"I expect you read that, did you?" said Gurder sourly. He suspectedGrimma of lack of respect for authority. It was also incredibly annoyingthat, against all the obvious deficiencies of her sex, she was better atreading than he was.

"I did, actually," said Grimma, tossing her head.

"But, you see," said Masklin patiently, "there aren't any more stoneshere, Grimma. That's why there's a hole."

"Good point," said Gurder, sternly.

"Then he'll make the hole bigger!'" snapped Grimma. "Look at those cliffsup there"-they obediently looked-"they're made of stone! Look here"-every head swivelled down to where her foot was tapping impatiently atthe paper-"it says it's for a highway extension! He's going to make thequarry bigger! Our quarry! That's what it says he's going to do!"

There was a long silence.

Then Dorcas said, "Who is?"

"Order! He's put his name on it," said Grimma.

"She's right, you know," said Masklin. "Look. It says: To be reopened, byOrder."

The nomes shuffled their feet. Order. It didn't sound a promising name.

Anyone called Order would probably be capable of anything.

Gurder stood up and brushed the dust off his robe.

"It's only a piece of paper, when all's said and done," he said sullenly.

"But the human came up here," said Masklin. "They've never come up herebefore."

"Dunno about that," said Dorcas. "I mean, all the quarry buildings. Theold workshops. The doorways and so on. I mean, they're for humans. Alwaysworried me, that has. Where humans have been before, they tend to goagain. They're rascals for that."

There was another crowded silence, the kind that gets made by lots ofpeople thinking unhappy thoughts.

"Do you mean," said a nome slowly, "that we've come all this way, we'veworked so hard to make a place to live in, and now it's going to be takenaway?"