under it. He smiled to himself when it was removed with half a foot of
its length gone.

The sheriff wasn't so easily discouraged. He had come prepared for a
stubborn piece of rock. He went to the rumble seat of his car and took
out a blowtorch and a sledgehammer, ignited the torch and focused it on
one edge of the leech.

After five minutes, there was no change. The gray didn't turn red or
even seem to heat up. Sheriff Flynn continued to bake it for fifteen
minutes, then called to one of the men.

"Hit that spot with the sledge, Jerry."

Jerry picked up the sledgehammer, motioned the sheriff back, and swung
it over his head. He let out a howl as the hammer struck unyieldingly.
There wasn't a fraction of recoil.

In the distance they heard the roar of an Army convoy.

"Now we'll get some action," Flynn said.

* * * * *

Micheals wasn't so sure. He walked around the periphery of the leech,
asking himself what kind of substance would react that way. The answer
was easy--no substance. No _known_ substance.

The driver in the lead jeep held up his hand, and the long convoy ground
to a halt. A hard, efficient-looking officer stepped out of the jeep.
From the star on either shoulder, Micheals knew he was a brigadier
general.

"You can't block this road," the general said. He was a tall, spare man
in suntans, with a sunburned face and cold eyes. "Please clear that
thing away."

"We can't move it," Micheals said. He told the general what had happened
in the past few days.

"It must be moved," the general said. "This convoy must go through." He
walked closer and looked at the leech. "You say it can't be jacked up by
a crowbar? A torch won't burn it?"

"That's right," Micheals said, smiling faintly.

"Driver," the general said over his shoulder. "Ride over it."

Micheals started to protest, but stopped himself. The military mind
would have to find out in its own way.

The driver put his jeep in gear and shot forward, jumping the leech's
four-inch edge. The jeep got to the center of the leech and stopped.

"I didn't tell you to stop!" the general bellowed.

"I didn't, sir!" the driver protested.

The jeep had been yanked to a stop and had stalled. The driver started
it again, shifted to four-wheel drive, and tried to ram forward. The
jeep was fixed immovably, as though set in concrete.

"Pardon me," Micheals said. "If you look, you can see that the tires are
melting down."