January 1932
20
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
THE RETURN m TIDE A Serial Story . . . By ZENOBIA BIRD
through; he would tell those fellows a thing or tw o ! As he heard steps ap proaching, he turned and started to walk slowly in the opposite direction. David saw him go, and stood still. “ I guess the Lord doesn’t want me to go after him tonight,” he said to himself. He began to walk rapidly away, thinking only that he would have to
C hapter X lì. . elson B arrington stood on the corner, hesitating. He shifted from one foot to the other. “ Why don’t the fellows come,” he muttered angrily, “ if they want me to go with them ?” He frowned for a moment at a fleeting question that confronted
make up in speed for the time he had lost, when oddly enough there came into his mind a verse in the chapter he had read that morning, “ And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” Half vexed at his own indecision, he whirled around, and in a minute, he was walking by the side of Nelson Barrington. “ Nelson, want to come along with a crowd of us to night ? That is, if you haven’t any other special date.” “ Where are you going?” growled Nelson. “ Our Young People’s Society has been asked to take the service at the Blind Home tonight. There will be quite a lot of singing, and we have a good speaker.” Nelson was about to refuse savagely, when he sud denly thought of something. “ Will there be any young people from the church over in the village?” he asked. David’s eyes twinkled. “ Why, yes. That is the crowd we are counting on for most of our help,” he answered pleasantly. “ I guess I may as well go,” Nelson replied, a little less grudgingly this time. “ I haven’t anything else special on for tonight.” When they joined the rest of the young people, Nel son’s eye quickly searched the group of girls, and when he found that Marian was not among them, he began to berate himself for being all kinds of a fool. Wouldn’t the fellows guy him if they saw him in this Christian Endeavor crowd! But he made up his mind to make the best of it, and he en joyed the little meeting more than he imagined he could. He and David and two other students walked home to gether afterward. Wjhen they reached their room, he said, as he dropped into his favorite chair, “ May I ask you a question, David?” “ Sure,” David answered heartily. “ That’s not saying I’ll be able to answer it, but I will try.” “ Do you believe all those things that were said, to night ?” David sat up straight, his eyes fastened searchingly on the face of his questioner. “ What things? What is on your mind?” “ Well,” Nelson began, “ tell me this, do you, as a college man, believe what you sang in those hymns about—about the blood of Jesus washing whiter than snow?” “ I certainly do, with all my heart,” David answered softly and reverently. Nelson looked surprised and said nothing for a moment. Then he began again. “ Granting for the sake o f argument that there is such a thing as sin, and that there is a holy and righteous God who must be appeased somehow, where
him. Was he sure that he wanted to go on this trip to the city with them ? O f course a fellow had to have some fun. The rest of them did, why shouldn’t he ? And then he thought of Marian. Since he had met her Sunday night, the whole world seemed different. He thril led again at the thought of her. How adorable she looked as she testified so sweetly and simply that she had “ come back” ! Their talk that evening showed him that she had indeed come back, far beyond where she had ever been be fore. To her, God was real, and she knew and trusted Him. The thought gave, him a jealous twinge. Would this new joy that had come to her only widen the gulf that sep arated them? He once thought he did not care; he knew tonight that he did. What had come over him anyhow? The old subject o f religion he thought he had settled long ago. But it did not stay settled; it had a way o f unsettling him instead. It was all the fault of his roommate. One could not be dead sure he was right in living as though there were no God when there was a fellow like David Hillman around. He looked at his watch. He would give them five min utes more. ,He. was, not going to stand waiting on the cor ner all night. Through the trees, across the campus on the other side of the street came the sound of a whistled tune. He thought he recognized that whistle, even before David Hillman came swinging into view. The whistle stopped, “ Hello, Nels, what are you doing ? Waiting for some one?” “ I thought I was,” Nelson answered ungraciously. The tall boy paused for just an instant and then went on down the street. He had almost reached the next corner when something made him stop and think of the boy waiting back there all alone. Would it do any good to ask him ? Wouldn’t do any harm anyhow. Sometimes Nelson seemed to be really interested, yes, almost hungry, but there were other times when he seemed so cold* and indifferent, so hard-boiled. And yet, as David recalled, it was after their last talk thqt Nelson had surprised him by offering to accompany him to the church over in the village.- And then last Sunday night he met that girl. He was different when he came home, and he had been different ever since. David retraced his steps back to the spot where he had left Nelson, while he breathed a little prayer for wisdom and grace, grace to take patiently the sneering refusal that Nelson was likely to give him. Nelson’s five minutes were up. He would not stand there to be stared at by any one else. He was mad clear
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