'We couldn't of helped it,' said Nobby sulkily.
'We could have,' said Colon. 'We could have run faster.'
'What happened, then?' said Carrot.
'He died,' said Nobby, 'in the hexecution of his duty.'
'I told him,' said Colon, taking a swig at the bottle they had brought along to see them through the night, 'I told him. Slow down, I said. You'll do yourself a mischief, I said. I don't know what got into him, running ahead like that.'
'I blame the Thieves' Guild,' said Nobby. 'Allowing people like that on the streets…'
'There was this bloke we saw done a robbery one night,' said Colon miserably. 'Right in front of us! And Captain Vimes, he said Come On, and we run, only the point is you shouldn't run too fast, see. Else you might catch them. Leads to all sorts of problems, catching people…'
'They don't like it,' said Nobby. There was a mutter of thunder, and a flurry of rain.
'They don't like it,' agreed Colon. 'But Gaskin went and forgot, he ran on, went around the corner and, well, this bloke had a couple of mates waiting…'
'It was his heart really,' said Nobby.
'Well. Anyway. And there he was,' said Colon. 'Captain Vimes was very upset about it. You shouldn't run fast in the Watch, lad,' he said solemnly. 'You can be a fast guard or you can be an old guard, but you can't be a fast old guard. Poor old Gaskin.''
'It didn't ought to be like that,' said Carrot.
Colon took a pull at the bottle.
'Well, it is,' he said. Rain bounced on his helmet and trickled down his face.
'But it didn't ought to be,' said Carrot flatly.
'But it is,' said Colon.
Someone else in the city was also ill at ease. He was the Librarian.
Sergeant Colon had given him a badge. The Librarian turned it round and round in his big gentle hands, nibbling at it.
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