ught was sure
death, and it's the only thing that kept you going long enough to warn
us."

"I was dumb for a long time," Karyl said. "I thought that it was the
acid, almost to the very last. But when I drank that last glass, I knew
they didn't have a chance.

"They were metal monsters. No wonder they feared that liquid. It would
rust their joints, short their wiring, and kill them. No wonder they
stared when I kept alive after drinking enough to completely annihilate
a half-dozen of them.

"But what happened when you met the ship?"

The space captain grinned.

"Not much. Our crew was busy creating a hollow shell filled with _water_
to be shot out of a rocket tube converted into a projectile thrower.

"These Steel-Blues, as you call them, put traction beams on us and
started tugging us toward the asteroid. We tried a couple of atomic
shots but when they just glanced off, we gave up.

"They weren't expecting the shell of water. When it hit that blue ship,
you could almost see it oxidize before your eyes.

"I guess they knew what was wrong right away. They let go the traction
beams and tried to get away. They forgot about the force field, so we
just poured atomic fire into the weakening ship. It just melted away."

Jon Karyl got up from the divan where he'd been lying. "They thought I
was a metal creature, too. But where do you suppose they came from?"

The captain shrugged. "Who knows?"

Jon set two glasses on the table.

"Have a drink of the best damn water in the solar system?" He asked
Capt. Small.

"Don't mind if I do."

The water twinkled in the two glasses, winking as if it knew just what
it had done.

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Planet Stories_ July 1952. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Acid Bath, by Vaseleos Garson

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