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He pushed open a door

It was a large room, heavily outfitted with the usual badly ventilated furnaces, rows of bubbling crucibles, and one stuffed alligator Things floated in jars The air smelled of a limited life expectancy

A lot of equipment had been moved away, however, to make roo around it in the manner of men poised to run

'It's the third this week,' said Sendivoge, glooure bent over a cue

'Er, Mr Silverfish--' he began

'Quiet! Ga at the white ball

Sendivoge glanced at the score rail

'Twenty-one points,' he said 'My word Perhaps we're adding just the right amount of camphor to the nitro-cellulose after all--'

There was a click The cue ball rolled away, bounced off the cushion--

--and then accelerated White smoke poured off it as it bore down on an innocent cluster of red balls

Silverfish shook his head

'Unstable,' he said 'Everybody down!'

Everyone in the room ducked, except for the two Watchmen, one of as in a sense pre-ducked and the other of as several minutes behind events

The black ball took off on a colu black s in one spot but spinning furiously The other balls cannoned back and forth, occasionally bursting into fla off the walls

A red one hit Detritus between the eyes, curved back on to the table, holed itself in the middle pocket and then blew up

There was silence, except for the occasional bout of coughing Silverfish appeared through the oily s hand,end of his cue

'One,' he said 'Oh well Back to the crucible Someone order another billiard table--'

' 'Scusehim in the knee

'Who's there?'

'Down here!'

Silverfish looked down

'Oh Are you a dwarf?'

Cuddy gave hiiant?' he said

'Me? Of course not!'

'Ah Then I must be a dwarf, yes And that's a troll behindrese attention

'We've come to see if you can tell us what's on this paper,' said Cuddy

'Yur,' said Detritus

Silverfish looked at it

'Oh, yes,' he said, 'some of old Leonard's stuff Well?'

'Leonard?' said Cuddy He glared at Detritus 'Write this down,' he snapped

'Leonard of Quirm,' said the alchemist

Cuddy still looked lost

'Never heard of him?' said Silverfish

'Can't say I have, sir'

'I thought everyone knew about Leonard da Quirenius, too'

'Was he an alchemist?'

Write this dorite this downDetritus looked around blearily for a burnt bit of wood and a handy wall

'Leonard? No He didn't belong to a Guild Or he belonged to all the Guilds, I suppose He got around quite a bit He tinkered, if you knohat I mean?'

'No, sir'

' He painted a bit, and '

Or a haht Detritus

'This,' said Silverfish, 'is a forht as well tell you, it's hardly a big secretit's a formula for e called No 1 Powder Sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal You use it in fireworks Any fool could make it up But it looks odd because it's written back to front'

'This sounds important,' hissed Cuddy to the troll

'Oh, no He always used to write back to front,' said Silverfish 'He was odd like that But very clever all the sa?'

'I don't think so'

Silverfish handed the parchment to Detritus, who squinted at it as if he knehat it ht

'The teeth followed you around the roo In fact some people said they followed them out of the room and all the way down the street'

'I think we should talk to Mr da Quirm,' said Cuddy

'Oh, you could do that, you could do that, certainly,' said Silverfish 'But he ht not be in a position to listen He disappeared a couple of years ago'

then when I find soht Detritus, I have to find someone teach me horite

'Disappeared? How?' said Cuddy

'We think,' said Silverfish, leaning closer, 'that he found a way ofhimself invisible'

'Really?'

'Because,' said Silverfish, nodding conspiratorially, 'no-one's seen him'