He had a grim sense of honor, and a particularly devout one when it had to do with women, and though he conceded nothing of right and justice in the relationship which existed between the woman he loved and John Graham, he knew that she must go.

To remain at the range was the one impossible thing for her to do.

He would take her to Tanana.

He would go with her to the States.
The matter would be settled in a reasonable and intelligent way, and when he came back, he would bring her with him.
But beneath this undercurrent of decision fought the thing which his will held down, and yet never quite throttled completely--that something which urged him with an unconquerable persistence to hold with his own hands what a glorious fate had given him, and to finish with John Graham, if it ever came to that, in the madly desirable way he visioned for himself in those occasional moments when the fires of temptation blazed hottest.
The fourth night he said to Tautuk: "If Keok should marry another man, what would you do ?" It was a moment before Tautuk looked at him, and in the herdsman's eyes was a wild, mute question, as if suddenly there had leaped into his stolid mind a suspicion which had never come to him before.

Alan laid a reassuring hand upon his arm.
"I don't mean she's going to, Tautuk," he laughed.