would be a war that would cost hundreds of lives.

Later in the day a deputation of Rewa chiefs waited upon John
Starhurst. He heard them patiently, and argued patiently with them,
though he abated not a whit from his purpose. To his fellow
missionaries he explained that he was not bent upon martyrdom; that
the call had come for him to carry the Gospel into Viti Levu, and that
he was merely obeying the Lord's wish.

To the traders who came and objected most strenuously of all, he said:
"Your objections are valueless. They consist merely of the damage that
may be done your businesses. You are interested in making money, but I
am interested in saving souls. The heathen of this dark land must be
saved."

John Starhurst was not a fanatic. He would have been the first man to
deny the imputation. He was eminently sane and practical.

He was sure that his mission would result in good, and he had private
visions of igniting the Pentecostal spark in the souls of the
mountaineers and of inaugurating a revival that would sweep down out
of the mountains and across the length and breadth of the Great Land
from sea to sea and to the isles in the midst of the sea. There were
no wild lights in his mild gray eyes, but only calm resolution and an
unfaltering trust in the Higher Power that was guiding him.

One man only he found who approved of his project, and that was Ra
Vatu, who secretly encouraged him and offered to lend him guides to
the first foothills. John Starhurst, in turn, was greatly pleased by
Ra Vatu's conduct. From an incorrigible heathen, with a heart as black