Her
eyes were wide and filled with frightened inquiry as she looked
from the tell-tale trails in the snow into Philip's face. He was
glad that she could not question him in words. He slipped the Colt
into its holster and took the rifle from her hands. In the
emergency which he anticipated the rifle would be more effective.
That something would happen very soon he was positive. If one
Eskimo had succeeded in getting ahead of his comrades to Blake's
relief others of Upi's tribe must be close behind. And yet he
wondered, as he thought of this, why Blake and the Kogmollock had
not killed him instead of running away. The truth he told frankly
to Celie, thankful that she could not understand.
"It was the gun," he said. "They thought I had only closed my
eyes, and wasn't asleep. If something hadn't kept that gun leveled
over my knee--" He tried to smile, knowing that with every second
the end might come for them from out of the gray mist of moonlight
and shadow that shrouded the shore. "It was a one-man job,
sneaking out like that, and there's sure a bunch of them coming up
fast to take a hand in the game.
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