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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.
"'I wish this railway job here was over, I murmured, sitting with my elbows on my knees and looking over the flat ground, sun-baked and barren, away towards the dark jungles and the still darker mountains towering above them; and as I gazed a shadow seemed to blur my vision and a voice to whisper in my ears, 'Beware of my curse. "I took Cushai, one of the native servants, into confidence.
"'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.
"'Now, Cushai, I said, 'you know all the superstitions of the country the evil eye and the rest of them. Tell me, what can the dying curse of a leper do? "Cushai turned pale under his skin. "'Not of Nahra! he stuttered, swinging the knife with which he had been cutting maize in his hand, 'not of Nahra, the leper of Futtebah. Sahib, if you were cursed by him, beware.
"'You must keep the young sahib safe, Cushai said, 'and the white lady. I wish it hadn't been Nahra. "I took his advice. My boy, Eric, was more closely supervised than ever, and as to my wife, I begged and entreated her not to move from the house until the tiger was dead, and I searched for it everywhere. "The dry season passed, the wet came, and my work still kept me in Seconee.
"'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.
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.
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