But the thin
film of gas that instantly formed and protected his naked flesh
dissipated in a moment and then one benumbing, paralyzing shock
swept over Jack Jellup's body.
With a cry wrung from him by pain such as few mortals have ever
experienced and survived, the stricken man fell unconscious to the
floor--his arm frozen as solid as crystallized steel.
CHAPTER XVI
READY TO "LET GO ALL"
In the confusion that followed the sudden extinction of the candle,
while Ned was freeing Alan and Jack Jellup was uttering heartrending
groans, the marshal's confederate lost his nerve and made his
escape. When a lantern had been procured, immediate attention was
given to the stricken man.
Ned hastened to secure a bucket of water. Wrapping the corner of a
blanket about the handle of a tin dipper he ladled out a spoonful of
the liquid hydrogen and, although the numbing chill ran through his
fingers and up his arm, he managed to pour the hydrogen into the
contents of the bucket.
The pail of lukewarm water became almost instantly a cake of solid
ice. As Ned dropped the tin dipper to the hard adobe floor it flew
into a hundred pieces.
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