FANCY FRANK continued homes. Then I told them I had a plan which I was pretty sure would work. However, they’d have to cooperate and do as I suggested even if at first the idea seemed ridiculous. There was some discus sion among themselves for a few moments and then the response was that they were willing to do as I would suggest, if it was anything they were able to do. “Thank you all very much,” I said. “I really appreciate your spirit ' and your faith in me, especially since I ’m a stranger in your midst. Now here is what I want you all to do together with me. Some of you will react unfavorably at first, although you really believe in do ing what I’m going to ask you to do and many times have done it on your own but you have never banded together and used it as a solution to a problem as big as yours or a need so urgent. I want all of you to spend the night in prayer. That’s right, you and I, all of us, right here, all night in prayer!” ^ s you can imagine, that was the very last thing that anyone ex pected a cowboy to suggest. Prayer! Whoever heard of such a way to win a battle against a man like Fancy Frank? They were sort of shocked. They just looked back and forth at one another for a while and then started talking among themselves. Then one of the older men spoke up, “Neighbors, you all know me. I ’m sorry to admit, and ashamed too, that I ’m not much on this praying business. But this man who has suddenly appeared out of nowhere is on the right track. As he said, he is a stranger but not to me. I He doesn’t remember me but I met him at Frontier Park in Cheyenne. The boys sometimes referred to him as Bible Joe because he always car ried a Bible in his saddlebag. He’s all right and I for one am willing to go along with him for an all night prayer meeting.” That set tled it. The man apparently was one of the leaders in the area and I so the rest of the folks were willing I to follow.
So far so good. I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving. Then I pulled my little Bible out of my hip pocket as they all watched and waited, knowing that I was going to read something. I turned first to Jeremiah 32:17 and then Jeremiah 33:3 and read, “Ah Lord G od ! be hold, thou hast made the heaven and earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.” After that verse I paused a moment, sort of to let it get a hold of their hearts and then I said, “That is the God to whom we shall pray.” Then I read the next verse, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” There was a holy hush in that ranch house when I finished reading and I hesitated a moment before saying, “And that great God is asking us to call on Him. Do you believe what I ’ve just read?” Almost instantly the answer came back as they all said, “Yes.” “All right, then let’s all get down on our knees and pray,” I said. Early next morning I sent them all to their various homes and told them to be back at Ben Willing’s place again that night. In the meantime the sheriff and I would go back to town and see what was happening. During the night Fancy Frank had been busy too. He had been overcome by a strange feeling. Something was in the air which he couldn’t figure out. An atmosphere such as he’d never been aware of before. It bothered him, made him restless and a feeling of desperation gripped him. Of course he didn’t know what it was but God was al ready beginning to answer prayer. A miracle was taking place. F ancy Frank had his right-hand man, A1 Ruffman, call all his men together and late that night they met in his office. All of them seemed to have an odd feeling about them. What was it? No one seemed to know. “I don’t know who this stranger is that showed up yester day but whoever he is I don’t like him. Ever since I saw him I ’ve felt
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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