A CASE OF POISONING. H.5 



The substance of his story was as follows : The 

 family had been employed at a distance from their 

 homes during the harvest season, and were on their 

 return, with the few rupees they had been able to 

 save out of their scanty earnings. The only two of 

 the party who escaped were an old woman and a 

 child in arms, and but little could be extracted from 

 the former. A fukeer had joined them at some part 

 of their journey, and it is supposed that he mixed 

 the poison with their food ; but whether from recent 

 ill-will, or on account of any ancient grudge, or from 

 motives of revenge, or for the mere sake of the 

 paltry sum of money which they carried, did not 

 appear. The old woman seemed unable to give 

 any coherent account of the transaction. She had 

 escaped in consequence of sickness having prevented 

 her from being a partaker of the meal on that day ; 

 and the child in arms, of course, was provided for 

 otherwise. The rest were brought into the hospital 

 at Sukkur, in Scinde one or two yet living and 

 it was a horrible sight to see them, for all must 

 have died in great agony. The clenched hands, full 

 of earth and grass, and the faces, showed this. 



" And was it never found out who did it ? " asked 

 Hawkes. 



"I believe not," Mackenzie replied; "at least 

 while I was there. The fukeer had disappeared, 



