"Dropped wrist!" he said.
"Yes."
"Of course! Muscular weakness brought on quite naturally by prolonged illness. The man has simply been knocked down by this touch of the sun. Travellers ought to be more careful than they are out here."
"I suppose you're aware that the patient has already lived and worked in Egypt for many months at a time. He has land in the Fayyūm, and has been cultivating it himself. He's no novice in Egypt, no untried tourist. He's soaked in the sun without hurt by the month together."
"As much as that?" said Hartley.
"Isn't it rather odd that so early in the year as February he should be stricken down by the spring sunshine?"
"It is queer—yes, it is queer," assented the other.
He crossed one leg over the other and looked abstracted.
"I suppose Mr. Armine himself thought the illness was brought about by the sun?" said Isaacson, after a minute.
"Well—oh, from the first it was an understood thing that he'd got a touch of the sun. There's no doubt whatever about that. He went out at noon, and actually dug at Thebes without covering his head. Sheer madness! People saw him doing it."