title: The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales (Fantasy Masterworks)
author:  Rudyard Kipling 
description: Rudyard Kipling was a major figure of English literature, who used the full power and intensity of his imagination and his writing ability in his excursions into fantasy. Kipling, one of England's greatest writers, was born in Bombay. He was educated in England, but returned to India in 1882. He began writing fantasy and supernatural stories set in his native continent, such as 'The Phantom Rickshaw' and 'The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes', and his most famous weird story is 'The Mark of the Beast' (1890), about a man cursed to transform into a were-leopard. This Masterwork, edited by Stephen Jones, Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed anthologist, collects all Kipling's weird fiction for the first time; the stories range from traditional ghostly tales to psychological horror.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # The Mark of the Beast
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Sidney Watson
  
  
  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  * [PUBLISHER'S NOTE.](mabe_split_2.html#1_0_2)
  
  
  * [PREFACE.](mabe_split_3.html#1_0_3)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [THE MARK OF THE BEAST](mabe_split_3.html#1_1)
  
  
    * [PROLOGUE.](mabe_split_4.html#1_1_1)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER I. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER.](mabe_split_5.html#1_1_2)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER II. A “SUPER-MAN.”](mabe_split_6.html#1_1_3)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER III. “TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE
  
  
  DEVIL”
  
  
  * [CHAPTER IV. FORESHADOWINGS.](mabe_split_8.html#1_1_5)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER V. CRUEL AS THE GRAVE!](mabe_split_9.html#1_1_6)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER VI. “A REED LIKE A ROD.”](mabe_split_10.html#1_1_7)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER VII. “THE MARK OF THE BEAST.”](mabe_split_11.html#1_1_8)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER VIII. THE INVESTITURE.](mabe_split_12.html#1_1_9)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER IX. THE DEDICATION.](mabe_split_13.html#1_1_10)
  
  
  * [CHAPTER X. A LEBANON ROSE.](mabe_split_14.html#1_1_11)
  
  
  * [CHAPTE