“But before he got home he was accosted the third time with a severe stroke with a gun [and] when he struck the last one he dislocated his thumb.” — Lucy Mack Smith1
Word of the plates had gotten out, and Joseph had to make preparations to retrieve the plates. The night he went to meet Moroni and retrieve the record, Joseph asked his father to keep an eye out on one man he was worried about, declaring that if the man went to the Hill Cumorah, Joseph would "thrash the stumps with him.”2
When Joseph went to retrieve the plates, the Angel Moroni appeared and warned the young man that if Joseph treated the plates with carelessness or neglected them, he would be cut off. But if Joseph were to put all his efforts into safeguarding the plates, they would be protected.3
Joseph took the plates and carried them down the hill, but instead of taking them all the way home, he hid them in a hollow log for safety until he could return with a lockbox.4
The next morning, as Joseph Jr. was out working for money to buy the lockbox, his father overheard a group of men planning to steal the plates. He went home and sent Emma riding to find her husband. Joseph hurried to the hill and hollow log, wrapped the plates in a shirt, and ran for home. He was attacked three times on his route, taking a blow from the butt of a gun and dislocating his thumb.5 But even while hefting the approximately 40- to 60-pound plates,6 Joseph successfully fought off the attackers and got the sacred record safely to his family's home.5
