There was a commotion from above. Vimes nodded to young Sam, who disappeared up the stairs.
‘Now that my impressionable assistant has gone,’ said Vimes quietly, ‘I’ll add if any of my men get hurt tonight then I’ll see to it that for the rest of your life you scream at the sight of a bottle.’
‘I haven’t done anything to you! You don’t even know me!’
‘Yes. Like I said, we’re doing it your way,’ said Vimes.
Sam reappeared, in a hurry. ‘Someone’s fallen in the privy!’ he announced. ‘They were climbing on the roof and it had been sawn through and gave way!’
‘It must be one of those revolutionary elements,’ said Vimes, watching the prisoner’s face. ‘We’ve been warned about them.’
‘He says he’s from Cable Street, sarge!’
‘That’s just the kind of thing I’d say, if I was a revolutionary element,’ said Vimes. ‘All right, let’s take a look at him.’
Upstairs, the front door was still open. There were a few people outside, just visible in the lamplight. There was also Sergeant Knock inside, and he was not happy.
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‘Who said we open up like this?’ he was saying. ‘It looks nasty out on those streets! Very dangerous-‘
‘I said we stay open,’ said Vimes, coming up the stairs. ‘Is there a problem, sergeant?’
‘Well… look, sarge, I heard on the way over, they’re throwing stones at the Dimwell Street House,’ said Knock, deflating.
There’s people in the streets! Mobs! I hate to think what’s happening downtown.’
‘So?’
‘We’re coppers! We should be getting prepared!’
‘What? To bar the doors and listen to the stones rattle off the roof?’ said Vimes. ‘Or maybe we should go out and arrest everyone? Any volunteers? No? I’ll tell you what, sergeant, if you want to do some coppering you can go and arrest the man in the privy. Do him for Breaking and Entering-‘
There was a scream from upstairs.
Vimes glanced up.
‘And I reckon if you go up on to the attic landing you’ll find there’s a man who dropped through the skylight right on to a doorful of nails that was accidentally left there,’ he went on. He looked at Knock’s puzzled face. ‘It’s the Cable Street boys, sergeant,’ he said. They thought they could come across the roofs and scare the dumb brownjobs. Chuck ’em both in the cells.’
‘You’re arresting Unmentionables?’
‘No uniform. No badge. Carrying weapons. Let’s have a bit of law around here, shall we?’ said Vimes. ‘Snouty, where’s that cocoa?’
‘We’ll get into trouble!’ Knock shouted.
Vimes let Knock wait until he’d lit a cigar. ‘We’re in trouble anyway, Winsborough,’ he said, shaking out the match. ‘It’s just a case of deciding what kind we want. Thanks, Snouty.’
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He took the mug of cocoa from the jailer and nodded at Sam.
‘Let’s take a stroll outside,’ he said.
He was aware of the sudden silence in the room, except for the whimpering coming from upstairs and the distant yelling from the privy.
‘What’re you all standing around for, gentlemen?’ he said.
‘Want to ring your bells? Anyone fancy shouting out that all’s well?’
With those words hanging in the room all big and pink, Vimes stepped out into the evening air.
There were people hanging around out there, in little groups of three or four, talking among themselves and occasionally turning to look at the Watch House.
Vimes sat down on the steps, and took a sip of his cocoa.
He might as well have dropped his breeches. The groups
opened up, became an audience. No man drinking a
nonalcoholic chocolate beverage had ever been the centre of so much attention.
He’d been right. A closed door is an incitement to bravery. A man drinking from a mug, under a light, and apparently
enjoying the cool night air, is an incitement to pause.
‘We’re breaking curfew, you know,’ said a young man, with a quick dart forward, dart back movement.
‘Is that right?’ said Vimes.
‘Are you going to arrest us, then?’
‘Not me,’ said Vimes cheerfully. ‘I’in on my break.’
‘Yeah?’ said the man. He pointed to Colon and Waddy. ‘They on their break too?’
