"Hmm," said Masklin.
"Yes, but there's this Winter thing coming," said one of the nomes. "Youknow. Cold. Glitter on everythin'."
"Robins," another nome put in.
"Yeah," said the first nome uncertainly. "Them too. Not a good time to go movin' around, with robins zoomin' about."
"Nothing wrong with robins," said Granny Morkie, who had nodded off for amoment. "My dad used to say there's good eatin' on a robin, if youcatched one." She beamed at them, proudly.
This comment had the same effect on everyone's train of thought as abrick wall built across the line. Eventually Gurder said, "I still say weshouldn't get too excited right at this moment. We should wait and trustin Arnold Bros. (est. 1905)'s guidance."
There was more silence. Then Angalo said, very quietly, "Fat lot of goodthat'll do us."
There was silence again. But this time it was a thick, heavy silence, andit got thicker and heavier and more menacing, like a storm cloud buildingup over a mountain, until the first flash of lightning would come as arelief.
It came.
"What did you say?" said Gurder, slowly.
"Only what everyone's been thinking," said Angalo. Many of the nomesstarted to stare at their feet.
"And what do you mean by that?" said Gurder.
"Where is Arnold Bros. (est. 1905), then?" said Angalo. "How did he helpus get out of the Store? Exactly, I mean? He didn't, did he?" Angaloshook a bit, as if even he was terrified to hear himself talking likethis. "We did it. By learning things. We did it all ourselves. We learnedto read books, your books, and we found things out and we did things forourselves."
Gurder jumped to his feet, white with fury. Beside him Nisodemus puthis hand over his mouth and looked too shocked to speak.
"Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) goes wherever nomes go!" he shouted.
Angalo swayed backward, but his father had been one of the toughest nomesin the Store and he didn't give in easily.
"You just made that up!" he snorted. "I'm not saying that there wasn't, well, something in the Store, but that was the Store and this is here andall we've got is us\ The trouble is, you Stationer! were so powerful inthe Store and just can't bear to give it up!"
Now Masklin stood up.
"Just a moment, you two-" he began.
"So that's all it is, is it?" growled Gurder, ignoring him. "That's theHaberdasheri for you! You always were too proud! Too arrogant for yourown good! Drive a truck a little way and we think we know it all, do we?
Perhaps we're getting what we deserve, eh?"
"This isn't the time or place for this sort of thing-" Masklin went on.
"That's just a silly threat! Why can't you accept it, you old fool, Arnold Bros. doesn't exist! Use the brains Arnold Bros. gave you, why don't you?"
"If you don't both shut up I'll bang your heads together!"
That seemed to work.
"Right," said Masklin, in a more normal voice. "Now, I think it would be a very good idea if everyone went and got on with-with whatever it is they were getting on with. Because this is no way to make complicated decisions. We all need to think for a while." The nomes filed out, relieved that it was over. Masklin could hear them arguing outside.
"Not you two," he warned. "Now, look-" said Gurder.
"No, you look, the pair of you!" said Masklin, "Here we are, maybe a big problem looming up, and you start arguing! You both ought to know better!
Can't you see you're upsetting people?" "Well, it's important," muttered Angalo.
"What we should do now," said Masklin sharply, "is have another look at this barn. Can't say I'm happy with the idea, but it might be useful to have a bolthole. Anyway, it'll keep people occupied, and that'll stop them from worrying. How about it?"
"I suppose so," said Gurder, with bad grace.
"But-"
"No more buts," said Masklin. "You're acting like idiots. People look up to the pair of you, so you'll set an example. Do you hear?"
They glowered at each other, but they both nodded.
"Right, then," said Masklin. "Now, we'll all go out, and people'll see you've made up, and that'll stop their fretting. Then we can start planning." "But Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) is important," said Gurder.
"I daresay," said Masklin as they came out into the daylight of the quarry. The wind was dropping again, leaving the sky a deep cold blue. "There's no daresay about it," said Gurder.
"Listen," said Masklin, "I don't know whether Arnold Bros. exists, or was in the Store, or just lives in our heads or whatever. What I do know is that he isn't just going to drop out of the sky."
All three of them glanced up when he said this. The Store nomes shuddered just a bit. It still took a certain courage to look up at the endless sky when you've been used to nice friendly floorboards, but it was traditional, when you referred to Arnold Bros., to look up. Up was where Management and Accounts had been, back in the Store. "Funny you should say that. There's something up there," said Angalo.
Something white and vaguely rectangular was drifting gently through theair, and growing bigger.
"It's just a bit of paper," said Gurder. "Something the wind's blownoff the dump."
It definitely got a lot bigger, and turned gently in the air as ittumbled into the quarry.
"I think," said Masklin slowly, as its shadow raced toward him across theground, "that we'd better stand back a bit-"
It dropped on him.
It was, of course, only paper. But nomes are small and it had fallenquite some way, so the force was enough to knock him over.
What was more surprising were the words he saw as he fell backward. Theywere: Arnold Bros.
Chapter 3
I. And they Sought for a Better Sign from ArnoldBros. (est. 1905), and there was a Sign; II. And some spake up saying. Well, all right, butit is really nothing but a Coincidence; III. But others said, Even a Coincidence can be aSign.
-From the Book of Nome, Signs II, v. I-III Masklin had always kept an open mind on the subject of Arnold Bros.
(est. 1905). After all, the Store had been pretty impressive, what withthe escalators and so on, and if Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) hadn'tcreated it, who had? After all, that only left humans. Not that heconsidered humans were as stupid as most nomes thought. They might be bigand slow but there was a sort of mindless unstoppability about them.
They could certainly be taught to do simple tasks.
On the other hand, the world was miles across and full of complicatedthings. It seemed to be asking a lot of Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) tocreate the whole thing.
So Masklin had decided not to decide anything about Arnold Bros. (est.
1905), in the hope that if there was an Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) and hefound out about Masklin, he wouldn't mind much.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people willinsist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
The faded newspaper from the sky had been carefully spread out on thefloor of one of the old sheds.
It was covered in words. Most of them even Masklin could understand, but even Grimma had to admit she couldn't guess at what they were supposed to mean when you read them all in one go. SCHOOL SLAMS SHOCK PROBE, for example, was a mystery. SO Was FURY OVER TAXES REBEL. So WBS PLAY
SUPER BINGO IN YOUR SOARAWAY BLACKBURY EVENING
POST & GAZETTE. But they were mysteries that would have to wait.
What all eyes were staring at was the quite small area of words, aboutnome-sized, under the word PEOPLE.
"That means people," said Grimma.
"Really?" said Masklin.
"And the lettering underneath it says: 'Fun-loving, globetrottingmillionaire playboy Richard Arnold will be jetting to the Floridasunshine next week to witness the launch of Arnsat 1, the firstcommuni"-she hesitated-"cations sat ... ellite built by the Arnco Inter ... national Group. This leap into the future comes only a few monthsafter the dest ... ruction by fire of-"