Some were sitting by the road side with their heads bowed in their hands, the picture of misery; others were fast asleep, and Amer noticed that at the head and feet of these, little black imps were sitting keeping guard, so that at the least sign of waking they might administer narcotics and soothe them off to sleep again; some were raging and roaring about the streets, while others looked on laughing loudly, but their laughter rang hollow and suggested more misery than the sobs that issued from their fellows. Amer found he was not the only soldier of the King who had entered the City of Despair. Some were there before him who had, like him, been struck with its horror and misery, and were fighting with all their might the evil spirits which were enslaving so many. "What is the meaning of all this?" asked Amer. "It means," said one of his fellow soldiers, "that hundreds in this place have either not heard of our King or hearing of Him will have nothing to do with Him; and the Devil and his angels are doing their best to shut their ears and to lull them off into the sleep of death, so that the Good News may never reach them. We are here, and you, my friend, have been sent here, to proclaim the Good News and to fight the enemy that is destroying these people, soul and body; and the fight is long and fierce. We need to watch and we need to pray, and to hold close communion with our King. For we find the enemy will suddenly turn upon us and try and rend us, when he sees us bent upon destroying his work here and that we are resolved to do what we can to liberate his slaves. It is the greatest honour anyone can have to be led to work in this City, for it is in the forefront of the battle. But remember, friend, you must pray, you must pray." Then a great yearning came into the heart of Amer to tell these people of the King of the Radiant City, and he began to go up and down the streets proclaiming the Good News. Many a one looked up at him with eyes full of misery, to shake their heads with the cry, "Too late, too late!" "Nay," said Amer, "it is the King Himself Who has sent me to you. He would never have sent me had He not been willing to receive you." Others told him to leave them alone. "We do not wish to find out what we have lost: leave us alone, man, we have chosen our path and must stick to it," while some who had never heard of the King and His mercy, laughed unbelievingly. "Had your story been true we should have been told about it long ago," they said. "Nobody ever told us. Would people who have known such good news for years never have taken the trouble to come and help us in our misery if they knew it to be true?"