"Ah!" said the man, "I have had to meet that foe myself, and I know his ways. Poor lad!" "Mother," said Iddo, "have we met that foe yet?" "Very possibly, my child, and may not have recognised him. Possibly he might not have taken such pains to overcome us, as he has taken with these two brave servants of the King. But any day he may tempt us, and so we must keep our eyes on the Radiant City, where dwells our King." "Madam," said Amer, "you do not look as if you had been much troubled on the way. What is the secret of your peace?" The slow traveller looked uneasily about him. "I feel the enemy is somewhere near," he said, warningly to Belthiah, "and he is listening for your answer." The mother gave him a grateful look, but answered simply: "We have had communion with our King, and He has given us peace." "And," answered the girl, "we are shod, you know, with the shoes of peace. I lost mine one day, and had to turn back to find them." "Besides," continued Belthiah, "we have so much to make us happy, so many promises to rest upon." "And, do you know?" said the girl, looking up confidingly into Amer's face, "it is not quite certain that we shall ever have to cross the dark river, which I cannot help sometimes dreading. The King may come to meet us Himself, and take us up to the City." "Yes," said her mother, "that is what helps to make us happy. We are looking for Him: and though we gather from the Guide Book that certain events must take place before He comes, they may happen very shortly." "No, no Madam, there you make a mistake," said an irritable voice behind them, and on looking back they beheld a short, stout man, who had evidently been making a great effort to catch them up, and now stood before them wiping his brow, and much agitated. His voice did not sound like the voice of one travelling to the Radiant City, as it was rasping and irritable, but the King's Mark was on his forehead, and he had his Guide Book under his arm. "I am always having to argue this point with people," he said, irritably, "there is no event that must happen before the King comes. But there I am, again," he added, ruefully, "always arguing, always disputing, and always irritable. I beg your pardon, Madam, but when I find people who do not see eye to eye with me in these matters, I seem to be unable to listen to them. My name is Chisleu, which means rashness. Alas! I am too rightly named." "Sir," said the girl, concernedly, "your shoes have gone." "Ah! that's like me!" he exclaimed, looking round to find his shoes just behind him, "always trying to set others right and going wrong myself. I lose my shoes, and then Temper comes and torments me. And yet I am devoted to my King;" and he gave a look towards the Radiant City, which proved to those around him that his heart was there.