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21
All
this
the
professors
told
Ammi
as
they
paused
at
his
door
,
and
once
more
he
went
with
them
to
see
the
stony
messenger
from
the
stars
,
though
this
time
his
wife
did
not
accompany
him
.
It
had
now
most
certainly
shrunk
,
and
even
the
sober
professors
could
not
doubt
the
truth
of
what
they
saw
.
All
around
the
dwindling
brown
lump
near
the
well
was
a
vacant
space
,
except
where
the
earth
had
caved
in
;
and
whereas
it
had
been
a
good
seven
feet
across
the
day
before
,
it
was
now
scarcely
five
.
It
was
still
hot
,
and
the
sages
studied
its
surface
curiously
as
they
detached
another
and
larger
piece
with
hammer
and
chisel
.
They
gouged
deeply
this
time
,
and
as
they
pried
away
the
smaller
mass
they
saw
that
the
core
of
the
thing
was
not
quite
homogeneous
.
22
They
had
uncovered
what
seemed
to
be
the
side
of
a
large
coloured
globule
imbedded
in
the
substance
.
The
colour
,
which
resembled
some
of
the
bands
in
the
meteor
's
strange
spectrum
,
was
almost
impossible
to
describe
;
and
it
was
only
by
analogy
that
they
called
it
colour
at
all
.
Its
texture
was
glossy
,
and
upon
tapping
it
appeared
to
promise
both
brittleness
and
hollowness
.
One
of
the
professors
gave
it
a
smart
blow
with
a
hammer
,
and
it
burst
with
a
nervous
little
pop
.
Nothing
was
emitted
,
and
all
trace
of
the
thing
vanished
with
the
puncturing
.
23
It
left
behind
a
hollow
spherical
space
about
three
inches
across
,
and
all
thought
it
probable
that
others
would
be
discovered
as
the
enclosing
substance
wasted
away
.
Отключить рекламу
24
Conjecture
was
vain
;
so
after
a
futile
attempt
to
find
additional
globules
by
drilling
,
the
seekers
left
again
with
their
new
specimen
--
which
proved
,
however
,
as
baffling
in
the
laboratory
as
its
predecessor
had
been
.
Aside
from
being
almost
plastic
,
having
heat
,
magnetism
,
and
slight
luminosity
,
cooling
slightly
in
powerful
acids
,
possessing
an
unknown
spectrum
,
wasting
away
in
air
,
and
attacking
silicon
compounds
with
mutual
destruction
as
a
result
,
it
presented
no
identifying
features
whatsoever
;
and
at
the
end
of
the
tests
the
college
scientists
were
forced
to
own
that
they
could
not
place
it
.
It
was
nothing
of
this
earth
,
but
a
piece
of
the
great
outside
;
and
as
such
dowered
with
outside
properties
and
obedient
to
outside
laws
.
25
That
night
there
was
a
thunderstorm
,
and
when
the
professors
went
out
to
Nahum
's
the
next
day
they
met
with
a
bitter
disappointment
.
The
stone
,
magnetic
as
it
had
been
,
must
have
had
some
peculiar
electrical
property
;
for
it
had
"
drawn
the
lightning
"
,
as
Nahum
said
,
with
a
singular
persistence
.
Six
times
within
an
hour
the
farmer
saw
the
lightning
strike
the
furrow
in
the
front
yard
,
and
when
the
storm
was
over
nothing
remained
but
a
ragged
pit
by
the
ancient
well-sweep
,
half-choked
with
caved-in
earth
.
Digging
had
borne
no
fruit
,
and
the
scientists
verified
the
fact
of
the
utter
vanishment
.
26
The
failure
was
total
;
so
that
nothing
was
left
to
do
but
go
back
to
the
laboratory
and
test
again
the
disappearing
fragment
left
carefully
cased
in
lead
.
That
fragment
lasted
a
week
,
at
the
end
of
which
nothing
of
value
had
been
learned
of
it
.
