seen us.
-From the Book of Nome, Humans I, v. I-III The human lowered its newspaper and listened.
There was a rustling in the walls. There was a scratching under thefloor.
Its eyes swivelled to the table beside it.
A group of small creatures were dragging its packet of sandwiches acrossthe tabletop. It blinked.
Then it roared and tried to stand up, and it wasn't until it was nearlyupright that it found that its feet were tied very firmly to the legs ofits chair.
It crashed forward. A crowd of tiny creatures, moving so fast that itcould hardly see them, charged out from under the table and wrapped alength of old electrical wire around its outflung arms. Within seconds itwas trussed awkwardly> but very firmly, between the furniture.
They saw its great eyes roll. It opened its mouth and mooed at them.
Teeth like yellow plates clashed at them.
The wire held.
The sandwiches turned out to be cheese and pickle and the Thermos, oncethey got the top off, was full of coffee. "Store food," said one nome toanother. "Good Store food, like we used to know."
They poured into the room from every crack and mousehole. There was anelectric fire by the table and they sat in solemn rows in front of itsglowing red bar or wandered around the crowded office.