This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between Captain Hobbes and his son-in-law, the Captain's son. The two men discuss the situation in the mines, and the Captain tells his son that they need to open the shafts again. The Captain says that they should have reopened the shafts five days earlier, but that the griffins's gold has ruined the whole operation. Captain Hobbes says that the mining company has turned the mine office into a "command center" , with about thirty people guarding the entrances and exits. He says that he and the other men have been talking about the incarnate Griffin, who they believe to be a real man, and that the Griffin's daughter did not approve of him. The men decide to put down the Griffin, and Captain Hobbes thanks the Captain for his advice. He tells the Captain that he is a father to the boys in the north, and they need him to protect them from the monsters that are telling them stories about them. They need a man like him, he says, with "wits and grit" .