you paint over it with your wall paint so it looks just like wall." "Got a convenient bit of wall in mind, then?" "How about inside the frame that"s there already, sarge?"
"Bloody hell, Nobby, that"s clever," said Fred, stopping dead. "Thank you, sarge. That means a lot, coming from you." "But you"ve still got to get it out, Nobby."
"Remember all those dust sheets, sarge? I bet in a few weeks" time
a couple of blokes in overalls will be able to walk out of the place
with a big white roll under their arms and no one"d think twice
about it, "cos they"d, like, be thinkin" the muriel had been pinched
weeks before."
There were a few moments of silence before Sergeant Colon said,
in a hushed voice: "That"s a very dangerous mind you got there,
Nobby. Very dangerous indeed. How"d you get the new paint off,
though?"
"Oh, that"s easy," said Nobby. "And I know where to get some
painters" aprons, too.
"Nobby!" said Fred, shocked.
"All right, sarge. You can"t blame a man for dreaming, though." "This could be a feather in our caps, Nobby. And we could do with one now."
"Your water playing up again, sarge?"
"You may laugh, Nobby, but you"ve only got to look around," said
Fred gloomily. "It"s just gang fights now, but it"s going to get worse,
you mark my words. All this scrapping over something that
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.