It was not reason.

It was a hearkening back of the dog to that day long ago when Kazan, his father, had lulled the man-brute in the tent, the man-brute who had dared to molest Thorpe's wife, whom Kazan worshiped.

Then it had been the dog--and the woman.
And here again it was the woman.

She had appealed to the great hidden passion that was in Baree and that had come to him from Kazan.

Of all the living things in the world, he knew that he must not hurt this creature that appeared to him through the door.