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The Call of the Wild - Jack London · Classic Treasures - Must-Read Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one into the primitive Old Longings. Nomadic leap, chafing
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: at custom's chain again from its brooml sleep wakens the
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  Speaker 1: ferine strain. Buck did not read the newspapers, or he
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but for every tide water dog, strong of mussel, with warm,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: groping in the arctic darkness had found a yellow metal,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men
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  Speaker 1: wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs,
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  Speaker 1: with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to protect them from the frost. Buck lived at a
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  Speaker 1: big house in the sun kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge
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  Speaker 1: Miller's place was called stood back from the road, half
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  Speaker 1: hidden among the trees through which glimpses could be caught
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  Speaker 1: of the wide, cool veranda that ran around its four sides.
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  Speaker 1: The house was approached by a graveled driveway which wound
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  Speaker 1: about through wide, spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs
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  Speaker 1: of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a more spacious scale than at the front. There were
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  Speaker 1: great stables where a dozen grooms and boys held forth,
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  Speaker 1: rows of vine clad servants, cottages, an endless and orderly
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  Speaker 1: array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures orchards, and
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  Speaker 1: berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: artesian well, and the big cement tank, where Judge Miller's
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  Speaker 1: boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: hot afternoon. And over this great domain Buck ruled. Here
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: he was born, and here he had lived the four
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: years of his life. It was true there were other dogs.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: There could not but be other dogs in so vast
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  Speaker 1: a place, But they did not count. They came and
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  Speaker 1: went resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in
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  Speaker 1: the recesses of the house, after the fashion of Toots
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese pug, or Isabel, the Mexican hairless, strange creatures
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  Speaker 1: that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot
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  Speaker 1: to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers,
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  Speaker 1: a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at Tootz and Isabel looking out of the windows at them,
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  Speaker 1: and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms
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  Speaker 1: and mops. But Buck was neither house dog nor kennel dog.
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  Speaker 1: The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: or went hunting with the judges sons. He escorted Molly
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  Speaker 1: and Alice, the Judge's daughters, on long twilight or early
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: morning rambles. On wintry nights, he lay at the Judge's
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: feet before the roaring library fire. He carried the Judge's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass,
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  Speaker 1: and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the
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  Speaker 1: fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the
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  Speaker 1: paddocks were and the berry patches. Among the terriers he
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  Speaker 1: stalked imperiously and tuts and Isabel he utterly ignored, for
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: he was king, king over all creeping, crawling, flying things
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of Judge Miller's place. Humans included his father, Elmo, a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: huge saint. Bernard had been the Judge's inseparable companion, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: He was not so large. He weighed only one hundred
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: forty pounds for his mother. Shep had been a Scotch
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: shepherd dog. Nevertheless, one hundred forty pounds, to which was
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  Speaker 1: added the dignity that comes of good living and universal
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: respect enabled him to carry himself in right royal fashion.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: During the four years since his puppyhood, he had lived
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the life of a sated aristocrat. He had a fine
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as country
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation. But he
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: had saved himself by not becoming a mere pampered house dog.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down the fat
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  Speaker 1: and hardened his muscles. And to him, as to the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: cold tubbing races, the love of water had been a
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  Speaker 1: tonic and a health preserver, and this was a manner
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  Speaker 1: of dog. Buck was in the fall of eighteen ninety
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: seven when the Klondike strike dragged men from all the
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  Speaker 1: world into the frozen North. But Buck did not read
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel, one
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of the gardener's helpers, was an undesirable acquaintance. Manoel had
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  Speaker 1: one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: in his gambling. He had one besetting weakness, faith in
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  Speaker 1: a system, and this made his damnation certain, for to
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  Speaker 1: play a system requires money, while the wages of a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: gardener's helper do not lap over the needs of a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: wife and numerous progeny. The judge was at a meeting
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of the Raisin Growers Association, and the boys were busy
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  Speaker 1: organizing an athletic club. On the memorable night of Manoel's treachery.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: No one saw him and Buck go off through the
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  Speaker 1: orchard on what Buck imagined was merely a stroll, and
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: with the exception of a solitary man, no one saw
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: them arrive at the little flag station known as College Park.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.
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  Speaker 1: Ye might wrap up the goods before ye deliver um,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the stranger said gruffly, and Manoel doubled a piece of
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  Speaker 1: stout rope around Buck's neck under the collar. Twist it
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and you'll joke him, BRENTI, said Manoel, and the stranger
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: grunted a ready affirmative. Buck had accepted the rope with
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: quiet dignity. To be sure, it was an unwonted performance,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: but he had learned to trust in men he knew,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and to give them credit for a wisdom that had
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  Speaker 1: reached his own. But when the ends of the rope
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: were placed in the stranger's hands, he growled menacingly. He
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: had merely intimated his displeasure in his pride, believing that
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  Speaker 1: to intimate was to command. But to his surprise, the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: rope tightened around his neck, shutting off his breath. In
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  Speaker 1: quick rage, he sprang at the man who met him
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  Speaker 1: half way, grappled him close by the throat, and with
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  Speaker 1: a deaf twist, threw him over on his back. Then
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the rope tightened mercilessly, while Buck struggled in a fury,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great
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  Speaker 1: chest panting futilely. Never in all his life had he
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: been so vilely treated, and never in all his life
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: had he been so angry. But his strength ebbed, his
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: eyes glazed, and he knew nothing. When the train was
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  Speaker 1: flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car.
