After that she went into her room. For half an hour Philip did not
see her again.

During that half hour he measured up the situation more calmly. He
realized that the exigency was tremendously serious, and that
until now he had not viewed it with the dispassionate coolness
that characterized the service of the uniform he wore. Celie was
accountable for that. He confessed the fact to himself, not
without a certain pleasurable satisfaction. He had allowed her
presence, and his thoughts of her, to fill the adventure
completely for him, and as a result they were now facing an
appalling danger. If he had followed his own judgment, and had
made Bram Johnson a prisoner, as he should have done in his line
of duty, matters would have stood differently.

For several minutes after Celie had disappeared into her room he
studied the actions of the wolves in the corral. A short time
before he had considered a method of ridding himself of Bram's
watchful beasts. Now he regarded them as the one greatest
protection they possessed. There were seven left. He was confident
they would give warning the moment the Eskimos approached the
stockade again. But would their enemies return? The fact that only
one man had attacked the wolves at a time was almost convincing
evidence that they were very few in number--perhaps only a
scouting party of three or four. Otherwise, if they had come in
force, they would have made short work of the pack. The thought
became a positive conviction as he looked through the window. Bram
had fallen a victim to a single javelin, and the scouting party of
Kogmollocks had attempted to complete their triumph by carrying
Celie back with them to the main body. Foiled in this attempt, and