Then he turned and waved a mittened hand.

Mukoki heard the sob in his throat.

David tried to call a last word to him, but his voice choked.

He, too, waved a hand.

He had not known that there were friendships like this between men, and as the Missioner trailed steadily away from him, growing smaller and smaller against the dark rim of the distant forest, he felt a sudden fear and a great loneliness--a fear that, in spite of himself, they would not meet again, and the loneliness that comes to a man when he sees a world widening between himself and the one friend he has on earth.