The security man’s eyebrows went up again. “Newton?”

The old man smiled at him, “Another physicist,” he said. “Dead.”

“Oh,” said the security man. “Sorry.”

“So,” said the general, impatiently. “How do we move it?”

The old man looked at him a moment. “I suggest you don’t.”

“Thank you,” said the general, crisply. “Then how would you say it might be moved?”

The physicist scratched his head, “Well,” he said, “I suppose the Earth might be pushed away from it, since it seems to be a kind of Archimedes’ fulcrum. A pressure of about seventeen trillion tons per square centimeter might accomplish that. Of course, moving the Earth might alter the length of the year considerably. And then, again, if Propkofski’s principle, which states…”

“Thank you,” said the general. “That will be all.”

After the security men had taken the physicist away for investigation the general who had interviewed him looked at another general and then at the others. He could tell they were all having the same wild surmise. Finally, he said, “Well, why not?”

“Ah…” said one of the others.

“The cold war’s been going on for fifty years. We may never get a chance to try it out.”

“Ah… well…”

One of the other, younger generals could not contain himself and abruptly spoke up. “Let’s use it!” he said, his voice quivering with emotion.

And all the rest of them began to chime in, their eagerness, now that one of their number had committed himself, unrepressed. “Let’s use it!” they said. “Let’s use the R-bomb!”

***

First a pit was dug—or converted—a mile and a half deep and three miles in diameter. This was then filled with neo-adamant except for a hole in the center four by ten inches rectangular, directly under the brick. Then the R-bomb and its electronic detonator, the whole thing about the size and color of an avocado, was lowered into the hole, and then the neo-adamant walls were built up six feet above the ground to enclose the brick in what amounted to the barrel of a monstrous cannon. The states of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and half of Kentucky were then evacuated, and a final check was made of the figures. It was determined that the kickback from the blast would throw the Earth approximately four hundred and ten miles out of her orbit, and shorten the length of the year to three hundred and sixty-three days, a number which all of the generals found to be eminently satisfactory, in fact, a decided improvement.

The generals decided to use the old physicist’s weather station, in the Kentucky Reservation, as their observation point, its elevation and its distance from the brick being quite desirable.