"Sorry, Masklin."
"Yeah. Sorry, Masklin."
They scrambled up a bank and flattened themselves behind a tuft ofdried grass.
It was a small truck, as far as trucks went. A human had already climbedout of it and was doing something to the gates leading into the quarry.
"It's a Land-Rover," said Angalo smugly. He'd spent a long time in theStore reading everything he could about vehicles, before the Long Drive.
He liked them. "It's not really a truck, it's more to carry humans over-"
"That human is sticking something on the gate," said Masklin.
"On our gate," said Sacco disapprovingly.
"Bit odd," said Angalo. The man sleepwalked, in the slow, ponderous waythat humans did, back to the vehicle. Eventually it backed around androared off.
"All the way up here just to stick a bit of paper on the gate," saidAngalo, as the nomes stood up. "That's humans for you."
Masklin frowned. Humans were big and stupid, that was true enough, but there was something unstoppable about them and they seemed to be controlled by bits of paper. Back in the Store a piece of paper had said theStore was going to be demolished and, sure enough, it had beendemolished. You couldn't trust humans with bits of paper.
He pointed to the rusty wire netting, an easy climb for an agile nome.
"Sacco," he said, "you'd better fetch it down."
Miles away, another piece of paper fluttered on the hedge. Spots of rainpattered across its sun-bleached words, soaking the paper until it washeavy and soggy and ...
... it tore.
It flopped onto the grass, free. A breeze made it rustle.
Chapter 2
III. But there came a Sign, and people said, Whatis it that this means?
IV. And it was not good.
-From the Book of Nome, Signs I, v. III-IV
Gurder shuffled on hands and knees across the paper from the gate.
"Of course I can read it," he said. "I know what every word means."
"Well, then?" said Masklin.
Gurder looked embarrassed. "It's what every sentence means that's givingme trouble," he said. "It says here ... where was it ... yes, it sayshere the quarry is going to be reopened. What does that mean? It's openalready, any fool knows that. You can see for miles."
The other nomes crowded around. You certainly could see for miles. Thatwas the terrible part. On three sides the quarry had decently high cliffwalls, but on the fourth side ... well, you got into the habit of notlooking in that direction. There was too much of nothing, which made youfeel even smaller and more vulnerable than you were already.
Even if the meaning of the paper wasn't clear, it certainly lookedunpleasant.
"The quarry's a hole in the ground," said Dorcas. "You can't open ahole unless it's been filled in. Stands to reason."
"A quarry's a place you get stone from," said Grimma. "Humans do it. Theydig a hole and they use the stone for making, well, roads and things."
"I expect you read that, did you?" said Gurder sourly. He suspectedGrimma of lack of respect for authority. It was also incredibly annoyingthat, against all the obvious deficiencies of her sex, she was better atreading than he was.
"I did, actually," said Grimma, tossing her head.
"But, you see," said Masklin patiently, "there aren't any more stoneshere, Grimma. That's why there's a hole."
"Good point," said Gurder, sternly.
"Then he'll make the hole bigger!'" snapped Grimma. "Look at those cliffsup there"-they obediently looked-"they're made of stone! Look here"-every head swivelled down to where her foot was tapping impatiently atthe paper-"it says it's for a highway extension! He's going to make thequarry bigger! Our quarry! That's what it says he's going to do!"
There was a long silence.
Then Dorcas said, "Who is?"
"Order! He's put his name on it," said Grimma.
"She's right, you know," said Masklin. "Look. It says: To be reopened, byOrder."
The nomes shuffled their feet. Order. It didn't sound a promising name.
Anyone called Order would probably be capable of anything.
Gurder stood up and brushed the dust off his robe.
"It's only a piece of paper, when all's said and done," he said sullenly.
"But the human came up here," said Masklin. "They've never come up herebefore."
"Dunno about that," said Dorcas. "I mean, all the quarry buildings. Theold workshops. The doorways and so on. I mean, they're for humans. Alwaysworried me, that has. Where humans have been before, they tend to goagain. They're rascals for that."
There was another crowded silence, the kind that gets made by lots ofpeople thinking unhappy thoughts.
"Do you mean," said a nome slowly, "that we've come all this way, we'veworked so hard to make a place to live in, and now it's going to be takenaway?"
"I don't think we should get too disturbed right at this-" Gurder began.
"We've got families here," said another nome. Masklin realized that itwas Angalo. He'd been married in the spring to a young lady from the DelIcatessen family, and they'd already got a fine pair of youngsters, twomonths old and talking already.
"And we were going to have another go at planting seeds," said anothernome. "We've spent ages clearing that ground behind the big sheds. Youknow that."
Gurder raised his hand imploringly.
"We don't know anything," he said. "We mustn't start getting upset untilwe've found out what's going on."
"And then can we get upset?" said another nome sourly. Masklin recognisedNisodemus, one of the Stationeri and Gurder's own assistant. He'd neverliked the young nome, and the young nome had never liked anyone, as far as Masklin could see. "I've never, um, been happy with the feel of thisplace, um, I knew there was going to be trouble-"
"Now, now, Nisodemus," said Gurder. "There's no cause to go talking likethat. We'll have another meeting of the council," he added. "That's whatwe'll do."
The crumpled newspaper lay beside the road. Occasionally a breeze wouldblow it randomly along the verge, while a few inches away, the trafficthundered past.
A stronger gust hit at the same time as a particularly large truckroared by, dragging a tail of whirling air. The paper shot up over theroad, spread out like a sail, and rose on the wind.
The Quarry Council was in session, in the space under the floor of theold quarry office.
Other nomes had crowded in and the rest of the tribe milled around outside.
"Look," said Angalo, "there's a big old barn up on the hill, the otherside of the potato field. It wouldn't hurt to take some stores up there.
Make it ready, you know. Just in case. Then if anything does happen, we've got somewhere to go."
"The quarry buildings don't have spaces under the floors, except in thecanteen and the office," said Dorcas gloomily. "It's not like the Store.
There aren't many places to hide. We need the sheds. If humans come here, we'll have to leave."
"So the barn will be a good idea, won't it?" repeated Angalo.
"There's a human on a tractor who goes up there sometimes," said Masklin.
"We could keep out of its way. Anyway," said Angalo, looking around atthe rows of faces, "maybe the humans will go away again. P'raps they'lljust take their stone and go. And we can come back. We could send someoneto spy on them every day."
"It seems to me you've been thinking about this barn for some time," saidDorcas.
"Me and Masklin talked about it one day when we were hunting up there," said Angalo. "Didn't we, Masklin?"
"Hmm?" said Masklin, who was staring into space.
"You remember, we went up there and I said, 'That'd be a useful place ifever we needed it,' and you said 'Yes.' "