"I knew from that it must be the same tiger.
""The tiger is near," someone would cry out, and a stampede among the native workmen would ensue.
""Why the white tiger?" I asked Cushai.
""Because, sahib," he replied, "the leprosy has made it so! Tigers, like men, and all other animals, go white even to their hair. I have not told them the story, sahib; they only know it must have caught the leprosy.
To them Nahra is still living."
"Then, O"Donnell, when I thought of what was at stake, and of all the hideous possibilities the presence of this brute created, I took my rifle and went out to search for it. In the evenings, when the dark clouds from the mountains descended and the wind hissed through the jungle gra.s.s, I plodded along with no other companion than my Winchester repeater--searching, always searching for the d.a.m.ned tiger. I found it, O"Donnell, came upon it just as it was in the midst of a meal--dining off a native--and I shot it twice before it recovered from its astonishment at seeing me. The second shot took effect--I can swear to that, for I took particular note of the red splash of blood on its forehead where the bullet entered, and I went right up to it to make sure. As G.o.d is above us, no animal was more dead.
""The curse won"t come now, Cushai," I said, laughing. "I"ve killed the white tiger."
""Killed the white tiger, sahib! Allah bless you for that!" Cushai replied.
""But don"t laugh too soon. Nahra was a clever man, wonderfully clever; he did not speak empty words," and as his eyes wandered to the dark hills again I fancied a shadow darted along the sky, and the curse came back to my ears.
"I was superintending the line one afternoon; the backs of the n.i.g.g.e.rs were bending double under the burden of the great iron rods when I heard a terrible cry.
""The white tiger! the white tiger!" Rods fell with a crash, spades followed suit, a chorus of shrieks filled the air, and legs scampered off in all directions. I was fifty yards from my rifle, and a huge creature was slowly approaching between it and me.
"I could hardly believe my eyes--the white tiger, the tiger I knew I had killed! Here it was! Here before me! The same in every detail, and yet in some strange, indefinable manner not the same. On it came, a huge patch of luminous white, noiselessly, stealthily--the mark of the bullet plainly visible on its big, flat forehead. Step by step it approached me, its paws no longer with the colouring of health, but dull and worn.
And as it came, the cold shadow of desolation seemed to fall around it.
Nothing stirred; there was no noise whatever, not even the sound of its feet crushing the loosened soil. On, on, on nearer, nearer and nearer.
"Shunned by all, avoided by its fellow-creatures of the jungle, a blight to all and everything, it drew in a line with me. Not once did its eyes meet mine, O"Donnell; not once did it glare at the natives who were hiding on the banks of the cutting; but it stole silently on its way with a something in its movements that left no doubt but that it was engaged in no casual venture. I remembered, O"Donnell, that my wife had promised to come with Eric to meet me along the cutting, as she was sure no tiger would be there. I ran as fast as I could, and yet somehow my feet seemed weighted down. I cursed my folly for not forbidding my wife to come.
"It was uphill till I got to the bend, and it might have been a mountain, it seemed so steep. I knew if the thing I had seen met them a little farther on, they would be cornered, as the cutting narrowed very much, leaving not more than twenty yards, and that was a generous estimate. At last, after what seemed an eternity, I reached the summit of the slope; the tiger was a mere speck along the line. I rushed after it as fast as I could go, stumbling, half falling, pulling myself together, and tearing on, and the faster I went the quicker moved the great white figure. A feeling of despair seized me; all my fondness for my wife became intensified tenfold, and was revealed to me then in its true nature; she was the one great tie that made life dear to me. Even my love for Eric paled away before the blinding affection I bore her. I tore madly on, shouting at the same time, anything to make the white tiger aware of my presence, to keep it from seeing her. Another bend in the road hid it from view. The same hideous fears gripped me hard and fast, as I strained every muscle in the mad pursuit. At last I ran round the curve, and saw before me the tableau I had dreaded. The tiger was crouching, ready to spring on the group of three--Eva, Eric and the ayah. They were paralysed with fear, and stood on the rails staring at it, unable to move or utter a sound. I well understood their feelings, and knew they were labouring in their minds as to whether the thing that confronted them was a creature of flesh and blood, or what it was. They could not take their eyes off it, and, as a consequence, did not see me.
The white tiger now went through a series of actions, so lifelike that I could not but believe it was real, and that I had been deceived in thinking I had killed it. Its haunches quivered, it got ready to spring, and my rifle flew to my shoulder. I saw it mark Eric, and read the increased agony in my wife"s eyes. The critical moment came. Another second, and the thing, be it material or supernatural, would jump. I must fire at all costs. If mortal, I must kill it, if ghostly, the noise of my rifle might dematerialize it. And, as G.o.d is my judge, O"Donnell, at that moment I had not the least idea which of it was--tiger or phantom. It sprang--my brain reeled--my fingers grew numb, and as my wife suddenly bounded forward, the shadowy form of Nahra seemed to rise from the ground and mock me. With a supreme effort I jerked my finger back and fired. Bang! The sound of the explosion acted like a safety-valve to the pent-up feelings of all, and there was a chorus of shrieks. I rushed forward--the ayah lay on the ground, face downward and motionless. My wife had hold of Eric, who was shaking all over. Of the tiger there were no signs. It had completely vanished.
