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we’re going to die, anyway. It’s just a matter of time and place and circumstances, and if you were home, Pete, you might fall off a horse and die. That’s always been part of your life, like it is of mine and Jeff’s here.”
    “I never thought about it,” Pete mumbled. “Never been to a funeral. Didn’t want to think about it.”
    “None of us like thinking about death, but ‘a wise man looketh well to his going.’ The Bible says that too. If you were going to go on a long journey over the ocean, you’d make some preparation. You’d get some money, get some baggage, say your good-byes. You’d do all kinds of things.”
    “I guess that’s right.”
    “Well, think of death as being kind of a journey. We all go on it someday. You might not go on yours for forty years—but like all the rest of us in this here army, you might go tomorrow. I think it’d be good if you made some preparation.”
    Jeff sat across the fire listening as Tom talked gently on.
    Tom loved the Bible and had memorized parts of it. Now Scripture after Scripture came from his lips. He dropped them casually, not hammering at Pete or threatening but explaining, as he went along, that everybody needs salvation.
    “Jesus is the only way I know, Pete,” Tom said at last. “He died on the cross for one reason. Not for His sins—because He didn’t have any. He died for your sins. And mine. That day I called on Him, He forgave me every one of them. That’s what we callbeing saved.” He hesitated, then said, “I’d like to see you saved, Pete. I always have, but you’d never listen.”
    Jeff added a word. “It’s easy, Pete. All you have to do is tell God you’re sorry and you want to turn from what’s been wrong in your life—and then call on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s it.”
    Pete Simmons looked up. His eyes were cloudy. He said, “That sounds too easy. I mean, there ain’t any preacher here. There ain’t no church to join. I couldn’t get baptized—”
    “All those are things that can happen and ought to—but God knows your heart. He knows there’s no preacher here. And if you’re saved, you’ll join a church and be baptized when you get a chance. You’ll do all those things. But all that comes afterwards. First you have to get saved. Then you can go on and be the Christian that you ought to be.”
    For a long time the talk went on around the campfire. Several times Jeff got up and replenished the dying blaze so that it flickered into life again.
    After Pete had asked many questions, he looked up and said, “I’ve been pretty much of a rotter. Never told anybody, but I’ve done lots of bad things. You reckon the Lord would forgive me for all of them if I’d ask Him to?”
    “He says He would. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,’ ” Tom said quickly. “That ‘whosoever’ means you, Pete.” He saw tears in Pete’s eyes. “I was saved about like this: Somebody was talking to me, asking me about my soul, and I felt bad about my sins. But then he told me I could call upon the Lord and be forgiven, and I did. Pete, the Lord forgave me when I did that. He’s been with me ever since. I think right now weought to do the same thing. Will you pray in your heart if I pray for you out loud?”
    “Yes, I will.”
    Tom began to pray, quietly and fervently, for Pete Simmons. When he looked up, he saw that Pete’s face was lined with tears. “Pete, did you ask the Lord Jesus into your heart?”
    There was a moment’s silence, and Tom held his breath.
    And then Pete said, “Yes! I done it! And He forgave me, ‘cause He said He would.” Then Pete’s face was filled with shock. “I don’t know how to explain it, but that fear, it’s all gone.”
    For a long time the three sat and talked about being in God’s family. Then Pete said, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. I may die anyway, but I know it’s all right. I sure do thank you two fellers!” He got up