"I expect you"re saying to yourself, ahah, how were they able to build up the wall again after they"d got the muriel out, sir, and we reckon-"
"Well, I imagine one dwarf stayed behind to make good, lay low, as you hwould say, and hwandered out in the morning," said Sir Reynold. "There were people going in and out all the time. We were looking for a big painting, after all, not a person."
"Yessir. We reckon one dwarf stayed behind to make good, lay low and wandered out in the morning. There were people going in and out all the time. You were looking for a big painting, after all, not a person," said Fred Colon. He"d been very pleased to come up with that theory, so he was going to say it out loud no matter what.
Vimes tapped the map. "And here, Sir Reynold, is where a troll called Brick fell through another cellar floor into their tunnel," he said. "He also told us he saw something in the main mine which sounds very much like the Rascal."
"But, alas, you have not found it, "said Sir Reynold.
"I"m sorry, sir. It"s probably long gone out of the city."
"But hwhy?" said the curator. "They could have studied it in the museum! We"re very interactive these days!"
"Interactive?" said Vimes. "What do you mean?"
"Hwell, people can ... look at the pictures as much as they hwant," said Sir Reynold. He sounded a little annoyed. People shouldn"t ask that kind of question.
"And the pictures do what, exactly?" ;Captain Carrot tried talking to him for nearly half an hour, and you know he"s got a way with people," he said. "Didn"t get as much as a sentence out of him. I read him his rights but don"t ask me if he understood "em. He didn"t want his tea and biscuit, at any rate. That"s Rights 5 and 5b," he added, looking Bashfullsson up and down. "He gets Right 5c only if we"ve got Teatime Assortment:
"Can he walk?" said Vimes.
"He sort of shuffles, sir."
"Fetch him out, then," said Vimes, and seeing Fred"s enquiring look at Bashfullsson he went on: "This gentleman is here to make sure we don"t use the rubber truncheon, sergeant:
"Didn"t know we had one, Mister Vimes," said Fred.
"We haven"t," said Vimes. "No point in hitting "em with something that bounces, eh?" he added, looking at Bashfullsson, who smiled, once again, his strange little smile.
One candle burned on the table. For some reason Fred had seen fit to put another on a stool near the one occupied cell.
"Isn"t it a bit dark in here, Fred?" said Vimes, as he pushed aside the debris of mugs and old newspapers that covered most of the table.
"Yessir. The dwarfs came and nicked some of our candles to put round their heathe- that nasty sign," said Fred, with a nervous look at Bashfullsson. "Sorry, sir."
"I don"t know why we can"t just burn it," grumbled Vimes, setting out the Thud board.
"That would be dangerous, now that the Summoning Dark is in the world," said Bashfullsson.
"You believe in that stuff?" said Vimes.
"Believe? No, said the grag. "I just know it exists. The troll pieces go all round the central stone, sir," he added helpfully.
Populating the board with its little warriors took some time, but so did the arrival of Helmclever. With Fred Colon steering him carefully by a shoulder he walked like someone in a dream, his eyes turned up so that they mostly showed the whites. His iron boots scraped on the flagstones.
Fred pushed him gently into a chair and put the second candle beside him. Like magic, the dwarf"s eyes focused on the little stone armies to the exclusion of everything else in the jail.
"We"re playing a game, Mr Helmclever," said Vimes quietly. "And you can choose your side."
Helmclever reached out with a trembling hand and touched a piece. A troll. A dwarf had chosen to play as the trolls. Vimes gave the hovering Bashfullsson a questioning glance, and got another smile in return.
Okay, you got as many of the little sods as possible in a defensive huddle, right? Vimes"s hand hesitated, and shifted a dwarf across the board. The click as he placed it was echoed by the one made by the movement of Helmclever"s next troll. The dwarf looked sleepy, but his hand had moved with snake speed.
"Who killed the four mining dwarfs, Helmclever?" said Vimes softly. "Who killed the boys from the city?"
Dull eyes looked at him, and then, meaningfully, at the board. Vimes moved a dwarf at random.
"The dark soldiers," Helmclever whispered, as a little troll clicked smartly into place.