Eden gave him a quick, frightened glance.
"Oh, I wish you could go with me, if you wouldn't mind?" she said wistfully.
An instant tender smile responded.
"Of course I will," he said, and his hand reached out and gave her hand a quick glad clasp.
"Thank you," she said, nestling her fingers happily in his for just a second. "You know," she added after a pause, "he might want somebody to pray. I wouldn't be able to do that very well."
"I think you could, and I think you will, if it seems to be what is wanted, so don't try to force me into the picture unless it comes about naturally. But I'll be right there ready to do anything that seems best. We'll trust our Guide to show us what."
So they reached the hospital.
"He's been almost gone twice," the nurse who conducted them told Eden, "and then he would rouse again and ask for you. I'm glad you've come. He seems so frantic."
He lay amid his wrappings and bandages, with closed eyes, like one dead. But when the soft footsteps drew near to his bed, he opened wild eyes and looked at them, studying each face. The nurse? She had promised him so many times that Eden was on the way. The strange young man? Who was he? A new doctor? And then Eden! His anguished eyes flashed into relief, and something like hope.
"Eden! You've--come--at last!" he gasped. "You--were--angry--but--you--came!"
Then as if the pent-up anguish of his soul had been waiting under compression, he burst forth with his trouble.
"Eden! Tell me--how--to die! You know--how----to die! You've got to--make--me--understand."
"Yes," said Eden, reaching out to take the hot, pleading hand held out to her. "Yes, Cappie, I'll tell you," she said, and Lance thrilled with the sweet sound of her voice, like a bell sounding the way above.
"Do you remember," went on the girl, "the day you united with the church? You bowed your head and said, 'Yes, I do,' when the minister asked you if you would accept the salvation that Jesus Christ freely gave you and take Him as your personal Savior? Don't you remember?"
"Yes, but I've been bad, Eden. I've--been a----great--sinner! I--didn't--think it mattered much anymore nowadays. I didn't think I believed any--more--but it's different--when you come to die! I see it's different now. I'm a sinner----Eden. Is there any hope--for me--a sinner?"
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!"
"I know--I've heard--that----but--do you--believe--it's so--Eden?"
"I do. I believe it with all my heart! And if you will just remember that He is your Savior, you can rest in that. You took Him once. Christ never lets go His own."
"But--I--haven't----lived right--not like--I promised."
"It is not your living that you have to trust in, Cappie, but His dying. He died to make sure that you might go home to heaven and stand before the Father, free in His righteousness, not your own, and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Will you trust Him to do that for you now?"
The hungry dying eyes looked up to her face.
"But, you see, I can't--" he gasped out. "I haven't--lived right."
"But Jesus never said whosoever lives right shall be saved," said Eden. "He said: 'He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.' "
Lance, watching her, hearing the sweet voice, could not but think how wise in the Word she was growing. The words that she spoke seemed really to penetrate to the dying mind.
There was stillness for a few seconds while the dying man tried to think it out. Then the poor bandaged head shook slowly.
"I'm not good enough," he said with a hopeless gesture of one hand.
Eden lifted her eyes pleadingly toward Lance, who stood just across the bed back in the dimness, and in response to her he spoke in his low, clear tone:
"Jesus Christ said, 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' "
The quick ears of the dying man heard, and he turned his eyes toward the stranger.
"Who--is--that?" he asked, looking back to Eden.
"It's just a kind friend who brought me up in his car so that I might get to you quickly. He knows Jesus Christ. He has been praying for you all the way up here."
"He--has?" Caspar turned back to the stranger in wonder.
"Will--you--pray--for me----now?"
"I will," said Lance and stepped a little nearer, half kneeling beside the bed, where the dying man could see him and hear his low-spoken words.
"God, our heavenly Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son whom You sent to take the sins of the world. We come to talk with You about this dear young man, who suddenly finds that he is called to meet You. He has just become aware that he is a sinner and not ready to go. He finds he has no righteousness of his own to plead, and all his own self-righteousness that he thought he had has become just filthy rags. He is ashamed to go home to You that way. Lord Jesus, we know that You have made a way to clothe him with Your own righteousness and to let him come home to You forgiven, his sin blotted out by the blood of the Lamb, his mistakes all covered by Christ's righteousness, if he will believe and accept Your free gift of salvation. We ask in the name of Jesus that You will now forgive and cleanse and save him, as he now repents his sin and cries out to You for forgiveness and help."
It was very still in the hospital room as Lance's voice ceased, and Eden kneeling beside the bed, watching Caspar anxiously, saw his lips moving. Then she heard a voice, strangely like the boy she remembered long ago:
"Jesus--Christ--I'm sorry! Forgive----help--save--I trust--in Thee. This--is Caspar--crying--to be--saved!"
His voice was clear and distinct as if he would reach high heaven with his call, and then he sank back on his pillow again. For an instant he opened his eyes and looked around him with an almost radiant smile turned on Eden, and then to the stranger.
"Thanks!" he murmured as his eyes closed, and it was very still again.
While they waited still in silent prayer with bowed heads, the nurse came over, and a little later she murmured, "He is gone! Thank you for coming! This would have been awful without you."
