As Burr examined him, he asked, 'Where do you come from?'

'Pennsburg, Pennsylvania,' said Buchman.

'Do the people back home know how famous you are?'

'Oh, no,' chuckled Buchman.

'What do you see on the screen?'

'Nothing.' A pause. 'I can just make out a patch of light.'

On the screen was a huge 'E'. A lens enabled him to see it. But nothing could help him to make out anything smaller, despite the specialist's patient experiments and Buchman's concentrated efforts.

'How long has it been since you were able to read?'

'About a year.'

Burr straightened up and looked down at Buchman. 'Doctor,' he said slowly, 'I am afraid that there is no optical device now made that can improve your sight.'

'You mean there is no hope. I suppose this will lead to total blindness?'

'That is the sensible way of looking at it,' said Burr, 'but you may keep what you have, as long as you need it; and only the Lord knows how long you will need it, and He doesn't speak.'

'Yes, that's right, only the Lord knows.' Buchman smiled. 'He doesn't speak ... but we must get Him to speak.' Then he handed Burr the book with its inscription.

In the same buoyant spirit he was gathering his team, 150 strong, to accompany him on what proved to be his last journey across the Atlantic. He invited a number of his American colleagues to go with him, each with a personal letter.

On 1 April he left Tucson, saying that the two winters he had spent there were among the happiest of his life. During the last week the house was thronged with friends of the most varied kind. A building contractor and his partner - one of the wives came from Italy - prepared a Neapolitan farewell supper of vast proportions in the kitchen. The guests included city, county and business officials, the ice-cream supplier with his family, a banker, overseas students; all sides of the city's life seemed to be there.

Buchman, however, was not looking back. 'We need something new, something absolutely new,' he said to those setting out with him. 'May the grace of God rest upon us to enable us to be different without end - constantly renewed. We are being lifted into spheres we have not worked in up to now. Everything must be different. Our nations must be different.

'Are we ready for the ideological battle? No, we are not. We have done a little, but we need to do much more.'10

520