answered Patience cheerfully that it was nought.

"Thou art enough to drive a man mad with thy surly silence,"
exclaimed Jeph, whom this tussle had rendered much more like his old
self, "and after all, knowing that even though thou art not one of
the holy ones, thou wilt not tell a lie, it comes to the same thing.
I know thou wottest where these things are, and it is only thy sullen
scruples that hinder thee from speaking. Nevertheless, I shall leave
no stone unturned till I find them! For what is written 'Thou shalt
break down their altars.'"

"Jeph," said Stead, firmly. "You left home because of your grief and
rage at father's death. Would you have me break the solemn charge he
laid on me?"

"Father was a good man after his light," said Jeph, a little
staggered, "but that light was but darkness, and we to whom the day
itself is vouchsafed are not bound by a charge laid on us in
ignorance. Any way, he laid no bonds on me, but I must needs leave
thee alone in thy foolishness of bondage! Come, Patience, wench, and
aid me, I know this rock is honeycombed with caves, like a rabbit
warren, no place so likely."

"I help thee--no indeed'" cried Patience. "Would I aid thee to do
what would most grieve poor father, that thou once mad'st such a work
about! I should be afraid of his curse."

Possibly if Jeph had not pledged himself to his comrades to overcome
his brother's resistance, and bring back the treasures, he might have
desisted; but what he did was to call to Rusha to bring him a