consolation to you, but Merrett's just as bad as you are. And I hear
the others are, too. So now you see what comes of going to Ring's
instead of Cook's."

"And now," said Dunstable, "if you've quite finished, you can listen
to me for a bit...."

"So now you know," he concluded.

Linton's face beamed with astonishment and admiration.

"Well, I'm hanged," he said. "You're a marvel. But how did you know it
wouldn't poison you?"

"I relied on you. You said it wasn't poison when I asked you in the
lab. My faith in you is touching."

"But why did you take any yourself?"

"Sort of idea of diverting suspicion. But the thing isn't finished
yet. Listen."

Linton left the dormitory five minutes later with a look of a young
disciple engaged on some holy mission.


PART 3

"You think the food is unwholesome, then?" said the headmaster after
dinner that night.