On the other hand, unless they could head off DeBar, he believed that Culver Rann's chances of reaching the gold ahead of them would grow better with the passing of each hour.

To protect Joanne from Quade he must lose no time.

MacDonald would be in the same predicament, while Rann, assisted by as many rascals of his own colour as he chose to take with him, would be free to carry out the other part of the conspirators' plans.
The longer he thought of the mess he had stirred up the more roundly Aldous cursed his imprudence.

And this mess, as he viewed it in these cooler moments, was even less disturbing than the thought of what might have happened had he succeeded in his intention of killing both Quade and Rann.
Twenty times as he made his way through the darkness toward MacDonald's camp he told himself that he must have been mad.

To have killed Rann or Quade in self-defence, or in open fight, would have been playing the game with a shadow of mountain law behind it.