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  Speaker 1: The next thing he knew he was dimly aware that
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: his tongue was hurting, and that he was being jolted
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  Speaker 1: along in some kind of conveyance. The hoarse shriek of
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a locomotive whistling a crossing told him where he was.
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  Speaker 1: He had traveled too often with the judge not to
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  Speaker 1: know the sensation of riding in a baggage car. He
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: opened his eyes, and into them came the unbridled anger
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  Speaker 1: of a kidnapped king. The man sprang for his throat,
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  Speaker 1: but buck was too quick for him. His jaws closed
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  Speaker 1: on the hand, nor did they relax till his senses
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: were choked out of him once more. Yep has fits,
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  Speaker 1: the man said, hiding his mangled hand from the baggage man,
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  Speaker 1: who had been attracted by the sounds of a struggle.
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  Speaker 1: I'm takin em up for the boss to Frisco. A
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: cracked dog doctor there thinks he can cure 'm concerning
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that knight's ride. The man spoke most eloquently for himself
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: in a little shed back of a saloon on the
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco waterfront. All I get is fifty for it,
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  Speaker 1: he grumbled, and I wouldn't do it over for a
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  Speaker 1: thousand cold cash. His hand was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief,
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  Speaker 1: and the right trouser leg was ripped from knee to ankle.
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  Speaker 1: How much did the other mug get the saloon keeper demanded?
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  Speaker 1: A hundred was the reply, wouldn't take a sou less,
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  Speaker 1: so help me. That makes a hundred and fifty, the
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  Speaker 1: saloon keeper calculated. And he's worth it, or I'm a
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  Speaker 1: square head. The kidnapper undid the bloody wrappings and looked
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  Speaker 1: at his lacerated hand. If I don't get the hydrophoby,
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  Speaker 1: it'll be because you was born to hang, laughed the
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  Speaker 1: saloon keeper.
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  Speaker 2: Yer.
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  Speaker 1: Lend me a hand before you pull your freight, he added. Dazed,
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  Speaker 1: suffering intolerable pain from throat and tongue, with a life
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  Speaker 1: half throttled out of him, Buck attempted to face his tormentors,
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  Speaker 1: but he was thrown down and choked repeatedly till they
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in filing the heavy brass collar from off his neck.
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  Speaker 1: Then the rope was removed, and he was flung into
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  Speaker 1: a cage like crate. There he lay for the remainder
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  Speaker 1: of the weary night, nursing his wrath and wounded pride.
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  Speaker 1: He could not understand what it all meant. What did
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  Speaker 1: they want with him, these strange men? Why were they
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  Speaker 1: keeping him pent up in this narrow crate. He did
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  Speaker 1: not know why, but he felt oppressed by the vague
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: sense of impending calamity. Several times during the night he
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: sprang to his feet when the shed door rattled open,
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  Speaker 1: expecting to see the judge or the boys at least,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: But each time it was the bulging face of the
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  Speaker 1: saloon keeper that peered in at him by the sickly
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: light of a tallow candle. And each time the joyful
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  Speaker 1: bark that had trembled in Buck's throat was twisted into
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  Speaker 1: a savage growl. But the saloon keeper let him alone,
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  Speaker 1: and in the morning four men entered and picked up
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  Speaker 1: the crate, more tormentors, Buck decided, for they were evil
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  Speaker 1: looking creatures, ragged and unkempt, and he stormed and raged
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  Speaker 1: at them through the bars. They only laughed and poked
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  Speaker 1: sticks at him, which he promptly assailed with his teeth,
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  Speaker 1: till he realized that was what they wanted, whereupon he
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  Speaker 1: lay down sullenly and allowed the crake to be lifted
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  Speaker 1: into a wagon. Then he and the crate in which
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  Speaker 1: he was imprisoned began a passage through many hands. Clerks
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  Speaker 1: in the Express office took charge of him, he was
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  Speaker 1: carted about in another wagon. A truck carried him with
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  Speaker 1: an assortment of boxes and parcels upon a fairy steamer.
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  Speaker 1: He was trucked off the steamer into a great railway depot,
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  Speaker 1: and finally he was deposited in an express car. For
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: two days and nights, this express car was dragged along
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  Speaker 1: at the tail of shrieking locomotives, and for two days
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  Speaker 1: and nights buck neither ate nor drank. In his anger,
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  Speaker 1: he had met the first advances of the express messengers
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  Speaker 1: with growls, and they had retaliated by teasing him. When
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  Speaker 1: he flung himself against the bars, quivering and frothing, they
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  Speaker 1: laughed at him and taunted him. They growled and barked
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: like detestable dogs, mewed and flapped their arms and crowed.
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  Speaker 1: It was all very silly, he knew, But therefore the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: more outrage to his dignity, and his anger waxed and waxed.
