"I was," Rick agreed. "How about you, Scotty?"
"Same. I was groping around trying to find something to get my hands on. I was actually in the pool of water. Rick was on the edge of it."
Dr. Miller considered. "Even if your assumption about dry ice is correct, Rick, that wouldn't explain the cold effect. If one touches dry ice, it is cold enough to cause a burning sensation, but had dry ice been used on you it would have taken chunks of it in contact with your skin. You felt nothing solid, I assume?"
Both boys shook their heads.
"Then we can rule out dry ice. I can't imagine what hit you."
"The Blue Ghost," Barby said, and shuddered visibly. "This ought to prove it, I guess."
Rick admitted it. "Ought to is right, but I'm stubborn enough to keep looking for a rational explanation. I got some water from the pool. Anyone want to look with me?"
They all did, and followed Rick to the kitchen. He set up the microscope and plugged in the substage light, then found a well slide and placed a drop of water on it. But examine the drop as he would, using the most powerful magnification, he could see nothing but a bit of brown debris that seemed to be a thread of withered alga.
He took another drop from the coke bottle and tried again with similar results. He shook the bottle and placed a third drop on a clean slide.
Rick focused the microscope on the drop of water. Yesterday—or was it the day before? He couldn't remember clearly he was so tired—the rock basin had been literally swarming with paramecia and other forms of life. Today, following the appearance of the ghost, the water from the basin was as devoid of life as the planet Jupiter.