Suddenly a thought came to him that stopped him in the trail, his unseeing eyes staring down into the dark chasm of the river.

After all, was it so strange that Quade would do these things?
Into his own life Joanne had come like a wonderful dream-creature transformed into flesh and blood.

He no longer tried to evade the fact that he could not think without thinking of Joanne.
She had become a part of him.

She had made him forget everything but her, and in a few hours had sent into the dust of ruin his cynicism and aloneness of a lifetime.

If Joanne had come to him like this, making him forget his work, filling him more and more with the thrilling desire to fight for her, was it so very strange that a beast like Quade would fight--in another way?
He went on down the trail, his hands clenched tightly.