Curtis Delman left the veranda rail and came toward them. "And just how do you propose to do that, Mr. Tarsh?" he asked quietly.
All of them looked at the lawyer in amazement. Jason Tarsh laughed derisively.
"Listen to him!" he exclaimed. "The Great Man! Wants to know how you remove a few small stones!"
"You damned idiot!" said Delman savagely. "Use your eyes! Why were this house and the storage sheds prefabricated? Just for the hell of it? Dozens of useless trips when you could build what you wanted from rock? Until today, there wasn't a loose pebble in this godforsaken place! Didn't that strike you as odd? Well, didn't it?"
Tarsh made no reply.
The lawyer moved back to the veranda rail. "There!" he said, pointing at a near-lying stone the size of a tennis ball. "Go ahead, try your strength. Throw it over the side!"
Uncertainly, Jason Tarsh walked into the open. They watched him as he bent down to pick up the small purple lump. For nearly a minute, he strained and tugged at the dead, unyielding weight in front of him. Then, slowly, he straightened up and returned to the veranda.
"You're right," he said grudgingly. "I couldn't lift it."
Delman nodded. "Considering it's more than ten times the weight of lead, that's not surprising."