As they stood for an instant wondering if there was anything else for them to do, there was a stir at the other end of the room and a stylish person in becoming black came excitedly into the room. She looked wildly about her.
"Where is my son?" she demanded. "Don't tell me you have let him die before I got here. Where, where is he?"
"That must be his mother," whispered the nurse. "We've spent a lot of time trying to get her, though he didn't seem to care so much. He was more anxious for the young lady to come. Are you a--relative?" she hesitated and looked at Eden, puzzled as she asked the question.
Eden gave a slow smile.
"No, only an old schoolmate, but he knew I wasn't far away."
"Well, I'm glad you came before he went. But now it looks as if there might be a story time, and he's well out of it."
The haughty lady arrived by the bed and looked resentfully toward the girl and man standing there.
"Who are these?" she asked disagreeably, indicating by her manner that they were intruding.
"Just some acquaintances he asked us to send for," said the nurse. "They were very kind to come a distance in answer to his call."
"Oh, really?" said the mother in a supercilious tone. "Well, that was kind of them, I'm sure, but now, of course, we shall not need them anymore. I'll take care of everything. And Nurse, will you let me see whoever represents the hospital authorities at once?"
The two young people thus dismissed walked quietly out and down the long hall, still filled with awe of their so recent meeting with God and almost loath to leave alone with such a mother the dead boy who had needed them so desperately.
Chapter 20
Outside in the clear night air with the Christmas stars pricking out above them, making bright the darkness, the two found themselves walking along hand in hand.
> It was Eden who came to herself first and realized how warm and comforting that strong hand holding hers was. It seemed that it had been there a long time giving her assurance and a kind of peace. But she did not withdraw her hand at once. It seemed too sweet and natural, too much as if God Himself were there walking with them, showing them great things about life and revealing to them some of His gracious plans that they had not yet been shown. And this handclasp that held them side by side seemed a part of all that they had been through. A soul had been born into the kingdom of God and then passed into heaven while they watched and took part in the ceremony. It seemed that never again could they doubt and wonder about things as they had done sometimes before.
Then they came to where the car was parked, and paused, almost regretting that words must be spoken that might break the harmony of wonder in God's presence that had been so near, about them.
"Where are we going?" asked Eden, coming out of her trance and trying to be practical. "I suppose we've got to have something to eat, haven't we? It will take too long to get back to the city before we get dinner, won't it? Of course, Janet will get us something in a hurry if we wait."
"No," said Lance. "We'd better get something to eat sooner. Not here, I think. But I seem to remember a nice little restaurant not many miles from here on the way home. Shall we try that? It seems to me we need to rest a little, get quiet, and be refreshed after our experience before we start back. What do you think?"
"Oh, yes, I'm not hungry yet. And I'd rather get away from here now. I wouldn't like to risk running into any further contact with that awful woman again. How terrible to have a mother like that! Poor Cappie!"
"Yes," said Lance. "No wonder with a mother like that that he went to pieces when he got into war. One needs a mother all through life, even if she is only there a few years to start a right foundation. But this woman doesn't seem to have done even that."
"No," said Eden thoughtfully. "Poor Caspar. I didn't understand. I shouldn't have been so hard on him."
"Well, whatever you did or did not do in the past, you certainly undid any mistakes at the end of his life. I felt as if all the words you spoke were bright arrows that went straight to the mark of the enemy. You certainly must have been brightening your arrows since we last talked on this subject. I never heard better-chosen words to lead a soul through a dismal pathway of a Christless 'valley of the shadow.' "
"Oh, but I thought you said the Holy Spirit was to choose the words. My work was only to get the words into my heart and on my tongue."
"You had the Holy Spirit's choosing, I am sure, in selecting what verses you should learn. I do not doubt that. But I praise the Lord that you worked so diligently to gather them together where they could be used."
"Oh, I am glad you thought I said the right thing. I was terribly frightened. It seemed so daring to meddle with a human being's eternal salvation."
"It is, of course, if you are on the job alone," said Lance, "but we are never alone on such an enterprise. The Holy Spirit is there to inspire, to guide, and to bless."
"And I was so glad," said Eden, "that you were there. Your bringing in that Bible verse that just so fitted in that spot! I hadn't an idea what to say next, and then your voice came. It was just as if God made a picture of His plan for us and made it there plainly before us. And I was so frightened about a prayer, too, for I knew there ought to be one, and I couldn't have prayed like that. You said the very things that ought to have been said, to make him know God was there and was listening to him and waiting for him to come home. Oh, I'm so glad you came."
"And I'm glad I came, too. I wouldn't have missed that experience for anything. It will stand out as the most remarkable instance of soul winning at the last hour that I have ever seen.
"But here's the restaurant. How does it look? Attractive? It's very plain, I believe, but I've heard they have good food. Shall we stop?"
"Oh, yes," said Eden. "And I believe I'm pretty hungry after all. Chicken and waffles sounds good."
