. Hale
threatened to shoot his son-in-law--the "Peeker," as he called him--if
he ever returned.

About these days, every other means of gaining a living without honest
work having been exhausted, the prophet thought it was time to find the
golden plates. Returning to the vicinity of Palmyra, Smith and his
followers began to dig for the plates on the eastern side of the hill.
It was announced that each one of the diggers must be pure in deed, and
that no evil thought must cross his mind as he worked. One night a spade
struck an iron box at the same moment that an evil thought seized one of
the diggers. The box sank to lower depths amid thunder and lightning,
while Smith announced that nothing could be done that night but to go
home and pray. They were more fortunate, however, in leaving their evil
thoughts at home on the night of September 22, 1826, for then, according
to the faithful, the golden plates were taken from "the Hill Cumorah
with a mighty display of celestial machinery." It is recorded that after
the prize had been delivered to the prophet by angels his eyes were
opened and he saw legions of devils struggling with a celestial host to
keep the plates concealed. On his return to Susquehanna with a bandaged
head, Smith gave out that he had had an encounter with the chief devil,
and been severely wounded by a blow "struck from the shoulder."

With the golden plates were also found the Urim and Thummim, the magic
spectacles or religious peek-stones, "transparent and clear as crystal,"
which should translate the hieroglyphics on the plates. There were three
witnesses who swore by all that was sacred that the angel of the Lord
laid these plates before them, and that "they were translated by the
gift and power of God." The three witnesses were Oliver Cowdery, who was
finally expelled from the brotherhood in Missouri; David Whitner, who
abandoned the Mormons and settled in Richmond, Missouri, where he still
lives; and Martin Harris, who quarrelled with Smith in the same State
and returned to New York to live.

Such a precious treasure as was now in the hands of Smith was not to be
"borne in earthly vessels frail." He applied to Willard Chase, a son of
that Clark Chase on whose premises the original peek-stone was
discovered, to make him a wooden box for the plates. The compensation
was to be a share in the prospective profits from the "Gold Book."
Chase's lack of faith in both the man and the book caused him to decl