'A couple of years,' he replied. 'I was glad to get away, too. It is a beastly part of the world.'
'I asked,' I said, 'because Edgecumbe had just come from India when I first saw him, and I was wondering whether you could throw any light upon his sudden illness.'
'My dear chap, I'm not a doctor. What does McClure say?'
'He's in a bit of a fog,' I replied, 'so is Merril.'
'Doctors usually are,' he laughed. 'For my own part, I think that a great deal of fuss has been made about the whole business. After all, what did it amount to?'
'It was a very strange illness,' I replied.
'Was it? Certainly the fellow was taken bad suddenly, and he fell down in a sort of fit, but that is nothing strange.'
'It is to a man whose general health is as good as that of Edgecumbe.'
'Yes, but India plays ducks and drakes with any man's constitution,' he replied. 'You see, you know nothing about Edgecumbe, and his loss of memory may be a very convenient thing to him.'
'What do you mean?