~(pts)$ echo -ne "Hi\tThere\n" > dummy
~(pts)$ cat dummy 
Hi      There
~(pts)$ vi dummy
:set list
1 Hi^IThere$
:x
~(pts)$ perl -e 'open(FILE,"dummy"); print "A\tTab\n"; print <FILE>;'
A       Tab
Hi      There
~(pts)$