Read Online Diggers by Terry Pratchett - Free Book Online Page B

that wasn’t right. Humans couldn’t do that sort of thing. It couldn’t be true. But twenty nomes, peering out from the undergrowth, saw it happen.
    The human disobeyed the signs.
    Not only that, it pulled some of them off the gate and threw them away.
    They watched in astonishment. Even Unexploded Bom was whirled into the bushes, nearly knocking young Sacco from his perch.
    The new chain, though, caused the human a few problems. It rattled it once or twice, peered in through the wire mesh of the gate, stamped around for a bit, and then drove off.
    The nomes in the bushes cheered, but not too happily.
    If humans weren’t going to do what was expected of them, nothing was right in the world.
    â€œI reckon that’s it,” said Dorcas when they got back. “I don’t like the idea any more than anyone else, but we’ve got to move. I know humans. That chain won’t stop them if they really want to get in.”
    â€œI absolutely forbid anyone to leave!” said Nisodemus.
    â€œBut you see, metal can be cut through—” Dorcas began, in a reasonable tone of voice.
    â€œSilence!” shouted Nisodemus. “It’s your fault, you old fool! Um! You put the chain on the gate!”
    â€œWell, you see, it was to stop the—pardon?” said Dorcas.
    â€œIf you hadn’t put the chain on the gate, the signs would have stopped the human,” said Nisodemus. “But you can’t expect Arnold Bros (est. 1905) to help us if we show we don’t trust him!”
    â€œUm,” said Dorcas. What he was thinking was: Mad. A mad nome. A dangerously mad nome. We’re not talking about teapots here. He backed out of Nisodemus’s presence and was glad to get out into the bitingly cold air.
    Everything’s going wrong, he thought. I was left in charge, and now it’s all going wrong. We haven’t got any proper plans, Masklin hasn’t come back, and it’s all going wrong.
    If humans come into the quarry, they’ll find us.
    Something cold landed on his head. He brushed at it irritably.
    I’ll have a word with some of the younger nomes, he thought. Maybe going to the barn isn’t such a bad idea; we could keep our eyes shut on the way. Or something.
    Something else, cold and soft, settled on his neck.
    Oh, why are people so complicated ?
    He looked up and realized that he couldn’t see the other side of the quarry. The air was full of white specks that got thicker as he watched.
    He stared at it in horror.
    It was snowing.

8
    VII. And Grimma said, We have two choices.
    VIII. We can run, or we can hide.
    IX. And they said, Which shall we do?
    X. She said, We shall Fight.
    From The Book of Nome,
Quarries Chap. 3, v. VII–X
    I T WASN’T MUCH of a fall, just one of those nippy little sprinklings that come early in the winter to make it absolutely clear that it is, well, the winter. That’s what Granny Morkie said.
    She’d never been very interested in the Council anyway. She liked to spend her time with the other old people, exchanging grumbles and, as she put it, cheerin’ them up and takin’ them out o’ themselves.
    She strutted around in the snow as if it belonged to her.
    The other old nomes watched her in horrified silence.
    â€œCourse, this is nothing to some of ’em,” she said. “I mind we’ve had snow, we couldn’t walk round in it, we had to dig tunnels! Talk about a laugh!”
    â€œEr, madam,” said a very old nome, gravely, “does it always drop out of the sky like this?”
    â€œCourse! Sometimes it gets blown along by the wind. You get great big heaps!”
    â€œWe thought it—you see, on the cards—that is, in the Store—well, we thought it just sort of appeared on things,” said the old nome. “In a rather jolly and festive way,” he added, looking embarrassed.
    They watched it pile up. Over the quarry, the clouds hung like