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  Speaker 1: He did not mind the hunger so much, but the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: lack of water caused him severe suffering and fanned his
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: wrath to fever pitch for that matter, high strung and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: finely sensitive, the ill treatment had flung him into a fever,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: which was fed by the inflammation of his parched and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: swollen throat and tongue. He was glad for one thing.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: The rope was off his neck. That had given them
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  Speaker 1: an unfair advantage. But now that it was off, he
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: would show them they would never get another rope around
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  Speaker 1: his neck. Upon that he was resolved. For two days
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: and night he neither ate nor drank, And during those
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: two days and nights of torment he accumulated a fund
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  Speaker 1: of wrath that boded ill for whoever first fell foul
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: of him. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he was metamorphosed
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: into a raging fiend. So changed was he that the
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: judge himself would not have recognized him, and the express
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: messengers breathed with relief when they bundled him off the train.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: At Seattle. Four men gingerly carried the crate from the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: wagon into a small, high walled back yard. A stout
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: man with a red sweater that sagged generously at the neck,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: came out and signed the book for the driver. That
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: was the man buck divined the next tormentor, and he
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: hurled himself savagely against the bars. The man smiled grimly
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and brought a hatchet and a club. Ye ain't gonna
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: take him out now, the driver asked, sure, the man replied,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: driving the hatchet into the crate for a prye. There
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: was an instantaneous scattering of the four men who had
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: carried it in, and from safe perches on top the wall,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: they prepared to watch the performance. Buck rushed at the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: splintering wood, sinking his teeth into its surging and wrestling
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: with it. Wherever the hatchet fell on the outside, he
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was there on the inside, snarling and growling, as furiously
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: anxious to get out as a man in the red
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: sweater was calmly intent on getting him out. Now, you
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: red eyed devil, he said, when he had made an
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: opening sufficient for the passage of Buck's body. At the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: same time, he dropped the hatchet and shifted the club
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to his right hand. And Buck was truly a red
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: eyed devil. As he drew himself together for the spring,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: hair bristling, mouth, foaming a mad glitter in his bloodshot eyes.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Straight at the man, he launched his one hundred and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: forty pounds of fury, surcharged with the pent passion of
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: two days and nights in mid air, just as his
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: jaws were about to close on the man, he received
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: a shock that checked his body and brought his teeth
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: together with an agonizing clip. He whirled over, fetching the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: ground on his back and side. He had never been
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: struck by a club in his life and did not
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: understand but the snarl that was part bark and more scream.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: He was again on his feet and launched into the air,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and again the shock came and he was brought crushingly
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to the ground. This time he was aware that it
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was the club, but his madness knew no caution. A
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: dozen times he charged, and as often the club broke
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the charge and smashed him down. After a particularly fierce blow,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: he crawled to his feet two dazed to rush, He
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: staggered limply about the blood flowing from nose and mouth,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and years his beautiful coat sprayed and flecked with bloody slaver.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Then the man advanced and deliberately dealt him a frightful
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: blow on the nose. All the pain he had endured
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was as nothing compared with the exquisite agony of this.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: With a roar that was almost lionlike in its ferocity,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: he again hurled himself at the man, but the man,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: shifting the club from right to left, coolly caught him
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: by the under jaw at the same time, wrenching downward
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and backward. Buck described a complete circle in the air
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and half of another, then crashed to the ground on
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: his head and chest. For the last time he rushed.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: The man struck the shrewd blow he had purposely withheld
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: for so long, and Buck crumpled up and went down,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: knocked utterly senseless. He's no slouch at dog breakin, That's
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: what I say, one of the men on the walls cried, enthusiastically.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Draw the break chauses any day and twice on Sunday,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: was the reply of the driver, as he climbed on
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the wagon and started the horses. Buck's senses came back
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: to him, but not his strength. He lay where he
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: had fallen, and from there he watched the man in
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the red sweater answers to the name of Buck. The
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: man soliloquized, quoting from the saloon keeper's letter which had
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: announced the consignment of the crate and contents. Well, Buck,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: my boy, he went on in a genial voice. We've
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: had our little ruction, and the best thing we can
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: do is to let it go at that you've learned
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: your place, and I know mine. Be a good dog
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and all'll go well, and the goose hang high. Be
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: a bad dog, and I'll wail the stuffin' out of you. Understand.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: As he spoke, he fearlessly patted the head he had
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: so mercilessly pounded, And though buck's hair involuntary bristled at
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the touch of the hand, he endured it without protest.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: When the man brought him water, he drank eagerly, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: later bolted a generous meal of raw meat, chunk by
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: chunk from the man's hand. He was beaten, he knew that,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: but he was not broken. He saw once for all
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: that he stood no chance against a man with a club.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: He had learned the lesson, and in all his after
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: life he never forgot it. That club was a revelation.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and he met the introduction half way. The facts of
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: life took on a fiercer aspect, And while he faced
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: that aspect uncowed, he faced it with all the latent
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: cunning of his nature aroused. As the days went by,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: other dogs came and crates and at the ends of ropes,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: some docilely and some raging and roaring as he had come.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: And one and all he watched them pass under the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: dominion of the man in the red sweater again and again.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: As he looked at each brutal performance, the lesson was
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: driven home to Buck. A man with a club was
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a law giver, a master to be obeyed, though not
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: necessarily conciliated. Of this last, Buck was never guilty, though
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: he did see beaten dogs that fawned upon the man
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and wagged their tails and licked his hand. Also he
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: saw one dog that would neither conciliate nor obey, finally
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: killed in the struggle for mastery. Now and again men
