They’d told him that they liked him. They’d said that he was one of their people. They encouraged him to talk about himself and to share his problems. When he’d said what was really bothering him, they’d said that they understood. Somebody had understood him. He hadn’t thought it possible, yet from the first moment he went to one of their meetings, everything started to fall into place.

It’s not easy for the perennial individual to suddenly become part of the group. He was suspicious at first that he’d somehow have to compromise himself. He was worried that they’d stand in judgement of him and require him to change in some way. When he realised that they took him for what he was and seem pleased to know him, he knew that he’d go to the ends of the earth to preserve this new important force in his life.

When, eventually, they demanded their quid pro quo, he wasn’t surprised that it would take some doing. It might even be the last thing he did, but as he climbed the telegraph pole, the tools bashing against his leg, he knew that he was at last doing something he believed in.