There were not the two or three blocks of ice they had seen from the path, but literally dozens. Some were lying down, others stood jammed between tree trunks. They were almost all identical in size, seven feet long by two feet deep and wide. Adam and his friends knelt by the first one they came to—which was lying flat. Watch tried brushing off the outer covering of frost. But still they could not see to the center of it.

Yet they could make out something in there.

Something large and dark.

“These are shaped like frozen coffins,” Sally said softly.

“Where did they come from?” Cindy whispered, fear in her voice. Up close, the ice blocks were sort of scary. Watch continued to brush at the outer frost, probably hoping to clear the ice.

“I don’t think the ice-cream man put them here,” Sally said.

“This block is really cold,” Watch said, pausing to breathe on his unprotected hand. “And I don’t mean it’s ice-cold.”

“What do you mean?” Cindy asked.

“Let me show you,” Watch said. He took off the watch that had the thermometer and laid it on top of the block. He left it there for perhaps ten seconds before he snapped it back up. He studied the reading. “Ten degrees Fahrenheit,” he muttered.

“That’s twenty-two degrees below freezing,” Sally whispered, amazed.

“That’s a lot colder than the air temperature ever gets around here,” Adam said.

Watch nodded. “Unless these blocks were just dropped here a few minutes ago—which I doubt—something inside them is generating this incredible cold.” He tapped at the block with the knuckles of his right hand, then leaned over and sniffed it. “I don’t even think this is frozen water.”

“What is it, then?” Cindy asked.

Watch frowned. “It has a faint ammonia smell. But it’s not ammonia.” He glanced at Adam. “I’d like to thaw one of these out.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Adam asked.

“No,” Sally and Cindy said quickly together. They glanced at each other in surprise. They seldom agreed on anything. Sally continued, “There may be something inside we don’t want thawed out.”

“Like what?” Adam asked.

Sally shook her head. “You know this town. We could have anything from a bloodthirsty vampire to a blob from Planet Zeon inside here. I have a personal rule against fooling with any strange artifact that might end up eating me.”

“That rule must make your journal pretty boring,” Cindy remarked.

“There’s a problem here that we’re forgetting,” Adam said. “It’s freezing today, and it’s still summer. These blocks are colder than freezing. So is it possible there’s a connection between the two?”

Watch nodded. “Good point. But I know for a fact that these blocks alone are not cooling off the entire town.”