The Argosy, Vol. 64

About this issue

This is Chapter XXI of Sydney C. Grier's serial novel "Peace with Honour." The protagonist Georgia, a physician, receives increasingly insistent summons to visit Bir-ul-Malikat. First a messenger, then Khadija's son Yakub, then Khadija herself arrive requesting her medical assistance, all with mysterious reluctance to explain the patient's condition. Georgia suspects a trap, recalling a previous dangerous encounter. When Khadija finally appears in person—a small, elderly woman described as a sorceress—Georgia uses her knowledge of past events (including a poisoning involving a deadly fish toxin administered via ring) to establish authority and extract the truth: Khadija's charge, the young woman Zeynab, has fallen from a garden wall and suffered a severely crushed foot. Despite warnings that amputation would render the girl unmarriageable, Georgia agrees to treat her, provided Fath-ud-Din (apparently her father) remains ignorant of the injury and her involvement.