At last he reached the dignity of able seaman, but I can bear witness that a less useful able seaman than he never darkened the door of a shipping office. And why? Because he had devoted all his low animal cunning to the avoidance of learning anything, lest he should be compelled to put it into practice, at the cost of some trouble to himself; and what he was compelled to know he purposely practised as badly as possible, so that he should seldom be called upon to do it. Briefly, and in order to put the finishing touches to this unattractive picture, he was almost as perfect a specimen of unmoral animal as any course of training for the purpose of producing such an undesirable human being could have resulted in. In this manner he passed the years of his life up to the age of thirty, drifting, like a derelict log, from ship to ship, and from shore to shore, all round the world. He was conversant with the interiors of most of the seaport jails in the world, for when under the influence of drink he was a madman, only to be restrained from doing deeds of violence by force, and utterly careless of the consequences of any of his actions. At last, in the course of his wanderings, he came to Calcutta, and was enticed by a shipmate up to the Sailors’ Rest in the Radha Bazaar one Sunday evening, when he had neither money nor credit wherewith to get drink. His shipmate was a Christian of very brief experience, but he had the root of the matter in him, and knew that the next best thing to preaching the Gospel one’s self was to bring one’s friends in contact with some one who could. So it came about that Harry Carter, finding Johnny wandering about the bazaars aimlessly and hungrily, proposed a feed to him, and by that means got him into the Rest, where, after his hunger was appeased, Harry succeeded in keeping him until the evening meeting. At that time the meetings were conducted by two American missionaries to whom it was a perfect delight to listen, as they told in quaint language, loved and comprehended by sailors, the wonderful story of the coming of Jesus to save poor fallen man. Theirs was not preaching in a general way--every man in their presence felt that he was being individually conversed with, felt that the story of the Cross was a simple narration of absolute fact, no mere theory of mysterious import, which only men and women who were specially selected and educated for the purpose could ever hope to understand. They told the wonderful tale in manly fashion, letting the God-given message just flow through them on its way from their Father to their brethren. And Johnny sat with eyes astare and mouth agape, as the straight, brave, certain words sank into his awakening mind. Wonder, incredulity, shame--all struggled within him, all newly born, for it could hardly be said with truth that he had ever realized any of these emotions before.