He was absolutely crestfallen when the other heaps turned out to be still where Modo had built them. The gardener, who had tagged along behind and had twice nearly been flattened by the Dean, fussed around them for a while.
“They’re just lying low,” said the Dean. “I say we blow up the godsdamn—”
“They’re not even warm yet,” said Modo. “That one must have been the oldest.”
“You mean we haven’t got anything to fight?” said the Archchancellor.
The ground shook underfoot. And then there was a faint jangling noise, from the direction of the cloisters.
Ridcully frowned.
“Someone’s pushing those damn wire baskety things around again,” he said. “There was one in my study tonight.”
“Huh,” said the Senior Wrangler. “There was one in my bedroom. I opened the wardrobe and there it was.”
“In your wardrobe? What’d you put it in there for?” said Ridcully.
“I didn’t. I told you. It was probably the students. It’s their kind of humor. One of them put a hairbrush in my bed once.”
“I fell over one earlier,” said the Archchancellor, “and then when I looked around for it, someone had taken it away.”
The jingling noise got closer.
“Right, Mr. So-called Clever Dick Young-fella-me-lad,” said Ridcully, tapping his staff once or twice on his palm in a meaningful way.
The wizards backed up against the wall.
The phantom trolley pusher was almost on them.
Ridcully snarled, and leapt out of hiding.
“Aha, my fine young—bloody hellfire!”
“Don’t be pullin’ moi leg,” said Mrs. Cake. “Cities ain’t alive. I know people says they are, but they don’t mean really.”
Windle Poons turned one of the snowballs around in his hand.
“It must be laying thousands of them,” he said. “But they wouldn’t all survive, of course. Otherwise we’d be up to here in cities, yes?”
“You telling us that these little balls hatch out into huge places?” said Ludmilla.
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not straight away. there’s the mobile stage first.
“Something with wheels on,” said Windle.
that’s right. I can see you know already.
“I think I knew,” said Windle Poons, “but I didn’t understand. And what happens after the mobile stage?”
don’t know.
Windle stood up.
“Then it’s time to find out,” he said.
He glanced at Ludmilla and Lupine. Ah. Yes. And why not? If you can help somebody as you pass this way, Windle thought, then your living, or whatever, shall not be in vain.