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 al