"He is not a believer. He would seek my life. Moreover, I must journey in the opposite direction to Middoni for my elder brother Aaron and his friends, Muloki and Ammah, are in prison there. I go to deliver them."
"I know that in the strength of the Lord you can do all things, but I shall go with you. Antiomno, king of Middoni, is a friend of mine and I will flatter him that he will release your brethren from prison." He added curiously. "Who told you that they were in prison?"
"The voice of the Lord. Much of the power you attribute to me is gained through listening to the inner spirit that always prompts me aright."
Without question the king ordered his chariots and horses to be got ready for the journey. "We will travel together," he said. "Perhaps I may be able to help even you."
When a king journeyed it meant the moving of a cavalcade. That they might travel faster, Lamoni simplified his preparations. Besides his immediate servants he took only a small body guard. As he went as the guest of a neighboring king, what he lacked in number he made up in magnificence. He remarked to Ammon as they started out that they would fall an easy prey to robbers who could see their gold from afar off.
To give color to his predictions, they had not gone far when they descried a cloud of dust across the plains.
"Whoever they are, they far outnumber us." They had all been straining their eyes when Lamoni raised a shout. "It is my father, the old king himself. Only the ruler of all the Lamanites would travel with such a concourse."
The new comers bore rapidly down on them, and soon the heavy chariot of the emperor shot out and pulled up along side of them. The old man embraced his son but scowled at the white man.
"Why didn't you come to my feast?" he demanded. "And where are you going with this Nephite, who is the son of a liar?"
"I accompany him to get his brother out of prison in Middoni." He explained his absence at the feast by telling how he had lain as if dead for two days, and would probably have been buried alive had it not been for the missionary.