Excerpt from The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Well done, Rodney. And one of us will come along every day and collect your pictures. Got everything you want?"


"What's that, Sergeant?"


Colon looked down at the very large, brown upturned face, and smiled.


"Afternoon, All," he said, climbing ponderously down the ladder. "What you're looking at, Mister Jolson, is the modern Watch for the new millenienienum ... num."


"'S a bit big, Fred," said All Jolson, looking at it critically. "I've seen lots of smaller ones."


"Watch as in City Watch, All."


"Ah, right."


"Anyone goes too fast around here and Lord Vetinari'll be looking at his picture next morning. The iconographs do not lie, All."


"Right, Fred. 'Cos they're too stupid."


"His Lordship's got fed up with carts speeding over the bridge, see, and asked us to do something about it. I'm Head of Traffic now, you know."


"Is that good, Fred?"


"I should just think so!" said Sergeant Colon expansively. "It's up to me to keep the, er, arteries of the city from clogging up, leadin' to a complete breakdown of commerce and ruination for us all. Most vital job there is, you could say."


"And it's just you doing it, is it?"

The Fifth Elephant. Copyright (c) 2000 by Terry Pratchett.   Reprinted with permission from HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.