he had first seen her, he asked himself? Was it not a
long, long time ago, and had she not in that time become, flesh and
soul, a part of him? He put out his arms. Warm and trembling and
unresisting in that thick gloom she lay within them. His soul rose in a
wild ecstasy and rode on the wings of the storm. Closer he held her
against his breast, and he said:

"Nothing can hurt you, dear. Nothing--nothing--"

It was a simple and meaningless thing to say--that, and only that. And
yet he repeated it over and over again, holding her closer and closer
until her heart was throbbing against his own. "Nothing can hurt you.
Nothing--nothing--"

He bent his head. Her face was turned up to him, and suddenly he was
thrilled by the warm sweet touch of her lips. He kissed her. She did
not strain away from him. He felt--in that darkness--the wild fire in
her face.

"Nothing can hurt you, nothing--nothing--" he cried almost sobbingly in
his happiness.

Suddenly there came a blast of the storm that rocked the cabin like the
butt of a battering-ram, and in that same moment there came from just
outside the window a shrieking cry such as Philip had never heard in
all his life before. And following the cry there rose above the tumult
of the storm the howling of Bram Johnson's wolves.

CHAPTER XV

For a space Philip thought that the cry must have come from Bram
Johnson himself--that the wolf-man had returned in the pit of the
storm. Against his breast Celie had apparently ceased to breathe. Both
listened for a repetition of the sound, or for a signal at the barred
door. It was strange that in that moment the wind should die down until
they could hear the throbbing of their own hearts. Celie's was pounding
like a little hammer, and all at once he pressed his face down against
hers and laughed with sudden and joyous understanding.

"It was only the wind, dear," he said. "I never heard anything like it
before--never! It even fooled the wolves. Bless your dear little heart
how it frightened you! And it was enough, too. Shall we light some of
Bram's candles?"

He held her hand as he groped his way to where he had seen Bram's
supply of bear-dips. She held two of the candles while he lighted them
and their yellow flare illumined her face while his own was still in
shadow. What he saw in its soft glow and the shine of her eyes made him
almost take her in his arms again, candles and all. And then she turned
with them and went to t