Then she stood up suddenly. "This has been an interesting meeting, Sir Samuel. I trust Lady Sybil is vell?"
"Er, yes."
"Good. I am so glad. Ve vill meet again, I am sure. Igor vill see you out. My regards to the Baron, vhen you see him. Pat him on the head for me:"
"What the hell was that all about, Cheery?" said Vimes, as the coach set off down the hill again.
"Which bit, sir?"
"Practically all of it, really. Why should Ankh-Morpork dwarfs object if someone says they"re not dwarfs? They know they"re dwarfs."
"They won"t be subject to dwarf law, sir."
"I didn"t know they were."
"I mean, it"s like... how you live your life, sir. Marriages, burials, that sort of thing. Marriages won"t be legal. Old dwarfs won"t be allowed to be buried back home. And that"d be terrible. Every dwarf dreams of going back home when he"s old and starting up a little mine."
"Every dwarf? Even the ones who were born in Ankh-Morpork?"
"Home can mean all sorts of things, sir," said Cheery. "There"s other things, too. Contracts won"t be valid. Dwarfs like good solid rules, sir."
"We"ve got laws in Ankh-Morpork, too. More or less."
"Between themselves dwarfs prefer to use their own, sir."
"I bet the Copperhead dwarfs won"t like it if that happens."
"Yes, sir. There"ll be a split. And another war." She sighed.
"But why was she going on about drink?"
"I don"t know, sir."
"I don"t like "em. Never have done, never will."
"Yes, sir."
"Did you see that rat?"
"Yes, sir."
"I think she was laughing at me."
The coach rolled through the streets of Bonk once more.
"How big a war?"
"A worse one than the one fifty years ago, I expect," said Cheery.
"I don"t recall people talking about that one," said Vimes.
"Most humans didn"t know about it," said Cheery. "It mostly took place underground. Undermining passages and digging invasion tunnels and so on. Perhaps a few houses fell into mysterious holes and people didn"t get their coal, but that was about it."
"You mean dwarfs just try to collapse mines on other dwarfs?"
"Oh, yes."
"I thought you were all law-abiding?"