Then the Gulab drew from his arms and her face was radiant, a soft exultation illumined her eyes.
"That is all, Sahib," she said. "Bootea passes now, goes out to kailas in a happy dream. Go, Sahib, and do not remain below for this is so beautiful. You must ride forth in content."
She took him by the arm and gently led him to the door.
And from without he could hear a chorus of a thousand voices, its burden being, "The Kurban!"
Barlow turned, one foot in the sunshine and one in the cloister's gloom, and kissed Bootea; and she could feel his hot tears upon her cheek.
Once more he pleaded, "Renounce this dreadful sacrifice."
But the girl smiled up into his face, saying, "I die happily, husband.
Perhaps Indra will permit Bootea to come back in spirit to the Sahib."
The High Priest strode to the entrance of the cloister, his eyes holding the abstraction of one moving in another world; he seemed oblivious of the Englishman's presence as he said:
"Come forth, ye who seek kailas through Omkar."
As Barlow staggered, almost blind, over the stony path from the cloister, he saw the group of sixteen Brahmins, their foreheads and arms carrying the white bars of Siva.