There was a click. The Cat howled again and started to move. A cheer wentup from the nomes.
"Right," said Grimma. "That's more like it."
"The doors, the doors, the doors, we didn't open the doors," hummedDorcas.
"Of course we didn't open the doors," said Grimma as the digger began togo faster. "We never open the doors! What do we need to open the doorsfor? This is the Cat!"
Chapter 14
V. There is nothing that can be in our way, forthis is the Cat, that laughs at barriers, andpurrs brrm-brrm.
-From the Book of Nome, Cat III, v. V
It was an old shed. It was a very rusty shed. It was a shed that wobbledin high winds. The only thing even vaguely new about it was the padlockon the door, which the Cat hit at about six miles an hour. The ricketybuilding rang like a gong, leapt off its foundations, and was draggedhalfway across the quarry before it fell apart in a shower of rust andsmoke. The Cat emerged like a very angry chick from a very old egg andthen rolled to a stop.
Grimma picked herself up from the plank and nervously started to pickbits of rust off herself.
"We've stopped," she said vaguely, her ears still ringing. "Why have westopped, Dorcas?"
He didn't bother to try to get up. The thump of the Cat hitting the doorhad knocked all the breath out of him.
"I think," he said, "that everyone might have been flung about a little.
Why did you want it to go so fast?"
"Sorry!" Sacco called up. "Bit of a misunderstanding there, I think!"
Grimma pulled herself together. "Well," she said, "I got us out, anyway.
I've got the hang of it now. We'll just ... we'll just ... we'll ..." Dorcas heard her voice fade into silence. He looked up.
There was a truck parked in front of the quarry. And three humans were running toward the Cat in big, floating bounds. "Oh, dear," he said.
"Didn't it read my note?" asked Grimma.
"I'm afraid it did," said Dorcas. "Now, we shouldn't panic. We've got a choice. We can either-" "Go forward," snapped Grimma. "Right now!" "No, no," said Dorcas weakly,
"I wasn't going to suggest that-"
"First gear!" Grimma commanded. "And lots of fast!"
"No, you don't want to do that," Dorcas murmured.
"Watch me," said Grimma. "I warned them! They can read, we know they can read! If they're really intelligent, they're intelligent enough to know better!" The Cat gathered speed.
"You mustn't do this," said Dorcas. "We've always kept away from humans!" "They don't keep away from us!" shouted Grimma.
"But-"
"They demolished the Store, they tried to stop us from escaping, now they're taking our quarry, and they don't even know what we are!" said Grimma. "Remember the gardening department in the Store? Those horrible garden ornament statues? Well, I'm going to show them real nomes ..." "You can't beat humans!" shouted Dorcas above the roar of the engine. "They're too big! You're too small!"
"They may be big," said Grimma, "and I may be small. But I'm the one with the great big truck. With teeth." She leaned over the plank. "Everyone hang on down there," she shouted. "This may be rough." It had dawned on the great slow creatures outside that something was wrong. They stopped their lumbering charge and, very slowly, tried to dodge out of the way. Two of them managed to leap into the empty office as the Cat bowled past. "I see," said Grimma. "They must think we're stupid. Take a big left turn. More. More. Now stop. Okay." She rubbed her hands together.
"What are you going to do?" whispered Dorcas, terrified.
Grimma leaned over the plank.
"Sacco," she said. "You see those other levers?"
The pale round blobs of the humans' faces appeared at the dusty windowsof the shed.
The Cat was twenty feet away, vibrating gently in the early morning mist.
Then the engine roared. The big front shovel came up, catching the sunlight. The Cat sprang forward, bouncing across the quarry floor and taking outone wall of the shed like ripping the lid off a can. The other walls andthe roof folded up gently, as if it were a house of cards with the ace ofspades flipped away.
The digger careened around in a big circle, so that when the two humanscrawled out of the wreckage it was the first thing they saw. Throbbing, with the big metal mouth poised to bite.
They ran.
They ran almost as fast as nomes.
"I've always wanted to do that," said Grimma, in a satisfied voice. "Now, where did the other human go?"
"Back to the truck, I think," said Dorcas weakly.
"Fine," said Grimma. "Now-lots of right, Sacco. Stop. Now forward, slowly."
"Can we sort of stop this and just go now? Please?" pleaded Dorcas.
"The humans' truck is in the way," said Grimma, reasonably enough.
"They've stopped right in the entrance."
"Then we're trapped," said Dorcas.
Grimma laughed. It wasn't a very amusing sound. Dorcas suddenly feltalmost as sorry for the humans as he was feeling for himself.
The humans must have been having similar thoughts, if humans hadthoughts. He could see their pale faces watching the Cat lurch towardthem.
They're wondering why they can't see a human inside, he thought. Theycan't work it out. Here's this machine, moving all by itself. It's apuzzler, for humans.
They reached some sort of conclusion, though. He saw both truck doors flyopen and the humans jump out just as the Cat ...
There was a crunch, and the truck jerked as the Cat hit it. The knobbywheels spun for a moment, and then the truck rolled backward. Clouds ofsteam poured out.
"That's for Nisodemus," said Grimma.
"I thought you didn't like him," said Dorcas.
"Yes, but he was a nome."
Dorcas nodded. They were all, when you got right down to it, nomes. Itwas just as well to remember whose side you were on.
"May I suggest you change gear?" he said quietly.
"Why? What's wrong with the one we've got?"
"You'll be able to push better if you go down a gear. Trust me."
Humans were watching. They were watching, because a machine rolling around by itself is something that you do watch, even if you've just had to climb a tree or hide behind a hedge.
They saw the Cat roll backward, change gear with a roar, and attack the truck again. The windows shattered. Dorcas was really unhappy about this.
"You're killing a truck," he said.
"Don't be silly," said Grimma. "It's a machine. Just bits of metal. Back, hoe!" "Yes, but someone made it," said Dorcas. "They must be very hard to make.
I hate destroying things that are hard to make."
"They ran over Nisodemus," said Grimma. "And when we used to live in a hole, nomes were always being squashed by cars. Forward, hey!" "Yes, but nomes aren't hard to make," said Dorcas, hanging on grimly as they smashed into the truck again. "You just need other nomes."
"Back, hoe! You're weird. Forward, hey!"
The Cat struck again. One of the truck's headlights exploded. Dorcas winced.
Then the truck was pushed clear. Smoke was billowing out from it now, where fuel had spilled over the hot engine. The Cat backed off and rumbled around it. The nomes were really getting the hang of him now.
"Right," said Grimma. "Straight ahead." She nudged Dorcas. "We'll go and find this barn now, shall we?"
"Just go down the road, and I think there's a gateway into the fields," Dorcas mumbled. "It had an actual gate in it," he added. "I suppose it would be too much to ask you to let us open it first?"
Behind them the truck burst into flames. Not spectacularly, but in a workmanlike way, as if it were going to go on burning all day. Dorcas saw a human take off its coat and flap uselessly at the fire. He felt quite sorry for it. The Cat rolled unopposed down the dirt road. Some of the nomes started to sing as they sweated over the ropes.