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: came strangers who talked excitedly, wheedlingly, and in all kinds
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of fashions to the man in the red sweater. And
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: at such times that money passed between them, the strangers
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: took one or more of the dogs away with them.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Buck wondered where they went, for they ever came back.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: But the fear of the future was strong upon him,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and he was glad each time when he was not selected.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Yet his time came in the end in the form
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of a little weazened man who spat broken English and
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: many strange and uncouth exclamations which Buck could not understand. Sacradam,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: he cried when his eyes lit upon Buck, that one
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: damn bully dog, Eh, how much three hundred at a
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: present at That was the prompt reply of the man
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in the red sweater, and seem its government money. You
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: ain't got no kick comin' ay Pierrot, Perreau grinned, considering
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: that the price of dogs had been boomed skyward by
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the unwonted demand. It was not an unfair sum for
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: so fine an animal. The Canadian government would be no loser,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: nor would its despatches travel the slower. Perault knew do.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: And when he looked at Buck, he knew that he
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: was one in a thousand, one in ten thousand, he
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: commented mentally. Buck saw money pass between them, and was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: not surprised when Curly, a good natured Newfoundland, and he
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: were led away by the little weasoned man. That was
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the last he saw of the man in the red sweater.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: And as Curly and he looked at receding seattle from
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the deck of the narwhale, it was the last he
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: saw of the warm Southland, Curley and he were taken
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: below by Perrault and turned over to a black faced
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: giant called Francois. Perrault was a French Canadian and swarthy,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but Francois was a French Canadian half breed and twice
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: as swarthy. They were a new kind of men to Buck,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of which he was destined to see many more, And
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: while he developed no affection for them, he nonetheless grew
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: honestly to respect them. He speedily learned that Perrault and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Francois were fair men, calm and impartial in administering justice,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and too wise in the ways of dogs to be
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: fooled by dogs. In the tween decks of the Narwhale,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Buck and Curley joined two other dogs. One of them
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: was a big snow white fellow from Spitzbergen who had
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: been brought away by a wailing captain, and who had
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: later accompanied a geological survey into the barons. He was
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: friendly in a treacherous sort of way, smiling into one's
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: face the while he meditated some underhand trick as, for instance,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: when he stole from Buck's food at the first meal,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: as Buck sprang to punish him, the lash of Francois's
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: whip sang through the air, reaching the culprit first, and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: nothing remained to Buck but to recover the bone that
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: was fair of Francois, he decided, and the half breed
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: began to rise. In Buck's estimation. The other dog made
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: no advances, nor received any. Also, he did not attempt
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to steal from the newcomers. He was a gloomy, morose fellow,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and he showed Curly plainly that all he desired was
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to be left alone, and further that there would be
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: trouble if he were not left alone. Dave he was called,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and he ate and slept or yawned between times, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: took interest in nothing, not even when the narwhale crossed
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Queen Charlotte's sound, and rolled and pitched and bucked like
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: a thing possessed. When Buck and Curly grew excited, half
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: wild with fear, he raised his head as though annoyed,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: favored them with an incurious glance, yawned and went to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: sleep again. Day and night the ship throbbed to the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: tireless pulse of the propeller, and though one day was
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: very like another, it was apparent to Buck that the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: weather was steadily growing colder. At last, one morning, the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: propeller was quiet and the narwhale was pervaded with an
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: atmosphere of excitement. He felt it, as did the other dog,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and knew that a change was at hand. Francois leashed
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: them and brought them to the deck. At the first
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: step upon the cold surface, Buck's feet sank into a white, mushy,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: something very like mud. He sprang back with a snort.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: More of this white stuff was falling through the air.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: He shook himself, but more of it fell upon him.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: He sniffed it curiously, then licked some up on his tongue.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: It bit like fire, and the next instant was gone.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: This puzzled him. He tried it again, with the same result.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: The onlookers laughed uproariously, and he felt ashamed. He knew
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: not why, for it was his first snow. End of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: chapter one, Chapter two, The Law of Club and Fang.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Buck's first day on the daye Beach was like a nightmare.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Every hour was filled with show and surprise. He had
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: into the heart of things primordial. No lazy sun kissed.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: moment's safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: life and limb were in peril. There was imperative need
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to be constantly alert, for these dogs and men were
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: who knew no law but the law of club and fang.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: and his first experience taught him an unforgettable lesson. It
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: is true it was a vicarious experience, else he would
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: not have lived to profit by it. Curly was the victim.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: They were camped near the log store, where she, in
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: her friendly way, made advances to a husky dog the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: size of a full grown wolf, though not half so
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: large as she. There was no warning, only a leap
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: leap out equally swift, and Curley's face was ripped open
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: from eye to jaw. It was the wolf manner of fighting,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: to strike and leap away. But there was more to
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: it than this. Thirty or forty huskies ran to the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: spot and surrounded the combatants in an intent and silent circle.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Buck did not comprehend that silent intentness, nor the eager
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: way with which they were licking their chops. Curley rushed
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: her antagonist, who struck again and leaped aside. He met
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: her next rush with his chin chest in a peculiar
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: fashion that tumbled her off her feet. She never regained them.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: This was what the onlooking huskies had been waiting for.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping, and she
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: was buried, screaming with agony, beneath the bristling mass of bodies.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So sudden was it, and so unexpected that Buck was
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: taken aback. He saw spits run out his scarlet tongue
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: in a way he had of laughing, And he saw
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Francois swinging an axe, spring into the mess of dogs.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Three men with clubs were helping him to scatter them.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: It did not take long. Two minutes from the time
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Curly went down, the last of her assailants were clubbed off.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: But she lay there, limp and lifeless in the bloody,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: trampled snow, almost literally torn to pieces. The swart half
