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Updated: June 8, 2025
If, in some brief respite which this lady gave her hearers, Pepe Rey made an attempt to approach his cousin, the Penitentiary attached himself to him instantly, like the mollusk to the rock; taking him apart with a mysterious air to propose to him an excursion with Senor Don Cayetano to Mundogrande, or a fishing party on the clear waters of the Nahara.
"Warwick Sahib will go again to the jungles and Nahara will be waiting. She owes two debts. One is the killing of her mate and ye know that these two tigers have been long and faithful mates. Do ye think she will let that debt go unpaid? She will also avenge her own wound." "Perhaps she will die of bleeding," one of the others suggested. "Nay, or ye would have found her this afternoon.
Just as the beaters had started toward the fallen animal, and the white Heaven-born's cigarette-case was open in his hand, Nahara, Nahar's great, tawny mate, had suddenly sprung forth from the bamboo thickets. She drove straight to the nearest of the beaters. There was no time whatever for Warwick to take aim.
He trotted softly down the elephant trail, a dim, fleet shadow that even the keen eyes of Nahara could scarcely have seen. At first he was too happy to be afraid. He was always happy when the jungle closed round him. Besides, if Nahara had killed, she would be full-fed by now and not to be feared. Little Shikara hastened on, trembling all over with a joyous sort of excitement.
Besides, the superstitious Burmans thought that Warwick was walking straight to death that the time had come for Nahara to collect her debts. Warwick Sahib and Singhai disappeared at once into the fringe of jungle, and silence immediately fell upon them. The cries of the beaters at once seemed curiously dim. It was as if no sound could live in the great silences under the arching trees.
His little brave heart seemed about to explode in his breast. But it was the test, and he knew he must not waver in the sahib's eyes. "It is Nahara, and thou art a man," Warwick said again. "And now thou must wait until thou seest her eyes." So they strained into the darkness; and in an instant more they saw again the two circles of greenish, smouldering fire.
Nahara was deathly afraid of fire. Night after night she would creep round and round a gipsy camp, her eyes like two pale blue moons in the darkness, and would never dare attack. And because she was taking her living in a manner forbidden by the laws of the jungle, the glory and beauty of her youth quickly departed from her.
It simplified the problem of living immensely; and just as any other feline would have done, she took the line of least resistance. If there had been plenty of carrion in the jungle, Nahara might never have hunted men. But the kites and the jackals looked after the carrion; and they were much swifter and keener-eyed than a lame tiger.
When in answer to the reiterated questions of the members he said that he had come to Orbajosa with a commission to explore the basin of the Nahara for coal, and to survey a road, they all agreed that Senor Don Jose was a conceited fellow who wished to give himself airs, discovering coalbeds and planning railroads. Some one added: "He has come to a bad place for that, then.
He thought at first that it might be one of the villagers, coming to look for him. But at once the step was silenced. Warwick had a disturbing thought that the creature that had broken the twig had not gone away, but was crouching down, in a curious manner, in the deep shadows. Nahara had returned to her hunting.
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