There were not words enough in the English language, nor in any language, to make his attitude and conduct intelligible to them. - Jack London

Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time. This he had never experienced at Judge Miller's down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. With the Judge's sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge's grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse.

He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club and fang.

He was a silent fury who no torment could tame.