"Do you feel very bad, Robert?" said Glynne, rising and going round to his side to speak with great sympathy, as she softly laid her hand upon his broad shoulder. "Horribly," whispered the captain, who was fast losing his nerve. "Don't you?" "I? No. I am quite well." "It was those cursed toadstools," cried Rolph, savagely. "Nonsense, my dear sir," said the major, firmly. "We have all eaten them, and they were delicious." "Give me your arm, some one," groaned Rolph, rising from his chair; and the major caught him, and helped him from the room, Alleyne and Sir John following, after begging Lucy and Glynne to remain seated. "Send for a doctor--quick--I'm poisoned," said Rolph--"quick!" "Here, send to the town," cried Sir John. "Let a groom gallop over. No; there's Mr Oldroyd in the village. Here, you, James, run across the park, you'll be there in ten minutes." "Telegraph--physician," gasped Rolph. "Poor fellow! He seems bad." "I think," said Alleyne, quietly, "that a good deal of it is nervous dread." Rolph looked daggers at him, and then closed his eyes and groaned, as he lay back on a sofa in the library. "Have--have you telegraphed--sent a telegram?" said Rolph, after lying back with his eyes closed for a few minutes. "I have sent for Mr Oldroyd," said Sir John, "and we will go by his advice. It would take a man half an hour to gallop to the station. We shall have the doctor here long before that." Rolph looked round, partly for help, partly to see who was to be the next man attacked, and then closed his eyes, and lay breathing heavily. "I wish you wouldn't bring in those confounded--eh? Who's there?" said Sir John. "Oh, you, my dear. No, you can't do any good. Go and talk to Miss Alleyne. Fit of indigestion coming on the top of a lot of physical exertion--training and that sort of thing. He'll be better soon." Glynne, who had come to the door, closed it and went away, while Rolph uttered a groan. "I was saying," continued Sir John, "I wish you wouldn't bring those confounded things into the house. You will be poisoning us some day." "What nonsense, Jack!" cried the major. "I tell you the fungi were perfectly good. You ate some of them yourself. How do you feel?" "Oh, I'm all right." "So is Mr Alleyne; so are the girls; so am I. It is not the mushrooms, I'm sure. More likely your wine. We are all as well as can be." "Attack you suddenly," groaned Rolph, piteously. "Ah, well if it does," said the major, "I won't make such a fuss over it. Why, when we had the cholera among us at Darjeebad, the men did not make more trouble."