icker, 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