Just one thing saved Ballard from going over his head into the cyanide solution, and that was this: Porter had not twisted the plank off the rim of the tank, but had manipulated it in such a way as to cause Ballard to lose his footing and drop into the poisonous liquid beneath. As Ballard dropped, he flung out his arms, seized the plank, and so kept head and shoulders out of the cyanide. Had he gone under or swallowed even a few drops of the deadly stuff, that pursuit of the savage prospector would have had a tragic termination. Ballard, kicking around in the solution, was trying to drag himself up on the plank as Merry crept toward him. "Steady there, Pink!" called Frank. "Don't splash the stuff around, and keep out of it as much as you can. It's a deadly poison." "Never mind me," cried, Ballard. "Keep after that confounded prospector He'll get away if you don't." "You first, old chap," Frank answered. "It has a scurvy trick Porter played on you, and--and it might have resulted fatally. Now, then!" Gripping his chum by the arms, Frank heaved him upward until he was on his knees on the plank. "Want any help?" came the agitated voice of Clancy, from just below the solution tank. "No," answered Merriwell, "we're making it all right." "Drop him over the side," called Pardo, "here, over in this direction. There's a tank of clear water next to the solution vat, and the quicker your friend rinses that cyanide out of his clothes, the better." "Oh, hang the cyanide!" shouted Ballard. "I was only half into the stuff, anyhow. Stop Porter, if you can. The brute is guilty of something or he wouldn't act like that." "Drop into that tank of water, Pink," ordered Merry, "or I'll throw you in." Ballard, without further discussion, lowered himself down into the reservoir of water that supplied the mill and kicked around in it for a few moments; then, drawing himself up on the rim of the vat, he jumped off to the ground at the superintendent's side. Merry and Clany quickly joined him. "Say," cried the startled Pardo, grabbing Ballard by the arm, "did you swallow any of the solution?" "How could I?" was the answer. "I only went in to the waist." "Got any cuts or sores on the lower part of your body?" "No." "By gorry." declared Pardo, "you're a lucky kid all right. Cyanide of potassium is the most virulent poison known. If a person scratches his finger on the tin in opening a case, and gets some of the solution in the cut, in less than fifteen minutes he's a goner. You don't know, son, how much you've got to be thankful for." Now that it was all over, and Ballard was beginning to realize how deadly was the bath in which he had been plunged, a few cold shivers started up and down his spine.