direction.

"I'm awfully sorry about it," Conners said. Professor Micheals' resting
week was a ten-year-old custom, and his only eccentricity. All winter
Micheals taught anthropology, worked on half a dozen committees, dabbled
in physics and chemistry, and still found time to write a book a year.
When summer came, he was tired.

Arriving at his worked-out New York State farm, it was his invariable
rule to do absolutely nothing for a week. He hired Frank Conners to cook
for that week and generally make himself useful, while Professor
Micheals slept.

During the second week, Micheals would wander around, look at the trees
and fish. By the third week he would be getting a tan, reading,
repairing the sheds and climbing mountains. At the end of four weeks, he
could hardly wait to get back to the city.

But the resting week was sacred.

"I really wouldn't bother you for anything small," Conners said
apologetically. "But that damned rock melted two inches off my spade."

Micheals opened both eyes and sat up. Conners held out the spade. The
rounded end was sheared cleanly off. Micheals swung himself off the
couch and slipped his feet into battered moccasins.

"Let's see this wonder," he said.

* * * * *

The object was lying in the ditch at the end of the front lawn, three
feet from the main road. It was round, about the size of a truck tire,
and solid throughout. It was about an inch thick, as far as he could
tell, grayish black and intricately veined.

"Don't touch it," Conners warned.

"I'm not going to. Let me have your spade." Micheals took the spade and
prodded the object experimentally. It was completely unyielding. He held
the spade to the surface for a moment, then withdrew it. Another inch
was gone.

Micheals frowned, and pushed his glasses tighter against his nose. He
held the spade against the rock with one hand, the other held close to
the surface. More of the spade disappeared.

"Doesn't seem to be generating heat," he said to Conners. "Did you
notice any the first time?"

Conners shook his head.

Micheals picked up a clod of dirt and tossed it on the object. The dirt
dissolved quickly, leaving no trace on the gray-black surface. A large
stone followed the dirt, and disappeared in the same way.

"Isn't that just about the damnedest thing you ever saw, Professor?"
Conners asked.

"Yes," Micheals agreed, standing up again. "It just about is."

He hefted the spa