Farnsworth looked at me thoughtfully. Then he sort of cocked his head to one side and asked, "What do you suppose will happen when those pieces thaw?" I stared at him. I began to think of a thousand tiny slivers whizzing around erratically, richocheting off buildings, in downtown San Francisco and in twenty counties, and no matter what they hit, moving and accelerating as long as there was any heat in the air to give them energy. And then I saw a tool shed, on the other side of the pasture from us. But Farnsworth was ahead of me, waddling along, puffing. He got the shovels out and handed one to me. We didn't say a word, neither of us, for hours. It takes a long time to fill a hole twenty feet deep--especially when you're shoveling very, very carefully and packing down the dirt very, very hard. --WALTER S. TEVIS +----------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's Note: | | | |The spelling of "richochet" has been retained as in | |the original. | | | |This etext was produced from Galaxy February 1958. | |Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that| |the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. | +----------------------------------------------------+