The three Traven brothers — Dal, Mac and Jesse — are dark, tall, tough, and indistinguishable. In fact, the three are very similar to the three Sackett brothers Orrin, Tell, and Tyrel (the same three actors, Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, and Jeff Osterhage played the Traven brothers in the TV version of The Shadow Riders and the Sackett brothers in the TV miniseries The Sacketts).

The love interest in the novel, Dai's fiancee Kate Connery, is a stronger, cleverer, more plucky woman than Angie Lowe in the earlier Hondo (1953).

This increased strength and intelligence for a L'Amour heroine may have resulted from the influence of the women's liberation movement on American society. As Kate is more active in the novel than earlier L'Amour heroines, she is also more violent: She stabs one man in the throat with a pointed stick and leaves another to drown. Also, although Kate...