A man was hiking in the mountains out West when he saw the stone—a small one, about the size of a half-dollar, with smooth rounded edges. Ordinarily he would have passed it by, not being a rock hound. It would have remained there for another thousand years perhaps, a mere pebble among the larger stones on the trail. But this one instantly caught the eye. It was special. Glinting in the sunlight, it seemed to reflect all the surrounding colors, as though trying to mirror nature. Into my pocket went the rare find. All the way home to the East Coast the man thought about where he shoul…