When
it
had
gone
,
no
residue
was
left
behind
,
and
in
time
the
professors
felt
scarcely
sure
they
had
indeed
seen
with
waking
eyes
that
cryptic
vestige
of
the
fathomless
gulfs
outside
;
that
lone
,
weird
message
from
other
universes
and
other
realms
of
matter
,
force
,
and
entity
.
27
As
was
natural
,
the
Arkham
papers
made
much
of
the
incident
with
its
collegiate
sponsoring
,
and
sent
reporters
to
talk
with
Nahum
Gardner
and
his
family
.
At
least
one
Boston
daily
also
sent
a
scribe
,
and
Nahum
quickly
became
a
kind
of
local
celebrity
.
He
was
a
lean
,
genial
person
of
about
fifty
,
living
with
his
wife
and
three
sons
on
the
pleasant
farmstead
in
the
valley
.
He
and
Ammi
exchanged
visits
frequently
,
as
did
their
wives
;
and
Ammi
had
nothing
but
praise
for
him
after
all
these
years
.
He
seemed
slightly
proud
of
the
notice
his
place
had
attracted
,
and
talked
often
of
the
meteorite
in
the
succeeding
weeks
.
That
July
and
August
were
hot
,
and
Nahum
worked
hard
at
his
haying
in
the
ten-acre
pasture
across
Chapman
's
Brook
;
his
rattling
wain
wearing
deep
ruts
in
the
shadowy
lanes
between
.
The
labour
tired
him
more
than
it
had
in
other
years
,
and
he
felt
that
age
was
beginning
to
tell
on
him
.
Отключить рекламу
28
Then
fell
the
time
of
fruit
and
harvest
.
The
pears
and
apples
slowly
ripened
,
and
Nahum
vowed
that
his
orchards
were
prospering
as
never
before
.
29
The
fruit
was
growing
to
phenomenal
size
and
unwonted
gloss
,
and
in
such
abundance
that
extra
barrels
were
ordered
to
handle
the
future
crop
.
But
with
the
ripening
came
sore
disappointment
;
for
of
all
that
gorgeous
array
of
specious
lusciousness
not
one
single
jot
was
fit
to
eat
.
Into
the
fine
flavour
of
the
pears
and
apples
had
crept
a
stealthy
bitterness
and
sickishness
,
so
that
even
the
smallest
of
bites
induced
a
lasting
disgust
.
It
was
the
same
with
the
melons
and
tomatoes
,
and
Nahum
sadly
saw
that
his
entire
crop
was
lost
.
Quick
to
connect
events
,
he
declared
that
the
meteorite
had
poisoned
the
soil
,
and
thanked
heaven
that
most
of
the
other
crops
were
in
the
upland
lot
along
the
road
.
30
Winter
came
early
,
and
was
very
cold
.
Ammi
saw
Nahum
less
often
than
usual
,
and
observed
that
he
had
begun
to
look
worried
.
The
rest
of
his
family
,
too
,
seemed
to
have
grown
taciturn
;
and
were
far
from
steady
in
their
churchgoing
or
their
attendance
at
the
various
social
events
of
the
countryside
.
For
this
reserve
or
melancholy
no
cause
could
be
found
,
though
all
the
household
confessed
now
and
then
to
poorer
health
and
a
feeling
of
vague
disquiet
.
Nahum
himself
gave
the
most
definite
statement
of
anyone
when
he
said
he
was
disturbed
about
certain
footprints
in
the
snow
.
They
were
the
usual
winter
prints
of
red
squirrels
,
white
rabbits
,
and
foxes
,
but
the
brooding
farmer
professed
to
see
something
not
quite
right
about
their
nature
and
arrangement
.
He
was
never
specific
,
but
appeared
to
think
that
they
were
not
as
characteristic
of
the
anatomy
and
habits
of
squirrels
and
rabbits
and
foxes
as
they
ought
to
be
.