Oman was dimly aware of being stripped of his robes, of having the other garments put upon him. Then he received into his hand the food. After that he followed his preceptor quietly out into the empty veranda. Behind them the monastery was still. Over the great world beyond, the golden moon was slowly rising. In its light, Oman turned a dumb face to the man he had so worshipped. He saw that Hushka was suffering—suffering as perhaps high Sakyamuni had not suffered. Neither one of them, however, could speak. Hushka, with an air of benediction, pressed his fingers, once, to the cold brow of the outcast. Then,—he was gone. Oman was alone on the brink of the world, irrevocably and forever shut out from the protecting walls behind him. Outcast of men, he stood, facing life. And, since he had already drunk the dregs of feeling, mercifully his heart was numb. After a little he moved off, unsteadily, into the faint-starred blackness of the ravine: halted, went on again to the edge of moonlight, and then paused once more, struck by some new thought, expectant, his head uplifted. Out of the night came the sound of whirring wings. He opened wide his arms, and into them flew a small, gray bird that nestled to his breast as if it had been at home. Holding the mysterious creature close, Oman proceeded, staggering, through the night, down and down the ravine, till all the Viharas were passed, and a few lights, twinkling in the distance, showed him the town of Bágh. Then, utterly exhausted in body and mind, he crawled, on his hands and knees, under a spreading bush, and, with the bird still warm in his bosom, gave himself up to merciful sleep. CHAPTER VIII THE OUTCAST Blank hours passed. The glimmer of false dawn came and went again. At last the day, inevitable, rose, like an opal, out of the East. The silent world was overspread with clear light; and, in its first moments, the bird, which till now had lain motionless on Oman’s breast, fluttered up, hovered for a second over the quiet form, and then took flight, winging away into the invisible. Oman was still sleeping: a heavy, transitional sleep.