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: breed standing over her and cursing horribly. The scene often
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: came back to Buck to trouble him in his sleep.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: So that was the way, no fair play. Once down,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: that was the end of you. Well, he would see
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: to it that he never went down. Spitz ran out
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: his tongue and laughed again, And from that moment Buck
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: hated him with a bitter and deathless hatred. Before he
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: of Curley, he received another shock. Francois fastened upon him
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: an arrangement of straps and buckles. It was a harness,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: such as he had seen the grooms put on the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: horses at home, and as he had seen horses work.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: So he was set to work, hauling Francois on a
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: sledge to the forest that fringed the valley, and returning
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: with a load of firewood. Though his dignity was sorely
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: hurt by thus being made a draft animal, he was
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: too wise to rebel. He buckled down with a will
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and did his best. Though it was all new and strange,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Francois was stern and demanding instant obedience, and by virtue
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: of his whip, receiving instant obedience. While Dave, who was
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: an experienced wheeler, nipped Buck's hind quarters whenever he was
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in error. Spitz was the leader, likewise experienced, and while
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: he could not always get at Buck, he growled sharp
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: reproof now and again, or cunningly threw his weight in
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the traces to jerk Buck into the way he should go.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Buck learned easily, and under the combined tuition of his
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: two mates and Francois, made remarkable progress. Ere they returned
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to camp. He knew enough to stop at hoe and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: to go ahead at mush, to swing wide on the bends,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and to keep clear of the wheeler when the low
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: sledge shot downhill at their heels trevert good dogs. Francois
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: told Peraut that Buck him pull lac Elle at teaching
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: quick as anything. By afternoon, Perot, who was in a
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: hurry to be on the trail with his dispatches, returned
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: with two more dogs, Billy and Joe. He called them
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: two brothers and true huskies, both sons of one mother.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Though they were, they were as different as day and night.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Billy's one fault was his excess of good nature, while
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Joe was the very opposite, sour and introspective, with a
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: perpetual snarl and a malignant eye. Buck received them in
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: comradleigh fashion. Dave ignored them, while Spits proceeded to thrash,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: first one and then the other. Billy wagged his tail appeasingly,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: turned to run when he saw that appeasement was of
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: no vail, and cried still appeasingly when Spitz's sharp teeth
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: scored his flank. But no matter how Spitz circled, Joe
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: whirled around on his heels to face him, mane bristling, ears,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: laid back, lips writhing and snarling, jaws clipping together as
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: fast as he could snap, and eyes diabolically gleaming, the
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: incarnation of belligerent fear. So terrible was his appearance that
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Spitz was forced to forego disciplining him, But to cover
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: his own discomfiture, he turned upon the inoffensive and wailing
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Billy and drove him to the confines of the camp.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: By evening, Perrault secured another dog, an old husky, long
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and lean and gaunt, with a battle scarred face and
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a single eye which flashed a warning of prowess that
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: commanded respect. He was called sol Leks, which means the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: angry one. Like Dave, he asked nothing, gave nothing, expected nothing,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and when he marched slowly and deliberately into their midst,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: even Spits left him alone. He had one peculiarity, which
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Buck was unlucky enough to discover. He did not like
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: to be approached on his blind side. Of this offense,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Buck was unwittingly guilty, and the first knowledge he had
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: of his indiscretion was when sol Leks whirled upon him
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and slashed his shoulder to the bone for three inches
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: up and down. Forever after, Buck avoided his blind side,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and to the last of their comradeship had no more trouble.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: His only apparent ambition, like Dave's, was to be left alone, though,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: as Buck was afterward to learn, each of them possessed
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: one other and even more vital ambition. That night, Buck
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: faced the great problem of sleeping. The tent, illumined by
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a candle, glowed warmly in the midst of the white plane,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and when he, as a matter of course, entered it,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: both Perrault and Francois bombarded him with curses and cooking
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: utensils till he recovered from his consternation and fled ignominiously
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: into the outer cold. A chill wind was blowing that
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: nipped him sharply and bit with a special venom into
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: his wounded shoulder. He lay down on the snow and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: attempted to sleep, but the frost soon drove him shivering
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: to his feet. Miserable and disconsolate, he wandered about among
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the many tents, only to find that one place was
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: as cold as another. Here and there, savage dogs rushed
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: upon him, but he bristled his neck hair and snarled,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: for he was learning fast, and they let him go
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: his way unmolested. Finally, an idea came to him. He
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: would return and see how his own team mates were
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: making out. To his astonishment, they had disappeared. Again. He
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: wandered about through the great camp looking for them, and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: again he returned. Were they in the tent? No, that
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: could not be else he would not have been driven out.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Then where could they possibly be? With drooping tail and
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: shivering body, very forlorn, indeed, he aimlessly circled the tent.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the snow gave way beneath his fore legs, and
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: he sank down. Something wriggled under his feet. He sprang back,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: bristling and snarling, fearful of the unseen and unknown. But
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: a friendly little yelp reassured him, and he went back
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: to investigate. A whiff of warm air ascended to his nostrils,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: and there, curled up under the snow and a snug
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: ball lay Billy. He whined placatingly, squirmed and wriggled to
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: show his good will and intentions, and even ventured, as
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a bribe for peace, to lick Buck's face with his warm,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: wet tongue. Another lesson. So that was the way they
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: did it. Eh Buck confidently selected a spot, and with
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: much fuss and waste effort, proceeded to dig a hole
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: for himself. In a trice, the heat from his body
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: filled the confined space, and he was asleep. The day
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: had been long and arduous, and he slept soundly and comfortably,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: though he growled and barked and wrestled with bad dreams,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: nor did he open his eyes till roused by the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: noises of the waking camp. At first, he did not
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: know where he was. It had snowed during the night,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and he was completely buried. The snow walls pressed him
