And suddenly his training in the chemistry of borax rushed through his frantic mind.
He smiled grimly to himself as he reached for the heat ray gun at his waist. No, it hadn't been lost. He detached it and forced it through the quicksand in front of him.
Carefully he aimed the heat ray gun upward, pressed the trigger.
Light so bright and intense and so hot that Rawson felt the heat and light in the clutching quicksand bored a hole through the muck.
It was a thin rod of penetration, about two inches wide and extended straight upwards to where Rawson thought the edge of the pit would be.
Long and patiently he trained the heat ray gun.
And as he waited a chemical change took place before his eyes. In the light of the heat ray gun, he saw a thin rod of white porous mass forming. It extended through the quicksand upward along the line of the heat ray.
And as he watched, the white mass melted into a clear liquid. He kept the heat ray gun concentrated until its power died and the weapon became a useless piece of metal.
Rawson had won. He had created liquid glass.
Patiently he waited for the liquid to harden. Would it make it possible for him to escape this quicksand death?