"I hope not; one of Zynool's kidney is quite enough!"
"I ask because I saw, on my way from the station, a man exactly like him in close conversation with your butler."
"Zynool himself, no doubt! I wish he would let Moideen alone. I suspect there has been more mischief done than I'm aware of by these two hobnobbing," said the Collector irritably.
"No, it couldn't have been Zynool. There's the puzzle. Because I happen to have seen Zynool stepping into the train for Madras. It's really mystifying, now I come to think of it! If the man was not Zynool, as is physically impossible, it must have been his double."
"I have it," exclaimed Mr. Worsley. "It must have been my Tahsildar at Lerode, Mahomet Usman. I once saw him and Zynool side by side, and I own the likeness was remarkable. I happened to mention the fact and observed they both looked displeased. Mahomet Usman looked particularly glum and vowed he was no relative of Zynool's. But if the man is about to-day, why did he not present himself at the office? However, I shall clear the matter up soon, for I have intimated a visit to him to-morrow. I wonder he didn't look in when he was here. But there's no use trying to fathom these natives. Let's get to our cheroots and pass to pleasanter topics."
Mr. Worsley seemed in such comfortable health and spirits when Mark bade him good-night, that he was not a little surprised next morning when, at the hour appointed for starting on tour, one of the clerks who was to accompany the party called at his bungalow to say that the Collector was reported very unwell—quite unable to move from his bed, far less to travel.
Mark hurried to his chief to find him haggard and suffering. He wished at once to summon the doctor, but the Collector had a prejudice against all medical surveillance and would not hear of it, setting down his symptoms to mere biliousness caused by Moideen's efforts to please his palate. He certainly recovered wonderfully before evening, but on Mark's visiting him early next morning he found him suffering violent pain and attacked at intervals by severe sickness. This time he did not wait to consult the sufferer, but went at once to summon Dr. Campbell, just catching him before he started for the Dispensary in the town.
The doctor soon showed by his manner that he regarded the case as serious. The patient was fast sinking into a comatose condition. After a minute examination Dr. Campbell turned to Mark, and taking him aside told him that he had no doubt it was a case of poisoning, probably an overdose administered last night, which, with the help of the milder one on the previous night, was threatening to prove very serious.
"The action of the poison has been more effective than the poisoner intended probably," remarked the doctor.
"This is very serious," said Mark, alarm written on his face.