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.”

There was silence for a time; then the stranger said, “Peter Simon Halket, take a message to England”—Peter Halket started—“Go to that great people and cry aloud to it: ‘Where is the sword was given into your hand, that with it you might enforce justice and deal out mercy? How came you to give it up into the hands of men whose search is gold, whose thirst is wealth, to whom men’s souls and bodies are counters in a game? How came you to give up the folk that were given into your hands, into the hand of the speculator and the gamester; as though they were dumb beasts who might be bought or sold?

“‘Take back your sword, Great People—but wipe it first, lest some of the gold and blood stick to your hand.

“‘What is this, I see!—the sword of the Great People, transformed to burrow earth for gold, as the snouts of swine for earth nuts! Have you no other use for it, Great Folk?

“‘Take back your sword; and, when you have thoroughly cleansed it and wiped it of the blood and mire, then raise it to set free the oppressed of other climes.

“‘Great Prince’s Daughter, take heed! You put your sword into the hands of recreant knights; they will dull its edge and mar its brightness, and, when your hour of need comes and you would put it into other hands, you will find its edge chipped and its point broken. Take heed! Take heed!’