Borders in "The Pocket Hunter"

The story that most spoke to me from the Mary Austin book was "The Pocket Hunter". I liked it because it dealt with an eccentric character, in a series of really absurd circumstances. Furthermore, it really kept an upbeat tone, which made it kind of like the anti-Blood Meridian. The protagonist is optimistic, cheery, and sociable, which lends him a highly likeable quality.
The pocket hunter seems to be in a transcendent level of peace within his natural surroundings. He doesn't carry a gun, and pretty much just lives off the land. This peaceful coexistence seems to be allow him to cross the border between humanity and naturalism. He is intimately tied to the desert and the mountains. When he becomes lost in a blizzard, he takes refuge with what he thinks is a flock of sheep. When daybreak comes, however, he discovers that he had been snuggling with wild mountain sheep! This kind of thing could only come from the Pocket Hunter.
The pocket hunter seems to bordered in by his fate. He has cosmopolitan tendencies, and every time he strikes a rich claim he travels abroad to spend his money. However, he always ends up back in the desert, pocket hunting. Austin uses this image to show the confines of our fate. We have things that we're good at, that we're meant to do, and try though we may, we are unable to cross that border. She ends the story by saying that "no man can be stronger than his destiny".