It's a good opportunity. Come
on!"
I had sat so that Yussuf Dakmar couldn't see what I was doing and poured
out the liquor in advance, arranging the glasses so that Yussuf Dakmar
would take the doped stuff--a perfectly un-Christian proceeding, I
admit. Christians are scarce when you get right down to cases. Most of
us in extremity prefer Shakespeare's adage about hoisting engineers. It
gets results so much more quickly than turning the other cheek. At any
rate, I own up.
Yussuf Dakmar, smirking in anticipation of an easy victory, took the
nearest tumbler and tossed off the contents in imitation of Jeremy's
free and easy air; and the drug acted as swiftly as the famous "knock-
out-drops" they used to administer in the New York Tenderloin.
He knew what had happened before he lost consciousness, for he tried to
give the alarm to his friends. He lay on the floor opening and shutting
his mouth, and I think he believed he was shouting for help; but after
a minute or two you could hardly detect his breathing, and his face
changed colour as if he had been poisoned.
Grim didn't even trouble to get out of bed, but listened without comment
to my version of Narayan Singh's report, and Jeremy went back to sleep
chuckling; so I held a silent wake over Yussuf Dakmar, keeping some
more of the doped whisky ready in case he should look like recovering
too soon.
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