When he took it out of his pocket he found that since last reading it several pages had gone. He remembered they had become loose while listening to the preacher to the crowd on the heath, and probably had dropped out during his journey. This distressed him not a little, and the words that met his eyes on opening the book added to his distress, as they seemed to corroborate all that Chisleu had been saying. They were these:
"'There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' 'The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.'"
As poor Amer bent over his Guide Book, feeling very sad at heart and beginning to repent of his folly and sin in not obeying the commands of his King, to "'turn not to the right hand nor to the left,'" Doubt was creeping about in the long grass behind him. Feeling a presence near him, Amer turned round sharply, and at last saw the enemy who had been for a time invisible.
"Studying your Guide Book," said Doubt, "why, I thought you had nearly given that up. Don't you remember the preacher, who told you that much that you imagined to be truth is after all only fable? How do you know that the Radiant City to which the Guide Book professes to lead you is not fable too?"
"Begone," cried Amer, "you have done enough mischief already to me. Begone, I say."
"But why this sudden change of front on your part? I thought you were enjoying yourself in this place partly because you were not quite so sure of the truth of your Guide Book. You felt that if the Guide Book was not true you need not walk quite so carefully along the road, and might at least rest and enjoy yourself on the way till you had made up your mind upon the question."
"Begone," cried Amer in distress, "I will have none of you. If you come any nearer you shall taste of my sword."
"Your sword!" laughed the enemy, "It has grown rusty by this time, you would scarcely remember how to wield it. Come, now, let me sit down by your side and talk over this matter."
But by this time Amer, now thoroughly convinced of his folly in having anything whatever to do with the King's enemies, wrenched his sword from its scabbard, and rusty though it was, wielded it to such good effect that for the time Doubt fled. But with the victory over Doubt, came a terrible sense of sin and fear. If the Guide Book was the Word of the Great King, if every word of it was true, if the King knew each act of his servants and even their thoughts, which the Guide Book affirmed, in what a terrible position was Amer!
Ever since he had lingered to listen to the preacher giving out his views as to the supposed unauthenticity of the Guide Book, he had been growing more and more careless; for instead of taking his difficulties straight to the King, he had talked them over rashly with all he met. His Guide Book had lain long unread in his pocket, for the speculations into which he dived did not help him to read it in order to get at the truth, but simply made him eager to hear all men's ideas on the subject, which ideas he imbibed almost unconsciously.