‘They are now.’ Vimes half turned. ‘Brew’s up, lads. Off you go. No, no need to run, there’s enough for everyone. And come back out when you’ve got it…’
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When the sound of pounding boots had died away, Vimes turned back and smiled at the group again.
‘So when do you come off your break?’ said the man.
Vimes paid him some extra attention. The stance was a
giveaway. He was ready to fight, even though he didn’t look like a fighter. If this were a bar room, the bartender would be taking the more expensive bottles off the shelf, because amateurs like that tended to spread the glass around. Ah, yes… and now he could see why the words ‘bar room’ had occurred to him. There was a bottle sticking out of the man’s pocket. He’d been drinking his defiance.
‘Oh, around Thursday, I reckon,’ said Vimes, eyeing the bottle. There was laughter from somewhere in the growing crowd.
‘Why Thursday?’ said the drinker.
‘Got my day off on Thursday.’
There were a few more laughs this time. When the tension is drawing out, it doesn’t take much to snap it.
‘I demand you arrest me!’ said the drinker. ‘Come on, try it!’
‘You’re not drunk enough,’ said Vimes. ‘I should go home and sleep it off, if I was you.’
The man’s hand grasped the neck of the bottle. Here it comes, thought Vimes. By the look of him, the man had one chance in five…
Fortunately, the crowd wasn’t too big yet. What you didn’t need at a time like this was people at the back, craning to see and asking what was going on. And the litup Watch House was fully illuminating the litup man.
‘Friend, if you take my advice you’ll not consider that,’ said Vimes. He took another sip of his cocoa. It was only lukewarm now, but along with the cigar it meant that both his hands were occupied. That was important. He wasn’t holding a weapon. No
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one could say afterwards that he had a weapon.
I’in no friend to you people!’ snapped the man, and smashed the bottle on the wall by the steps.
The glass tinkled to the ground. Vimes watched the man’s face, watched the expression change from drinkfuelled anger to agonizing pain, watched the mouth open…
The man swayed. Blood began to ooze from between his
fingers and a low, thin animal sound escaped from between his teeth.
That was the tableau, under the light – Vimes sitting down with his hands full, the bleeding man several feet away. No fight, no one had touched anyone… he knew the way rumour worked, and he wanted this picture to fix itself in people’s minds. There was even ash still on the cigar.
He stayed very still for a few seconds, and then stood up, all concern.
‘Come on, one of you help me, will you?’ he said, tugging off his breastplate and the chainmail shirt underneath it. He grabbed his shirt sleeve and tore off a long strip.
A couple of men, jerked into action by the voice of command, steadied the man who was dripping blood. One of them reached for the hand.
‘Leave it,’ Vimes commanded, tightening the strip of sleeve around the man’s unresisting wrist. ‘He’s got a handful of broken glass. Lay him down as gently as you can before he falls over but don’t touch nothing until I’ve got this tourniquet on. Sam, go into the stable and pinch Marilyn’s blanket for the boy. Anyone here know Doctor Lawn? Speak up!’
Someone among the awed bystanders volunteered that they did, and was sent running for him.
Vimes was aware of the circle watching him; a lot of the watchmen were peering around the doorway now.
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‘Saw this happen once,’ he said aloud, and added mentally ‘in ten years’ time’. ‘It was in a bar fight. Man grabbed a bottle, didn’t know how to smash it, ended up with a hand full of shards and the other guy reached down and squeezed.’ There was a satisfying groan from the crowd. ‘Anyone know who this man is?’ he added. ‘Come on, someone must…’
A voice in the crowd volunteered that the man could well be Joss Gappy, an apprentice shoemaker from New Cobblers.
‘Let’s hope we can save his hand, then,’ said Vimes. ‘I need a new pair of boots.’
It wasn’t funny at all but it got another of those laughs, the ones people laugh out of sheer frightened nervousness. Then the crowd parted as Lawn came through.
‘Ah,’ he said, kneeling down by Gappy. ‘You know, I don’t know why I own a bed. Trainee bottle fighter?’
‘Yes.’
‘Looks like you’ve done the right things but I need light and a table,’ said Lawn. ‘Can your men take him into the Watch House?’