"Yeah," said an elderly nome. '''Things. I've seen 'em. My lad took meblackberryin' a month or two back, up above the quarry, and I seen 'em."
"I don't mind seeing them a long way off," said the worried lady nome.
"It's the thought of being in the middle of them that makes me come overall shaky."
They don't even like to say the words open fields, thought Dorcas. I knowhow they feel.
"It's snug enough here, I'll grant you," said the first nome. "But allthis stuff you get outside, what d'you call it, begins with an N-"
"Nature?" said Dorcas weakly. Nisodemus was smiling madly, his eyessparkling.
"That's right," said the nome. "Well, it's not natural. And there's asight too much of it. 'S not like a proper world at all. You've only gotto look at it. The floor's all rough, 'n' it should be flat. There'shardly any walls. All them little starry lights that come out at night, well, they're not much help, are they? And now these humans go where theyplease, there's no proper regulations like there was in the Store."
"That's why Arnold Bros. established the Store in 1905," said Nisodemus.
"A proper place for, urn, nomes to live."
Dorcas gently grabbed Sacco's ear and pulled the young nome toward him.
"Do you know where Grimma is?" he whispered.
"Isn't she here?"
"I'm quite sure she isn't," said Dorcas. "She'd have had something verysharp to say by now if she was. She may have stayed in the schoolholewith the children when the bell went off. It's just as well."
Nisodemus has something on his mind, he thought. I'm not certain what itis, but it smells bad.
And it got worse as the day wore on, especially since it began to rain. Anasty, freezing sort of rain. Sleet, according to Granny Morkie. It wassoggy, not really water but not quite ice. Rain with bones.
Somehow it seemed to find its way into places where ordinary rain hadn'tmanaged to get. Dorcas organized younger nomes to dig drainage trenchesand rigged up a few of the big lightbulbs for heat. The older nomes sathunched around them, sneezing and grumbling.
Granny Morkie did her best to cheer them up. Dorcas began to really wishthe old woman wouldn't do that.
"This ain't nothing," she said. "I remember the Great Flood. Made ourhole cave right in, we was cold and drenched for days!" She cackled androcked backward and forward. "Liked drownded rats, we was! Not a drystitch on, you know, and no fire for a week. Talk about laugh!"
The Store nomes stared at her, and shivered. And you don't want to goworrying about Grossing them open fields," she went on, conversationally.
"Nine times out o' ten you don't get et by anything."
"Oh, dear," said a lady nome, faintly.
"Yes, I've been out in fields hundreds o' times. It's a doddle if youstay close to the hedge and keep your eyes open, you hardly ever have torun very much," said Granny.
No one's temper was improved when they; learned that the Land-Rover had parked right on the patch of ground theywere going to plant things in. The nomes had spent ages during the summerhacking the hard ground into something resembling soil. They'd evenplanted seeds, which hadn't grown. Now there were two great ruts in it, and a new padlock and chain on the gate.
The sleet was already filling the ruts. Oil had leaked in and formed arainbow sheen on the surface.
And all the time Nisodemus was reminding people how much better it hadbeen in the Store. They didn't really need much persuading. After all, ithad been better. Much better.
I mean, thought Dorcas, we can keep warm and there's plenty of food, although there is a limit to the number of ways you can cook rabbit andpotatoes. The trouble is, Masklin thought that once we got outside theStore we'd all be digging and building and hunting and facing thefuture with strong chins and bright smiles. Some of the youngsters aredoing well enough, I'll grant you. But us old 'uns are too set in ourways. It's all right for me, I in tinkering with things, I can be useful, but the rest of them, well ... all they've really got to occupythemselves is grumbling, and they've become really good at that.
I wonder what Nisodemus's game is? He's too keen, if you ask me.
I wish Masklin would come back.
Even young Gurder wasn't too bad.
It's been three days now.
At a time like this, he knew he'd feel better if he went and looked atthe Cat.
Chapter 6
I. For in the hill was a Beast, from the days whenthe World was made.
II. But it was old and broken and dying.
III. And the mark of its name was on it.
IV. And the mark was the mark of the Cat.
-From the Book of Nome, Cat I, v. I-IV
The Cat.
The Cat was his. His little secret. His big secret, really. No one elseknew about the Cat, not even Dorcas's assistants.
He'd been pottering around in the big old half-ruined sheds on the otherside of the quarry, one day back in the summer. He hadn't really got anyaim in mind, except perhaps the possibility of finding a useful bit ofwire or something.
So he'd rummaged around in the shadows, straightened up, glanced abovehim and there the Cat was.
With its mouth open.
It had been a terrible few seconds until Dorcas's eyes adjusted to thedistance.
After that he'd spent a lot of time with the Cat, poking around, findingout about him. Or it. The Cat was too big to be a him or a her, it had tobe an it. A terrible it, perhaps, and old and wounded, like a dragon thathad come here for one last final sleep. Or perhaps it was like one ofthose big animals Grimma had showed him in a book once. Diner soars.
Dorcas had never seen a cat before, but he'd heard from Masklin that theywere dangerous, and Dorcas wasn't about to argue.
But this cat was kind of peaceful to have around. It didn't grumble, andit didn't keep on asking Dorcas why he hadn't got around to inventingradio yet. Dorcas had spent many a peaceful hour getting to know the Cat.
It was someone to talk to. It was the best kind of person to talk to, infact, because you didn't have to listen back at it.
Dorcas shook his head. There was no time for that sort of thing now.
Everything was going wrong.
Instead, he went to find Grimma. She seemed to have her head screwed onright, even if she was a girl.
The schoolhole was under the floor of the old shed with CANTEEN on the door. It was Grimma's personal world. She'd invented schools for children, on the idea that since reading and writing were quite difficult itwas best to get them over with early, The library was also kept there.
In those last hectic hours the nomes had managed to rescue about thirtybooks from the Store. Some were very useful-Gardening All the Year Roundwas well thumbed, and Dorcas knew Essential Theory for the AmateurEngineer almost by heart -but some were, well, difficult, and not openedmuch.
Grimma was standing in front of one of these when he wandered in. She wasbiting her thumb, which she always did when she was concentrating.
He had to admire the way she read. Not only was Grimma the best readeramong the nomes, she also had an amazing ability to understand what shewas reading.
"Nisodemus is causing trouble," he said, sitting down on a bench.
"I know," said Grimma vaguely. "I've heard." She grabbed the edge of thepage in both hands, and turned it over with a grunt of effort.
"I don't know what he's got to gain," said Dorcas.
"Power," said Grimma. "We've got a power vacuum, you see."
"I don't think we have," said Dorcas uncertainly. "I've never seen onehere. There were plenty in the store. 'Ninety-Nine Ninety-Five with Range of Attachments for Around-the-House Cleanliness,' " he added, remembering with a sigh the familiar signs.
"No, it's not a thing like that," said Grimma, "It's what you get when no one's in charge. I've been reading about them." "I'm in charge, aren't I?" said Dorcas plaintively.
"No," said Grimma. "Because no one really listens to you."