they were groveling in the road, coughing, sneezing, barking,
retching, blaspheming poisonously. Baffled fury followed their
first surprise. Mallow tore the mask from his face and groped
blindly for the weapon he had dropped, but before he could recover
it, pain mastered him and he fell back, clawing at himself,
rubbing at his eyes that had been stricken sightless. He yelled.
Tony yelled. Then upon the startled night there burst a duet of
squeals and curses, a hideous medley of mingled pain and fright,
at once terrifying and unnatural. Both bandits appeared to be in
paroxysms of agony; from Tony issued sounds that might have issued
from the throat of a woman in deadly fear and excruciating
torment; Mallow's face had been partially protected, hence he was
the lesser sufferer; nevertheless, his eyes were boiling in their
sockets, his lungs were ablaze, ungovernable convulsions ran over
him.

The men understood vaguely what had afflicted them, for they had
seen Gray lift one hand from the wheel, and out of that hand they
had seen a stream of liquid, or a jet of aqueous vapor, leap. It
was too close to dodge. It had sprung directly into their faces,
vaporizing as it came, and at its touch, at the first scent of its
fumes, their legs had collapsed, their eyes had tightly closed,
and every cell in their outraged bodies had rebelled. It was as if
acid had been dashed upon them, destroying in one blinding instant
all power for evil. With every breath, now, a new misery smote them.
But worse than this torture was the monstrous nature of their
afflictions. It was mysterious, horrible; they believed themselves
to be dying and screamed in abysmal terror of the unknown.

Gray squeezed again the rubber bulb that he had carried in his