“The darkness grew; high over my head at either side of the road waved the grass, rustling to and fro, and singing to sleep the insects nestling on its green stalks with its old-time song of the jungle.

“The grass ahead of me slowly parted; my heart beat quicker, the tapping behind me ceased—­it was only some small animal.  What was it?  A small hyaena?  No.  A jackal, a lame jackal, and it looked at me from out of eyes that for some reason or other made me shiver.  I did not know what there was about the jackal that was different from what I had seen in any other jackal, but there was a something.  And as I looked at it in awe, it vanished—­melted into thin air.

“The moment after a second jackal appeared just where the other one had been standing, but there was nothing remarkable about this one, and on my bending down, pretending to look for a stone to throw at it, it slunk back silently and stealthily whence it had come, and I hurried on faster than ever, knowing a tiger was near at hand.

“Tap! tap! tap!  I blessed the presence of the blind man.

“‘For God’s sake, sahib, stop!  For the love of Allah, sahib, stop!’ (You know how they talk, O’Donnell.) ’The jackals, did you see them?  I knew them by their smell, the smell of the living and of the dead.  Walk with me, sahib, for Allah’s sake.’

“Presently, O’Donnell, I heard a heavier rustling in the grass than the wind makes; a rustling that kept pace with me and went along by my side, never halting, but faster and faster, and faster.

“A short distance ahead of me was a patch of bright light, where the cross-roads met.  A few yards more and the jungle grass would end.

“I thought of this, O’Donnell—­the beggar might not know the road so well as I. He had no wife, no child; he was a leper, only a leper—­and my teeth chattered.

“Here the Colonel paused and wiped his forehead.

“I slackened my speed, the rustling by my side slowing down, and the tapping grew faster.  I was close to the whitened road.

“’Sahib, the blessing of Allah be on you for stopping.  Sahib, let me walk by your side.’

“(To the end of my days, O’Donnell, I shall never forgive myself, and yet I want you to understand it was for my wife—­and child.) I slunk into the shade.  Two steps more and the tapping would pass me.  The stick struck the ground within one inch of my foot; my heart almost ceased to beat; I gazed in fascination at the spot in the jungle opposite.  The heavy rustling had stopped; only the gentle sighing of the wind went on.  The two steps were taken, the blind man paused on the cross-roads.  He was ghastly in the moonlight.  I shuddered.  His eyes peered enquiringly round on all sides; he was looking for me; he had lost his way; he feared the tiger.

“Suddenly something huge shot like an arrow from the darkness opposite me.  I bowed my head, O’Donnell, and muttered a prayer, for I thought my end had come.