Chapter 2
The doctor hurried to check how his old patient was doing. After retching for some moments, the man lay back again, gasping. His temperature was 103, his neck and limbs were swollen, and two red patches were developing on his thighs. He now complained of chest pains.
“It’s like fire,” he whimpered. “The bastard’s burning me inside.”
He could hardly get the words through his fever-crusted lips and he gazed at the doctor with bulging eyes that his headache had suffused with tears. His wife cast an anxious look at Bentham, who said nothing.
“Please, doctor,” she said, “what is it?”
“It might be almost anything. There’s nothing definite as yet. Keep him on a light diet and give him plenty to drink.” The sick man had been complaining of a raging thirst.
When he returned home, Lo