""Thank G.o.d," I exclaimed, kissing my wife feverishly. "Thank G.o.d! It was only a ghost! but it was very alarming, wasn"t it?"
""Alarming!" my wife gasped, "it was awful! I quite thought it was real!
so did Eric, and so did ---- "--then her eyes fell on the ayah, and she gave a great start. "Charlie!" she cried, "for mercy"s sake look at her!
I dare not! Is she all right?"
"I turned the ayah over--she was dead! Fright had killed her!
"I then told my wife of the curse of Nahra, and of the phantom I thought I had seen of him, when the white tiger was springing. When I had finished, my wife hid her face in my shoulder.
""Charlie!" she said, "I did something awful. I saw what I then took to be the real white tiger single out Eric, and in my anxiety to save him from the brute, I pushed the ayah in front of him. And the thing sprang on her instead. It was nothing short of murder! And yet--well, there were extenuating circ.u.mstances, weren"t there?"
""Of course there were," I said--for I verily believed, O"Donnell, fear had, for the time being, turned her brain.
"On our way home she suddenly called my attention to Eric.
""Charlie," she cried, "what"s that mark on his cheek? He"s hurt!"
"I looked--and my heart turned sick within me. On the boy"s cheek was a faint red scratch, just as might have been caused by a slight, very slight contact with some animal"s claw.
""Sahib!" Cushai whispered to me, when he saw it and heard of our adventure. "Sahib! Beware! Nahra was a clever man. He must have used the spirit of the white tiger as his tool. Let the medicine man examine the scar."
"I did so. I took Eric to a Dr. Nicholson, who lived close by.
"He looked at the wound curiously for a few moments, and then said to me--he was renowned for his plain speaking--"Mr. De Silva, there"s no use beating about the bush, and prolonging the agony unnecessarily for you and your wife. The boy"s got leprosy--G.o.d alone knows how! At the most he may live six weeks."
"The shock, of course, was terrible. Eric had to be isolated from everyone--even from those who loved him best--and died within a month.
""Sahib, I knew!" Cushai said to me the day of the funeral, "I knew some disaster would befall you. Nahra was a wonderful man, and his curse had to be fulfilled. You may rest a.s.sured, however, nothing further will befall you, for I saw Nahra in a vision this morning, and he told me both his and the white tiger"s spirit were now on friendly terms, and would trouble you no more."
"My wife and I left the place at once, and for a long time I lived in a h.e.l.l of suspense lest she should develop the infernal disease. By a merciful providence, however, she did no such thing, but, on the contrary, picked up in health in the most marvellous fashion; indeed, she only told me yesterday, she felt better than she had done for years.
I"ve told you the story, O"Donnell--and it is true in every detail--because it goes a long way to substantiate your theory that animals, as well as human beings, have a future life."
"I am absolutely sure they have!" I replied.
_Jungle Animals and Psychic Faculties_
It is, of course, impossible to say whether animals of the jungle possess psychic faculties, without putting them to the test, and this, for obvious reasons, is extremely difficult. But since I have found that such properties are possessed--in varying degree--by all animals I have tested, it seems only too probable that bears and tigers, and all beasts of prey, are similarly endowed.
It would be interesting to experiment with a beast of prey in a haunted locality; to observe to what extent it would be aware of the advent of the Unknown, and to note its behaviour in the actual presence of the phenomena.
PART III
BIRDS AND THE UNKNOWN
CHAPTER VII
BIRDS AND THE UNKNOWN
As Edgar Allan Poe has suggested in his immortal poem of "The Raven,"
there is a strong link between certain species of birds and the Unknown.
We all know that vultures, kites and crows scent dead bodies from a great way off, but we don"t all know that these and other kinds of birds possess, in addition, the psychic property of scenting the advent not only of the phantom of death, but of many, if not, indeed, all other spirits. Within my knowledge there have been cases when, before a death in the house, ravens, jackdaws, canaries, magpies, and even parrots, have shown unmistakable signs of uneasiness and distress. The raven has croaked in a high-pitched, abnormal key; the jackdaw and canary have become silent and dejected, from time to time shivering; the magpie even has feigned death; the parrot has shrieked incessantly. Owls, too, are sure predictors of death, and may be heard hooting in the most doleful manner outside the house of anyone doomed to die shortly.
In an article ent.i.tled "Psychic Records," the editor of the _Occult Review_ (in the August number, 1905) supplies the following anecdotes of ghosts of birds furnished him by his correspondents.
"In the autumn of 1877 my husband was lying seriously ill with rheumatic fever, and I had sat up several nights. At last the doctors insisted on my going to bed; and very unwillingly I retired to a spare room. While undressing I was surprised to see a very large white bird come from the fireplace, make a hovering circle round me, and finally go to the top of a large double chest of drawers. I was too tired to trouble about it, and thought I would let it remain until morning. The next morning I said to the housemaid:
""There was a large bird in the spare room last night, which flew to the top of the drawers. See that it is put out."
"The nurse, who was present, said: