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'Maybe Ankh-Morpork didn't know Ankh-Morpork had theht This place is old We're in the bowels of the earth'

'In Ankh-Morpork even the shit have a street to itself,' said Detritus, awe and wonder in his voice 'Truly, this a land of opportunity'

'Here's so,' said Cuddy He scraped away some slime

' "Cirone IV s, wasn't he? Heydo you knohat that means?'

'No-one's been down here since yesterday,' said Detritus

'No! This placethis place is more than two thousand years old We're quite probably the first people to come down here since--'

'Yesterday,' said the troll

'Yesterday? Yesterday? What's yesterday got to do with it?'

'Footprints still fresh,' said Detritus

He pointed

There were footprints in thehave you lived here?' said Cuddy, suddenly feeling very conspicuous in the middle of the tunnel

'Nine-er years That is the number of years I have lived here Nine-er,' said Detritus, proudly 'It only one of a largenumber of numbers I can count to'

'Have you ever heard of tunnels under the city?'

'No'

'Soh'

'Yes'

'What shall we do?'

The ansas inevitable They'd chased a man into the pork futures warehouse, and nearly died Then they'd ended up in the middle of a small war, and nearly died Now they were in a mysterious tunnel where there were fresh footprints If Corporal Carrot-or Sergeant Colon said, 'And what did you do then?', neither of the 'We cao this way,' said Cuddy, 'and then they return But the ones co You can see they're later ones because they're over the top of the other ones So he was heavier going than he was coht,' said Detritus

'So that ht?'

'He was carrying so, and he left itup ahead somewhere'

They stared at the darkness

'So we go and find what it was?' said Detritus

'I think so How do you feel?'

'Feel OK'

Different species though they were, theira h the subterranean night

'He came back,' said Cuddy

'Yes,' said Detritus

They looked at the darkness again

'It has not been a nice day,' said Cuddy

'That the truth'

'I'd just like to know so, in caseI meanlook, what happened in the pork store? You did all that !'

'Idunno I saw it all'

'All what?'

'Just all of it Everything All the numbers in the world I could count them all'

'What did they equal?'

'Dunno What does equal ed on, to see what the future held

The trail led eventually into a narrower tunnel, barely wide enough for the troll to stand upright Finally they could go no further A stone had dropped out of the roof and rubble andthe tunnel But that didn'tfor, even though they hadn't been looking for it

'Oh dear,' said Detritus

'Very definitely,' said Cuddy He looked around vaguely

'You know,' he said, 'I reckon these tunnels are usually full of water They're well below the normal river level'

He looked back to the pathetic discovery

'There's going to be a lot of trouble about this,' he said

'It's his badge,' said Carrot 'Good grief He's holding it so tight it's cut right into his hand'

Technically Ankh-Morpork is built on loam, but what it is mainly built on is Ankh-Morpork; it has been constructed, burned down, silted up, and rebuilt so many times that its foundations are old cellars, buried roads and the fossil bones and middens of earlier cities

Below these, in the darkness, sat the troll and the dwarf

'What we doing now?'

'We ought to leave it here and fetch Corporal Carrot He'll knohat to do'

Detritus looked over his shoulder at the thing behind theht to leave it here'

'Right Yes, you're right But you're a troll and I'm a dwarf What do you think would happen if people saw us carrying that along the streets?'

'Big trouble'

'Correct Come on Let's follow the footprints back out'

'Supposing it gone e co to his feet

'How? And we're following the tracks out, so if whoever it ho put it there coood I glad you said that'

Vied his hand

'Captain Quirke?' said Carrot 'But he'snot a good choice'