As soon as he felt his body sufficiently recruited to proceed, Eiz-ood-Deen commenced his journey towards Ghizny. He had a long and dreary way before him, but was supported by the consciousness that, having been preserved from the tempest and from the natural ferocity of the tiger, he was destined to sustain a character in the world. There was an excitement imparted to his thoughts by the singular peculiarity of his condition, and the shadows of despondency began to dissipate before the active energies of his mind. A new field of speculation appeared to be suddenly open before him; and when the loss of those who were dear to him, and of his father’s treasure, passed like shadows over his brain, they were repelled as by a sunbeam by some elevating impulse of thought, and he pursued his way through the forest with a comparatively unburthened heart. The tiger continued to follow him, as if loth to relinquish the companionship of one who had been its associate in peril, and towards whom its natural instincts of ferocity seemed to subside into those milder ones which belong to the gentlest of the dumb creation. It frolicked before his path, and fawned at his feet when he rested, exhibiting the strongest symptoms of delight when he patted its sleek broad back, purring under the pressure of his hand, relaxing its large bright eyes into an expression of gentle satisfaction, protruding its huge tongue, and passing it over its formidable jaws, at once showing its power and its docility.
It was a strange thing to see a creature of such prodigious physical energies, and with a disposition to exercise them whenever opportunity might present itself, throwing off the habits of its nature, and, as if by some supernatural transformation, exhibiting the very opposite qualities to those which are innate with all its race. The circumstance appeared to the merchant’s son a happy omen of his own future success, and in the strength of this expectation he proceeded on his way. As he was walking leisurely through a beaten path in the forest, he heard something strike a tree just before him, and raising his eyes perceived that an arrow was sticking into the bark. He turned his head, but there was no person visible, and he paused in some uneasiness. Whence the arrow had proceeded, or from whom, were alike a mystery. That he had been the object of the archer’s aim he could not for a moment imagine, as the shaft had struck in the trunk of the tree at least three feet above his head, and he knew too well the dexterity of Indian bowmen, whether warriors or robbers, to suppose that so false an aim could have been taken by anyone accustomed to the use of this weapon. He was perplexed; he knew not what to think. At length he saw the eyes of the tiger fixed as if upon some object in the thicket. Drooping its ears and gently undulating its tail, it dropped a moment on its belly, then bounded forward, and was in an instant lost in the thick undergrowth which nearly covered the whole face of the jungle.
After a few moments a cry of agony was heard, which was answered by a stifled roar not to be mistaken. Eiz-ood-Deen rushed forward in the direction of the sound. He heard a low mumbling as he neared the spot, and making his way into a patch of small wood and jungle-grass, he there saw the tiger standing over a man’s body, which was dreadfully lacerated. Its paw was on the breast, into which the claws were fixed, the bone being in several places perfectly bare. The skull was crushed nearly flat, and the ferocious animal stood growling over its victim as Eiz-ood-Deen approached. A strung bow was lying by the side of the corpse, from which it was natural to conclude that this was the body of the man who had discharged the arrow into the tree.
The tiger began voraciously to devour its prey; and when Eiz-ood-Deen approached, and placed his hand upon it, the creature gave a quick short growl, raised its paw suddenly, and struck him down. He was stunned a moment with the force of the shock, but, rising instantly, he retreated a few yards, and found to his extreme gratification, that the tiger’s claws had not been protruded when it struck, as there was no wound.
The merchant’s son made no further attempt to interrupt the creature’s meal, which it was proceeding to despatch with characteristic voracity, when, on a sudden, several arrows were fixed in its body. Raising its head, it tore the shafts from its flanks; then with glaring eyes and erected fur, darted forward in the direction whence the arrows had been discharged. Its career was almost immediately arrested. It staggered and fell dead. As it advanced, there had been a second discharge of arrows, three of which entered its brain.
Eiz-ood-Deen saw with regret the noble creature lying prostrate in death, remembering the peril they had shared in the late tempest, and the tiger’s consequent gentleness towards himself. While he was gazing at the body of the prostrate beast, several men advanced from the thicket and surrounded him. “Who are you,” said one of them, “that the brindled savages of the forest seem thus to respect?”
“A poor traveller on his way to Ghizny, which he hopes, through your kind succour and direction, to reach.”
“But how comes it that yonder grim brute, which so unceremoniously banqueted upon our companion, who lies yonder with his eyes to the broad heavens, whither his spirit will never enter, did not make a meal of thee? He seems to prefer flesh that has been forest-fed to the tough and dry product of the town.”
“My history with reference to that beast is a strange one. We were hurled into the sea from the same ship, and clung to the same spar for preservation. The creature was near me in peril, and when we were cast on shore together, fawned before me instead of exercising upon me the savage propensities of its nature. Animal instincts are as inexplicable as they are wonderful.”
“A likely story, in truth! but whether true or false, our companion has been killed and you must supply his place. A tall sinewy fellow of your growth and bulk is sure to make an apt as well as a comely robber.”