"It is the enemy that speaks, Iddo," said her mother, "and, if you are not careful, another more dangerous will come to the help of Discontent. Once let him get a hold on you and you will find he is a constant annoyance, and it will need all the strength you have to shake him off."
"What is his name, Mother?" asked Iddo.
"His name is Depression. He comes with tears and groans at first and you are inclined to pity him, but, if you harbour him even for a day, he begins to bind you with invisible chains till you suddenly awake to find yourself in his grip."
"Mother, has he ever worried you?"
"Yes, indeed," was her answer, "soon after your father left us for the Radiant City he came and attacked me. And it is because I know what he is that I warn you my child to fight him at once if he ever tries to get the better of you. Cry at once to the King when you catch a sight of him and draw out your sword. Never for a moment talk with him."
"What has Discontent to do with him?" asked Iddo.
"He is one of his scouts. He goes about to see how the land lies, and where he sees a favourable opportunity of Depression getting an entrance, he prepares the way for him. In fact, he is in his pay. Did you not notice how Depression had the poor wounded man in his grip? If ever he sees a man worsted in the fight, he at once joins company with him. I do not know what other enemy had wounded the man we passed, but I know that Depression was standing over him with his poisoned arrows, hoping to kill him."
"Then I must have nothing to do with him," said Iddo, "and I must pray for Amer instead of dreaming about him so much. I shall grow happy praying for him."
And Amer needed the prayers of his little friend and of her mother, for his path now led him through a very dangerous part of his journey; and what made it all the more so for him was the fact, that for the greater part of the way, some of the words of the preacher to the crowd, to whom he had listened, filled his mind.
Amer did not know that the enemy Doubt was walking invisible by his side, suggesting difficulties in the Guide Book, neither did he know that the decision to talk over some of these difficulties with the people he met was also the work of the enemy.