And then if the circumstances are going to be uncomfortable you could give it all up--at least for the present."

Dana shook his head.

"Thank you, no," he said gratefully. "I must go. You know, I shall not be going alone. God will be with me. If it hadn't been for that I couldn't have gone. If my father hadn't known that God was real to me, and that I would feel His presence and guidance, he would not have asked me to go. It is just something that has to be done, and it is my job. I thank you from my heart for your offer of help, but at present I don't see anything that you can do. I'll ask you when there is."

"I only thought it might make things easier for you if you just knew all the circumstances before you went."

"It doesn't have to be made easier for me, does it?" Dana gave his friend a bewildering smile. "And I'm not sure it would if I knew any more circumstances than I do now. I'm afraid I should lose my nerve and run away to hide. I already know too much for my own comfort."

"But, Dana, just what is it you are going to do? Go and preach the Gospel to your reluctant family?"

"Not preach," said Dana decidedly. "Practice, perhaps. Just go and see, and let the Lord open the way if He will. If not, I can go back home again."

Bruce winked the mist away from his eyes.

"You're being rather wonderful about this, Dana, do you know it? I always thought you were wonderful, but now I know it."

"Oh, no," said Dana decidedly. "I've just been finding out what a coward I am. But I'm finding out, too, what a wonderful God I have."

"Yes, that's true, too," said Bruce with fervor. "Well, suppose you tell me what your plans are. Are you going to your mother's house to live while you are in the East? Is she expecting you? Or would there be a chance for us to bunk together for a time?"

Dana's brilliant smile beamed out.

"That would be great!" he said. "No, I'm not going to force myself on them, and my mother does not know I am coming. I would rather have some habitation to hail from, even if it is only a fourth floor hall bedroom. That's about all I can afford just now anyway."

"Then we'll bunk together!" said Bruce delightedly. "I have a room engaged in a fairly decent neighborhood. Nothing grand, of course, and you'll share it with me, as my guest! Yes. That's understood, for I had the room before I knew you were in this part of the world, and you know that any spot on earth is brighter for me if you are in it. It was that way for four years in college and it'll stay that way with me all my life."

"Look out there, brother, that's a pretty big proposition you're taking on, for life!"

"I mean it!" said Bruce. "It's not a new resolve. It's a vow I made in college when I saw you deliberately step back from honors you might have had and let a younger fellow who was struggling hard take them. I've remembered it a number of times since when I've seen you do other things as selflessly, with a look in your face as if you'd been crowned. I didn't know what it all meant at first, but afterward when you led me to know your Lord I understood.