They went inside and found a plain large room, square tables, coarse but clean tablecloths and napkins, great pitchers of creamy milk, attractive sweet country butter and plenty of it, glass pitchers of real maple syrup, plates piled high with steaming waffles, unstinted platters of crispy fried chicken, and plenty of hot chicken gravy. Supper fit for a king; no great variety, but everything delicious. There was also homemade ice cream if one had room for such after the other good things were eaten.
"Why, isn't this lovely!" exclaimed Eden. "Why did we never find this place before? Let's come again sometime."
"Why, surely!" said Lance with a quick delight at the thought, remembering how he had been trying to school himself to the thought that this girl did not belong to him and probably never would.
But they had a pleasant supper and made much progress in getting to know each other better than they had ever done yet. That scene in the hospital they had shared would be a link that could never be forgotten. They had been together to the gate of heaven and escorted a lost soul in, and they could never lose the memory of how frail a breath held earth and heaven together.
They came out at last and drove homeward through the purple twilight, growing more and more quiet as they approached the city with its blinding lights. They were both saddened by the thought that this day with its nearness was over, and there was no promise of more such companionship ahead. For though there was no real reason for Eden to feel that this was so, she did have a feeling that somehow the old bar between them was coming down again. What was it? Some tie that kept him back from the free and easy familiarity that sometimes she had seen in him? She could not tell.
As they drove up to the Thurston house, they could dimly see a shadowy form at one of the front windows watching for them. It was Janet, of course, true to her lifetime form, looking out to make sure her nursling was safe. It was Tabor who laughed about it sometimes quietly with her.
"I've often wondered, Janet, what you would have done, supposing sometimes she did not come home on time. Who would you send for? Would it be the police or the doctor?"
But Janet took it all good-naturedly and kept her watch just as faithfully.
So Janet sat by the window when they drove up. But that cold little bar had dropped between their two hearts again and kept Lance from coming in, though he very much wanted to.
He said good night at the door, letting his fingers linger a trifle longer in hers than necessary and leaving with Eden that wistful, tender, true look that stayed by her even when she was asleep.
But it was Janet who interrupted even this bit of farewell, though she knew better. She opened the front door for them, unnecessarily soon, and burst out with her Scotch speech anxiously.
"And hoo did ye find Caspar?" she asked excitedly. "Was he really hurt bad?"
"Yes, very badly, Janet," said Lance gravely. "But fortunately we got there before he died."
"Deid, is he? Ye dinna maen it! Boot praise be, he's better in the Lord's han's than ever he was down here. And noo, p'raps it'll be possible tae feel sorry fer him without bein' feared ov him."
"Now that's a strange thing for you to say, Janet; whatever can you be meaning by that?" asked Eden.
"Wull, ye maun work it oot, my bairn, boot I've ben afeard o' yon lad since iver he began tae grow a mon, and I'm relieved that the Lord has took him over; I canna be sad he's gane. But the Lord allus kens best."
The eyes of the two young people met in a tender little twinkle of amusement at the quaint old woman, and their fingers, unaware of relaxed caution, gave sweet pressure one to another that lingered in both their thoughts through the long night hours and came out alive again in the morning, much to the upsetting of the decorum they were allowing their chastened young selves.
Chapter 21
Sometime in the dim watches of the night, the Lord came and talked with Lance Lorrimer in a dream, about the heaviness that was upon his heart.
"What is it, Lance, My son? What is so tro
ubling you?"
"Why, Lord, I've got myself into something that is breaking me all up. I have let my heart get all entangled with a girl who belongs to somebody else. I never meant to get into a thing like this. And I've tried with all my heart to break loose from it, but I can't seem to get anywhere with it. I just am loving that dear girl. Now what shall I do? Should I go away where I'll never be seeing her anymore, or is this a cross You are meaning me to bear all my life? I know that You are able to furnish the strength to overcome this and to live to please You, nevertheless, but I seem to have come to a sort of a crossroads where I must know which way to turn. Try as I will, resolve as I may from day to day that I will put myself in her way no more, constantly I come upon a situation where my duty to my job and my sense of decency make it necessary for us to be thrown together. Yet I could not refuse to go yesterday, even though I knew my desire was so great that I was only tangling my life up further. Yet the outcome seemed to prove that it was right to go. And now here I am, again pleading for help for this situation. Will You not make it plain for me what I should do? It is not fair to her or to me, or to the man I hear she is engaged to marry, that we should grow more and more near in companionship. I do not know what it is doing to her, of course, but I do know that it is making it very hard for me to go about my daily duties and do them right. If that is what You want, my Lord, it is all right with me, but You'll have to give me grace and strength for this new way."
Then a still, small voice spoke deep into his heart.
"Lance, My son, why should you think this girl could not be for you? Don't you know that before the foundation of the world I looked forward to your time and I planned her for a fitting companion for you? Why is it that you have drawn away from this great joy that I have planned to give you?"
"But, Lord, I have been told that she belongs to another."
"Yes? Who told you? One you know and trusted? Did you ever try to find out if this was true? Why not?"
"But, Lord, I was ashamed. I have no wealth to offer her befitting her station. I have no great standing in life, either financial, social, or intellectual. She is a wonderful girl, I know, and I would not try to win her away from all those worldly advantages she rates, as the daughter of a wonderful father."