rom anything
steeped in it is enough to kill an ox almost immediately. The
favourite 'native' manner of using the hellish thing is by means of
a thorn and a blowpipe. But no such method has been employed in
this case. No thorn nor, indeed, any other projectile has entered
the flesh, nor is there one lying anywhere about the floor. Be
sure I looked, Doctor, the instant I suspected that woorali had
been used. Pardon me, but that must be all for the present. I
have other fish to fry."

CHAPTER XXIX

The "frying" of them took the shape of first going outside and
walking round the Stone Drum, and then of stepping back to the
door and beckoning Narkom and Lord Fallowfield and young James
Drake out to him.

"Anybody in the habit of sitting out here to read or paint or
anything of that sort?" he asked abruptly.

"Good gracious, no!" replied Lord Fallowfield. "Whatever makes you
ask such a thing as that, Mr. Cleek?"

"Nothing, only that I have found four little marks disposed of at
such regular distances that they seem to have been made by the four
legs of a chair resting, with a rather heavy weight upon it, on the
leads of the roof and immediately under one of the bowman's slits
in the Stone Drum. A chair with casters, I should imagine, from the
character of the marks. We are on a level with the sleeping quarters
of the servants in the house proper, I believe, and chairs with
casters are not usual in servants' bedrooms in most houses. Are
they so here?"

"Certainly not," put in young Drake. "Why, I don't believe there
is a chair with casters on the whole blessed floor. Is there, Lord
Fallowfield? You ought to know."

"Yes, there is, Jim. There are three in fact; they all are in the old
armoury. Been there a dog's age; and they so matched the old place
your poor father never had them taken out."

"The 'old armoury'? What's that, your lordship, may I ask?"

"Oh, a relic of the old feudal times, Mr. Cleek. You see, on account
of the position of the Stone Drum, the weapon room, or arming-room,
had to be up here on a level with the wing roof, instead of below
stairs, as in the case of other 'towers.' That's the place over
there--the window just to the left of the door leading into the
building proper. It is full of the old battle flags, knights'
pennants, shields, cross-bows, and the Lord knows what of those old
days of primitive warfare. We Fallowfields always preserved it,
just as it was in the days of its us