’Your father is bitten with Ophir,’ he answered. ’He and I have nearly come to hard words. It is the first time we have had any difference, and we have been warm on both sides. I must find out about Ophir, if only to save him; for Tramplara has woven his web round him, and has so dusted his eyes with gold that he can neither free himself nor see clearly where he is. He will infallibly be brought to ruin again by that wretched old man, unless I get to the bottom of the mystery of this accursed Ophir.’ ’Oh, Mr. Herring!’ pleaded Cicely, putting her hands together; ’do—do help us.’ ’Yes, _Miss_ Cicely.’ ’I beg your pardon,’ she said, and the clouds cleared from her pleasant face. ’Cousin John, what should we—what should I do without you?’ ’I have done nothing as yet. But I am determined to expose Ophir, and by so doing to save your father.’ ’How will you set about it?’ ’I have a clue—a shekel.’ John Herring went in search of Grizzly. The old savage was now generally to be found near Ophir. The mine exercised a strange attraction on the wild old man. The visitors spoke to him, and asked him questions about the Giant’s Table, and the Jews, and the gold, and then made him presents. Some of the more intemperate among the Temperates had serious thought of setting him up as a representative of Jonadab the son of Rechab, and put leading questions to him, to elicit from him traditions of such descent. But further inquiries into the habits and peculiarities of his parent stock at Nymet damped their enthusiasm. The Nymet savages, even if temperate, which was doubtful, were not shining moral lights to hold up as examples in other particulars. Grizzly had become somewhat civilised by association with human beings. When he was tired of being questioned, he rambled off upon the moors, and disappeared up the stream in the direction of Rayborough Pool, but not for long. The stir of Ophir drew him back. He liked watching the stampers, and to stand on the bank above the washing floors, chuckling and sniggering at the people examining the sediment and picking out the glittering grains. There Herring found him. He at once attacked him on the subject of the shekel.