chapter 52 gale and the boys after an uncomfortable though chaste night sleeping on an army cot next to the ford engine block sitting on the floor in the middle of the quonset hut , gale was holding her own against the pack of hounds , from which richard was excluded , not due to lack of libido , the stimulation of which he experienced along with the nns ( any male not eunuchized would be included in this demographic group ) , but simply out of fondness and respect for gale as a friend and fellow junie .