Thud! (Discworld 34)

happened thousands of years ago! I don"t know why they don"t go

back to where they came from if they want to do that!"

"Most of "em come from here now," said Nobby.

Fred grunted his disdain for a mere fact of geography. "War,

Nobby. Huh! What is it good for?" he said.

"Dunno, sarge. Freeing slaves, maybe?" "Absol- Well, okay."

"Defending yourself from a totalitarian aggressor?" "All right, I"ll grant you that, but-" "Saving civilization against a horde of-"

"It doesn"t do any good in the long run is what I"m saying,

Nobby, if you"d listen for five seconds together," said Fred Colon sharply.

"Yeah, but in the long run what does, sarge?"

"Say that again paying attention to every word, will you?" said Vimes.

"He"s dead, sir. Hamcrusher is dead. The dwarfs are sure

of it.,

Vimes stared at his captain. Then he glanced at Sally and said, "I gave you an order, Lance-Constable Humpeding. Go and get joined up!"

When the girl had hurried out, he said, "I hope you"re sure about it as well, captain . .

"It"s spreading through the dwarfs like, like-" Carrot began. "Alcohol?" Vimes suggested.

"Very fast, anyway," Carrot conceded. "Last night, they say. A troll got into his place in Treacle Street and beat him to death. I heard some of the lads talking about it."

"Carrot, wouldn"t we know if something like that had happened?" said Vimes, but in the theatre of his mind Angua and Fred Colon uttered their cassandraic warnings again. The dwarfs knew something. The dwarfs were worried.

"Don"t we, sir?" said Carrot. "I mean, I"ve just told you."

"I mean, why aren"t his people shouting it in the streets? Political assassination and all that sort of thing? Shouldn"t they be screaming bloody murder? Who told you this?"

"Constable Ironbender and Corporal Ringfounder, sir. They"re steady lads. Ringfounder"s up for sergeant soon. Er ... there was something else, sir. I did ask them why we hadn"t heard officially,

and Ironbender said ... you won"t like this, sir ... he said the Watch

wasn"t to be told." Carrot watched Vimes carefully. It was hard to see

the change of expression on the commander"s face, but certain

small muscles set firmly.

"On whose orders?" said Vimes.

"Someone called Ardent, apparently. He"s Hamcrusher"s ... interpreter, I suppose you could say. He says it"s dwarf business.

"But this is Ankh-Morpork, captain. And murder is Murder." "Yes, sir."

"And we are the City Watch," Vimes went on. "It says so on the

door."