Almighty. So dinna fret yoursel', but let me think while I may."

And so, far into the night, the Highlander lay silent, and John
Broom watched by him.

It was just midnight when he partly raised himself, and cried:

"Whist, laddie! do ye hear the pipes?"

The dying ears must have been quick, for John Broom heard nothing;
but in a few minutes he heard the bagpipes from the officers' mess,
where they were keeping Hogmenay. They were playing the old year
out with "Auld Lang Syne," and the Highlander beat the time out
with his hand, and his eyes gleamed out of his rugged face in the
dim light, as cairngorms glitter in dark tartan.

There was a pause after the first verse, and he grew restless, and
turning doubtfully to where John Broom sat, as if his sight were
failing, he said: "Ye'll mind your promise, ye'll gang hame?" And
after a while he repeated the last word "Hame!"

But as he spoke there spread over his face a smile so tender and so
full of happiness, that John Broom held his breath as he watched
him.

As the light of sunrise creeps over the face of some rugged rock,
it crept from chin to brow, and the pale blue eyes shone tranquil,
like water that reflects heaven.

And when it had passed it left them still open, but gems that had