nor shake his obstinacy and when I left them
I had almost determined to abandon the whole project, for I could not
think whom else trustworthy I could get. His idea of my own
participation was fantastic; I had long since come to the point where it
was necessary to delegate all such duties to subordinates.

_60._ Perhaps it was Joe's sly remark about it doing me good to be out
in the open, or the difficulty of getting a conveyance, but I decided to
walk to my hotel. Taxis of course disappeared with gasoline, but
ingenious men, unwilling to be pauperized by accepting the dole, had
devised rickshaws and bicycle carriages which were the only means of
local transportation. The night was clear and cold, the stars gleaming
in distant purity, but all around, the offensive smell of the disheveled
city played on my disgusted nostrils.

"In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Brother, are you saved?"

When the figure had come out from the shadow of a building to accost me
my first thought had been of a holdup, but the odd salutation made this
seem unlikely. "What do you want?" I asked.

"Brother, are you a Christian man?"

I resented the impertinence and started to walk on; he followed close
beside me. "Harden not your heart, miserable sinner, but let Jesus
dissolve your pride as he washes away your other sins. Be not high and
mighty for the high shall be low and the mighty powerless; in a short
time you will be food for grass. The Grass is food for the Ox, the
divine Ox with seven horns which shall come upon the world with a great
trumpeting and bellowing soon after the Forerunner."

I knew of the great multiplication of insanity and hoped I could reach
the hotel before he grew violent. "What is your name?" I temporized.

"Call me Brother Paul, for I was once Saul the worldly; now I am your
brother in Christ."

"Brother Paul! The radio preacher?"

"We are all members one of another and He who watches the sparrow fall
makes no distinction between one manmade label and another. All of us
who have found Christ Jesus with the help of Brother Paul are called
Brother Paul. Come to the Loving Arms, O miserable sinner, and be
Brother Paul also."

I thought it might be very confusing. "I have always been interested in
religion."

"O puny man. Interested in life and interested in death, interested in
being and interested in begetting, interested in religion and interested
in dung. Turn from those interests which the devil pays u