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: on every side, and a great surge of fear swept
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: through him, the fear of the wild thing for the trap.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: It was a token that he was HARKing back through
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: his own life to the lives of his forebearers. For
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: he was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: of his own experience knew no trap, and so could not,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: of himself fear it. The muscles of his whole body
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: contracted spasmodically and instinctively, the hair on his neck and
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: shoulders stood on end, and with a ferocious snow karl,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: he bounded straight up into the blinding day, the snow
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: flying about him in a flashing cloud. Ere he landed
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: on his feet, he saw the white camp spread out
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: before him, and knew where he was, and remembered all
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: that had passed from the time he went for a
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: stroll with Manuel to the hole he had dug for
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: himself the night before. A shout from Francois hailed his appearance.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: What I say, The dog driver called to Peraut that
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: buck for shore learned quick as anything. Perrault nodded gravely.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: As courier for the Canadian government, bearing important despatches, he
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: was anxious to secure the best dogs, and he was
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: particularly gladdened by the possession of Buck. Three more huskies
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: were added to the team inside an hour, making a
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: total of nine, and before another quarter of an hour
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: had passed, they were in harness and swinging up the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: trail toward the Dae Yee cannon. Buck was glad to
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: be gone, and though the work was hard, he found
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: he did not particularly despise it. He was surprised at
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the eagerness which animated the whole team, and which was
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: communicated to him. But still more surprising was the change
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: wrought in Dave and sol Les. They were new dogs,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: utterly transformed by the harness. All passiveness and unconcern had
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: dropped from them. They were alert and active, anxious that
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the work should go well, and fiercely irritable with whatever,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: by delay or confusion, retarded that work. The toil of
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the traces seemed the supreme expression of their being and
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: all that they lived for, and the only thing in
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: which they took delight. Dave was wheeler or sled dog.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Pulling in front of him was Buck, Then came so Lex.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: The rest of the team was strung out ahead single
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: file to the leader, which position was filled by spits.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Buck had been purposely placed between Dave and sol Leks
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: so that he might receive instruction. Apt scholar that he was,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: they were equally apt teachers, never allowing him to linger
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: long in error, and enforcing their teaching with their sharp teeth.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Dave was fair and very wise. He never nipped Buck
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: without cause, and he never failed to nip him when
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: he stood in need of it. As France's whip backed
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: him up, Buck found it to be cheaper to mend
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: his ways than to retaliate. Once, during a brief halt,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: when he got tangled in the traces and delayed the start,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: both Dave and sol Leks flew at him and administered
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: a sound trouncing. The resulting tangle was even worse, but
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Buck took good care to keep the traces clear. Thereafter,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and ere the day was done. So well had he
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: mastered his work, his mates about ceased nagging him. Francois's
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: whip snapped less frequently, and Perrault even honored Buck by
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: lifting up his feet and carefully examining them. It was
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: a hard day's run up the cannon, through sheep camp,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: past the scales and the timber line across glaciers and
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: snow drifts hundreds of feet deep, and over the great
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Chilcoot Divide, which stands between the salt water and the
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely north. They
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: made good time down the chain of lakes which fills
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: the craters of extinct volcanoes, and late that night pulled
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: into the huge camp at the head of Lake Bennett,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: where thousands of gold seekers were building boats against the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: break up of the ice in the spring. Buck made
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: his hole in the snow and slept the sleep of
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the exhausted, just but all too early, was routed out
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: in the cold darkness and harnessed with his mates to
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: the sled. That day they made forty miles the trail
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: being packed, But the next day and for many days
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: to follow, they broke their own trail, worked harder, and
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: made poorer time. As a rule, Parau traveled ahead of
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: the team, packing the snow with webbed shoes to make
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: it easier for them. Francois, guiding the sledge at the
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: gee pole, sometimes exchanged places with him, but not often.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Piaut was in a hurry, and he prided himself on
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: his knowledge of ice, which knowledge was indispensable. For the fall,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: ice was very thin, and where there was swift water
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: there was no ice at all. Day after day for
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: days unending, Buck toiled in the traces. Always they broke
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: camp in the dark, and the first gray of dawn
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: found them hitting the trail with fresh miles reeled off
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: behind them. And always they pitched camp after dark, eating
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: their bit of fish, and crawling to sleep into the snow.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Buck was ravenous. The pound and a half of sun
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: dried salmon, which was his ration for each day, seemed
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: to go nowhere. He never had enough and suffered from
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: perpetual hunger pangs. Yet the other dogs, because they weighed
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: less and were born to the life, received a pound
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: only of the fish and managed to keep in good condition.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: He swiftly lost the fastidiousness which had characterized his old life.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: A dainty eater, he found that his mates, finishing first,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: robbed him of his unfinished ration. There was no defending it.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: While he was fighting off two or three, it was
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: disappearing down the throats of the others. To remedy this,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: he ate as fast as they, and so greatly did
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: hunger compel him he was not above taking what did
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: not belong to him. He watched and learned when he
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: saw Pike, one of the new dogs, a clever malingerer
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and thief, slyly steal a slice of bacon. When Pirout's
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: back was turned, he duplicated the performance the following day,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: getting away with the whole chunk. A great uproar was raised,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: but he was unsuspected, while Dub, an awkward blunderer who
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: was always getting caught, was punished for Buck's misdeed. This
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: have meant swift and terrible death. It marked further the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: It was all well enough in the Southland under the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: law of love and fellowship to respect private property and
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: personal feelings. But in the Northland, under the law of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: club and fang, whoso took such things into account was
