iv. But they mocked him and said, You are an Outsider, You don't even Exist.

From The Book of Nome, Goods Inwards v.I-IV Overhead the humans plodded through their slow and incomprehensible lives. Below, so that that the din was muffled by carpet and floorboards into a distant rumbling, the nomes straggled hurriedly along their dusty passageways.

'It couldn't of meant it,' said Granny Morkie. 'This place is too big. Place as big as this can't be de-stroyed Stands to reason.' 'I tole you, dint I?' panted Torrit, who always cheered up immensely at any news of devastation and terror. 'They always said the Thing knows things. And don't you go tellin' me to shut up, you.' 'Why do we have to run?' said Masklin. 'I mean, twenty-one days is a long time.' 'Not in politics,' said Dorcas grimly.

'I thought this was the Store?' Dorcas stopped so suddenly that Granny Morkie cannoned into the back of him.

'Look,' he said, with impatient patience. 'What do you think nomes should do, eh, if the Store is destroyed?' 'Go outside, of-' Masklin began.

'But most of them don't even believe the Outside really exists! Even I'm not quite sure about it, and I have an extremely intelligent and questioning mind! There isn't anywhere to go. Do you under­stand me?' 'There's masses of outside-' 'Only if you believe in it!' 'No, it's really there!' 'I'm afraid people are more complicated than you think. But we ought to see the Abbot, anyway Dreadful old tyrant, of course, but quite bright in his way. It's just a rather stuffy way.' He looked hard at them.

'Possibly best if we don't draw attention to our­selves,' he added. 'People tend to leave me alone, but it's not a wise thing for people to wander around outside their department without good reason. And since you haven't got a department at all...' He shrugged. He managed, in one shift of his shoulders, to hint at all the unpleasant things that could happen to departmentless wanderers.