as a hair's width, that edged the hill tops. And he whispered in the
darkness to his fellows: 'The dawn is coming.' But they, with fast-closed
eyelids murmured, 'He lies, there is no dawn.'

"Nevertheless, day broke."

The stranger was silent. The fire burnt up in red tongues of flame that
neither flickered nor flared in the still night air. Peter Halket crept
near to the stranger.

"When will that time be?" he whispered; "in a thousand years' time?"

And the stranger answered, "A thousand years are but as our yesterday's
journey, or as our watch tonight, which draws already to its close. See,
piled, these rocks on which we now stand? The ages have been young and
they have grown old since they have lain here. Half that time shall not
pass before that time comes; I have seen its dawning already in the hearts
of men."

Peter moved nearer, so that he almost knelt at the stranger's feet: his
gun lay on the ground at the other side of the fire.

"I would like to be one of your men," he said. "I am tired of belonging to
the Chartered Company."

The stranger looked down gently. "Peter Simon Halket," he said, "can you
bear the weight?"

And Peter said, "Give me work, that I may try."