Whirly's friend Phoebe Murdoch,a farmer's daughter due to marry herdsman Desmond,tells the students her father's cattle are ailing but Murdoch and Desmond are hostile when James suggests their illness is caused by arsenic in the feed Desmond gives them. However Whirly's analysis saves the situation,allowing the marriage to go ahead though Gunnell's ignorant intervention into the crisis, which Whirly sees as an attempt to undermine her, spurs her to spiking his drink. McAloon sees the chance to make capital from an elderly couple concerned that their pet sheep Lilian is sick until Ritchie forces him to give them a rebate and donate the fee they have given him to the college.
—don @ minifie-1