nd this
time I saw it go straight up at least fifty feet.

* * * * *

My mind was suddenly full of thoughts of dragging mattresses from the
house, or making a net or something to stop that hurtling thirty-five
pounds; but I stood where I was, unable to move, and saw it come down
again on the highway. It went up a hundred feet. And down again on the
concrete, about fifteen feet further down the road. In the direction
of the city.

That time it was two hundred feet, and when it hit again, it made a
thud that you could have heard for a quarter of a mile. I could
practically see it flatten out on the road before it took off upward
again, at twice the speed it had hit at.

Suddenly generating an idea, I whirled and ran back to Farnsworth's
house. He was standing in the yard now, shivering from the morning
air, looking at me like a little lost and badly scared child.

"Where are your car keys?" I almost shouted at him.

"In my pocket."

"Come on!"

I took him by the arm and half dragged him to the carport. I got the
keys from him, started the car, and by mangling about seven traffic
laws and three prize rosebushes, managed to get on the highway, facing
in the direction that the ball was heading.

"Look," I said, trying to drive down the road and search for the ball
at the same time. "It's risky, but if I can get the car under it and
we can hop out in time, it should crash through the roof. That ought
to slow it down enough for us to nab it."

"But--what about my car?" Farnsworth bleated.

"What about that first building--or first person--it hits in San
Francisco?"

"Oh," he said. "Hadn't thought of that."

I slowed the car and stuck my head out the window. It was lighter now,
but no sign of the ball. "If it happens to get to town--any town, for
that matter--it'll be falling from about ten or twenty miles. Or
forty."

"Maybe it'll go high enough first so that it'll burn. Like a meteor."

"No chance," I said. "Built-in cooling system, remember?"

Farnsworth formed his mouth into an "Oh" and exactly at that moment
there was a resounding _thump_ and I saw the ball hit in a field,
maybe twenty yards from the edge of the road, and take off again. This
time it didn't seem to double its velocity, and I figured the ground
was soft enough to hold it back--but it wasn't slowing down either,
not with a bounce factor of better than two to one.

* * * * *