I cannot tell you all that passed during the half-hour that I spent in that lonely cave, but I know this, that I came out of it feeling that my Master had indeed given me the strength for which I had pleaded, the strength to act as His faithful and true servant.

I was waiting outside the station when Tom’s train came in from Saltburn.  He had not expected to see me again that night, and seemed pleased that I had come to meet him.

‘I think we shall have a fine day to-morrow, old boy,’ he said; ’what a dew there is!  My feet are quite wet with it.’

‘Tom,’ I said, ’I came to meet you to-night because I wanted to tell you something.  I am sorry, very sorry, to disappoint you, but I can’t go with you to-morrow.’

‘Why ever in the world not, Jack?’ he said.  ’I thought you were so keen on seeing Scarborough.’

‘Yes, Tom,’ I said, ‘but I am still more keen on something else.’

‘What’s that?’ he asked; ’do you mean Redcar?  It’s a stupid place, Jack:  nothing in the world to see, I assure you.’

’No, Tom, I don’t mean that.  I don’t want to change our plan.  I had rather see Scarborough than any other place; I’ll give myself a holiday on Monday, and go with you gladly, Tom; but I can’t go to-morrow.’

‘Nonsense, Jack!’ he said angrily.  ’You can go if you like; what’s to hinder you?  If you are willing to go at all, why on earth can’t you go to-morrow?’

‘Simply because to-morrow is Sunday, Tom.’

‘And if it is Sunday, what of that?’ said my friend. ’"The better the day, the better the deed,” and it’s ridiculous your talking in this saintly way about Sunday, when to my certain knowledge you’ve spent every fine Sunday boating on the river for the last two years or more.  No, no, my friend, that won’t go down with me.’

‘Tom,’ I said, ’it’s all quite true what you say.  I have, I know I have, spent my Sundays in boating or in taking my pleasure in some other way, and I am more sorry for it, Tom, than I can tell you.  But since I came here—­’

‘Since you came here,’ Tom interrupted me, ’you’ve gone and turned Ranter or Methodist, or something of that sort, and you’ve got your head full of all sorts of insane and ridiculous ideas.’

‘Since I came here, Tom,’ I said, taking no notice of his last remark, ’I have seen what I never saw before—­that I am a great sinner; and I have found what I never found before—­that Jesus is a great Saviour.’

’Well, I wish you had never come to Runswick Bay, if this is the absurd way you are going on, Jack, and after all the good old times we’ve had together too.’

‘And why shan’t we have good times together still, dear old Tom?’ I said.  ’I have entered the service of a new Master, that’s all; and, Tom,’ I said timidly, ‘I wish He was your Master too.’

Tom made no answer, but swung his stick round and round, and slashed at the thistles and the ox-eye daisies which grew by the roadside.  I tried to make one or two remarks, but I saw he was very much upset by what I had said, and he did not answer me.  He was vexed with me, and perhaps he was a little uncomfortable besides, and I felt it was far wiser to say no more.