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: a fool, and in so far as he observed them,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: he would fail to prosper not that Buck reasoned it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Oubt he was fit, that was all an unconscious He
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: accommodated himself to the new mode of life all his days,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: no matter what the odds. He had never run from
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: a fight, but the club of the man and the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: red sweater had beaten into him a more fundamental and
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: primitive code civilized. He could have died for a moral consideration,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: say the defense of Judge Miller's riding whip, But the
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: completeness of his decivilization was now evidenced by his ability
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: to flee from the defense of a moral consideration and
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: so save his hide. He did not steal for the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: joy of it, but because of the clamor of his stomach,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: he did not rob openly, but stole secretly and cunningly,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: out of respect for club and fang. In short, the
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: things he did were done because it was easier to
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: do them than not to do them. His development or
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: retrogression was rapid. His muscles became as hard as iron,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: and he grew callous to all ordinary pain. He achieved
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: an internal as well as external economy. He could eat anything,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: no matter how loathsome or indigestible, and once eaten the
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: juices of his stomach extracted the last least particle of nutriment,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: and his blood carried it to the farthest reaches of
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: his body, building it into the toughest and stoutest of tissues.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Sight and scent became remarkably keen, while his hearing developed
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: such acuteness that in his sleep he heard the faintest
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: sound and knew whether it heralded peace or peril. He
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: learned to bite the ice out with his teeth when
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: it collected between his toes, and when he was thirsty
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: and there was a thick scum of ice over the
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: water hole, he would break it by rearing and striking
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: it with stiff fore legs. His most conspicuous trait was
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: night in advance, no matter how breathless the air, when
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: he dug his nest by tree or bank, though the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: and snug, And not only did he learn by experience,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: but instincts long dead became alive again. The domesticated generations
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: fell from him in vague ways. He remembered back to
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the youth of the breed, to the time the wild
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: their meat as they ran it down. It was no
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: task for him to learn to fight with cut and
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: slash and the quick wolf snap. In this manner had
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: And the old tricks which they had stamped into the
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: him without effort or discovery, as though they had been
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: his always. And when on the still cold nights he
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: pointed his nose at a star and howled long and
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: wolf like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: nose at star and howling down through the centuries and
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: through him and his cadences were their cadences, the cadences
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: which voiced their woe, and what to them was the
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: meaning of the stiffness and the cold and dark. Thus,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: as token of what a puppet thing life is, the
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: ancient song surged through him, and he came into his
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: own again. And he came because men had found a
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: yellow metal in the north, and because Manuel was a
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: gardener's helper whose wages did not lap over the needs
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: of his wife, and diverse small copies of himself.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: End of chapter two, Chapter three, The dominant primordial Beast.
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: The dominant primordial beast was strong in buff and under
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: the fierce conditions of trail life, it grew and grew.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: Yet it was a secret growth. His newborn cunning gave
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: him poise and control. He was too busy adjusting himself
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: to the new life to feel at ease. And not
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: only did he not pick fights, he avoided them whenever possible.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: A certain deliberateness characterized his attitude. He was not prone
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: to rashness and precipitate action, and in the bitter hatred
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: between him and Spits, he betrayed no impatience shunned all
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: offensive acts. On the other hand, possibly because he divined
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: in Buck a dangerous rival, Spits never lost an opportunity
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: of showing his teeth. He even went out of his
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: way to bully Buck, striving constantly to start the fight,
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: which could end only in the death of one or
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: the other. Early in the trip, this might have taken
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: place had it not been for an unwonted accident. At
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: the end of this day, they made a bleak and
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: miserable camp on the shore of Lake Lebarge. Driving snow,
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: a wind that cut like a white hot knife, and
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: darkness had forced them to grope for a camping place.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: They could hardly have fared worse. At their backs were
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: as a perpendicular wall of rock, and Pierrot and Francois
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: were compelled to make their fire and spread their sleeping
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: robes on the ice of the lake itself, the tent
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: they had discarded at Dia in order to travel light.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: A few sticks of driftwood furnished them with a fire
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: that thawed down through the ice and left them to
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: eat supper in the dark. Close in under the sheltering rock,
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: Buck made his nest. So snug and warm was it
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: that he was loath to leave it when Francois distributed
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: the fish which he had first thought over the fire.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: But when Buck finished his ration and returned, he found
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: his nest occupied. A warning snarl told him that the
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: trespasser was Spitz. Till now Bucket avoided trouble with his enemy,
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: but this was too much. The beast in him roared.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: He sprang upon Spits with a fury which surprised them both,
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: and Spits particularly for his whole experience with Buck had
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: gone to teach him that his rival was an unusually
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: timid dog who managed to hold his own only because
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: of his great weight and size. Francois was surprised too
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: when they shot out in a tangle from the disrupted nest,
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: and he divined the cause of the trouble. Ah he
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: cried to Buck, keep it toulhim, by gal, keep it
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: toul him. De de'lty tif Spitz was equally willing. He
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: was crying with sheer rage and eagerness as he circled
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: back and forth for a chance to spring in. Buck
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: was no less eager and no less cautious, as he
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: likewise circled back and forth for the advantage. But it
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: was then that the unexpected happened. The thing which projected
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: their struggle for supremacy far into the future, passed many
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: a weary mile of trail and toil an oath from pierrot.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: The resounding impact of a club upon a bony frame
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: and a shrill yelp of pain heralded the breaking forth
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: of pandemonium. The camp was suddenly discovered to be alive,
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: with skulking furry forms starving huskies, four or five score
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: of them, who had scented the camp from some Indian village.
