Not without a slight twinge of trepidation did Philip step from his canoe to her.

He had not heard Croisset go ashore, and for a moment he felt as if he were deliberately placing himself at the mercy of a wolf-pack.

Josephine may have guessed the effect of the savage spectacle he had beheld from the canoe, for she was close to the water's edge to meet him.

She spoke, and in the pitch darkness he reached out.

Her hand was groping for him, and her fingers closed firmly about his own.
"They are my bodyguard, and I have trained them all from puppies," she explained.