Dav sighed. He had hoped that Hurk's idea would be something of substance. Barn yarns were a penny a hundred in the wastes. Every man and his mum had heard some barn yarn about buried treasure, or a haunted cave or a mosquito as big as a dog.

"How would one of your stupid barn yarns result in that door coming about! It's been buried for who knows how long and we just dug it up. I say we make tracks and start looking round that mound I saw last week. It's at least an untouched house or building or something..." His voice trailed off. There was always treasures to be dug out of the wastes for people with drive and Dav had drive by the pail load.

"Not this door, Dav," Hurk continued. "A door with that same word on it. A door called 'bombs' some guys got open. Took a whole stick of TNT, but they cracked it open and inside was all sorts of things, like wires and good metal and even food."

"Now I know it's a stupid and falsified barn yarn, Hurk, on account of food going off."

Hurl stopped. "Where's it go off to?"

For almost a full minute, Dav stared at his business partner. He often forgot that, despite being a good six feet taller than Dav's underwhelming three feet of height, Hurk didn't take to learning very well. Oh, Dav had taught him the basics, like what kind of stuff to avoid and what was worth money. Hurk had proved a quick study of cards, but only because it was numbers and not words. Hurk's dim eyes made him a target for sharks once, but his numbers were good enough to hold off any but the strongest players. Despite all that and despite his rare but useful bursts of notions, Hurk didn't know things any kid would.

"When food gets old, it goes off. Means the same thing as rotten. Get it?"

"I sure do." The nine feet of Hurk picked up a little, like he'd just been paid a compliment instead of a fact.

"So does that mean that the barn yarn you heard might be a fish in the sky?"

"Well, I suppose. Maybe they found food that was rotten. But they got a lot of money from going through one of these doors and we could definitely use money."

Dav thought about it. Hyram had given them an extra month to pay off the loan. Non payment at the end of that month was a good way to get a visit from what Hyram called his 'human resources department'.

"OK, maybe the barn yarn might have some merit to it. But we don't have any dynamite," said Dav. His eyes glazed over as he began spending the wealth behind the door marked 'bombs'. Hyram would get paid, of course, but who knew what level of pickings sat just beyond the door. There would be enough for everyone.

While Dav stroked his chin, with great difficulty as he had no elbows, Hurk ran his hands over the door. The word was slightly indented into the metal.