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: They had crept in while Buck and Spits were fighting,
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: and when the two men sprang among them with stout clubs,
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: they showed their teeth and fought back. They were crazed
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: by the smell of the food. Pierrot found one with
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: head buried in the grub box. His club landed heavily
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: on the gaunt ribs, and the grub box was capsized
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: on the ground. On the instant. A score of the
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: famished brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon. The
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: clubs fell upon them unheeded. They yelped and howled under
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: the rain of blows, but struggled none the less madly
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: till the last crumb had been devoured. In the meantime,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: the astonished team dogs had burst out of their nests,
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: only to be set upon by the fierce invaders. Never
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: had Buck seen such dogs. It seemed as though their
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: bones would burst through their skins. They were mere skeletons,
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: draped loosely in draggled hides, with blazing eyes and slavering fangs.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: But the hunger madness made them terrifying, irresistible. There was
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: no opposing them. The team dogs were swept back against
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: the cliff. At the first onset, Buck was beset by
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: three huskies, and in a trice his head and shoulders
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: were ripped and slashed. The din frightful Billy was crying
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: as usual. Dave and Sooleak, stripping blood from a score
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: of wounds, were fighting bravely side by side. Joe was
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: snapping like a demon. Once his teeth closed on the
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: foreleg of a husky and he crunched down through the
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: bone pike. The malingerer leaped upon the crippled animal, breaking
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: its neck with a quick flash of teeth and a jerk.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: Buck got a frothing adversary by the throat and was
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: sprayed with blood when his teeth sank through the jugular.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: The warm taste of it in his mouth goaded him
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: to greater fierceness. He flung himself upon another, and at
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: the same time felt teeth sink into his own throat.
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: It was spits treacherously attacking from the side. Pierrot and Francois,
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: having cleaned out their part of the camp, hurried to
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: save their sled dogs. The wild wave of famished beasts
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: rolled back before them, and Buck shook himself free, but
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: it was only for a moment. The two men were
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: compelled to run back to save the grub, upon which
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: the huskies returned to the attack on the team. Billy
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: terrified into bravery, sprang through the savage circle and fled
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: away over the ice pike, and Dub followed on his heels,
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: with the rest of the team behind. As Buck drew
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: himself together to spring after them, out of the tail
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: of his eye, he saw Spits rush upon him with
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: the evident intention of overthrowing him. Once off his feet
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: and under that mask of huskies, there was no hope
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: for him, but he braced himself to the shock of
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: Spit's charge, then joined the flight out on the lake. Later,
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: the nine teen dogs gathered together and sought shelter in
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: the forest, though one pursued. They were in a sorry plight.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: There was not one who was not wounded in four
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: or five places, while some were wounded grievously. Dub was
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: badly injured in a hind leg. Dolly, the last husky
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: added to the team at DAYA, had a badly torn throat.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: Joe had lost an eye, while Billy, the good natured,
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: with a near chewed and rent to ribbons, cried and
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: whimpered throughout the night. At daybreak they limped warily back
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: to camp to find the marauders gone and the two
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: men in bad temper Fully half their grub supply was gone.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: The huskies had chewed through the sled lashings and the
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: canvas coverings. In fact, nothing no matter how remotely eatable,
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: had escaped them. They had eaten a pair of perrose moosehide, moccasins,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: chunks out of the leather traces, and even two feet
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: of lash from the end of Francois's whip. He broke
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: from a mournful contemplation of it to look over his
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: wounded dogs. Ah, my friends, he said softly. Maybe it'd
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: make you mad dog dose many bites, Maybe all mad
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: dog suck it dumb, watch you tink eh. Perroll the
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: courier shook his head dubiously. With four hundred miles of
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: trail still between him and Dawson, he could ill afford
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: to have madness break out among his dogs. Two hours
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: of cursing and exertion got the harnesses into shape, and
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: the wound stiffened team was under way, struggling painfully over
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: the hardest part of the trail they had yet encountered,
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: and for that matter, the hardest between them and Dot.
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: The thirty mile river was wide open, Its wild water
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: defied the frost, and it was in the eddies only,
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: and in the quiet places that the ice held at all.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: Six days of exhausting toil were required to cover those
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: thirty terrible miles, and terrible they were, for every foot
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: of them was accomplished at the risk of life to
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: dog and man. A dozen times, Pirot, nosing the way,
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: broke through the ice bridges, being saved by the long
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: pole he carried, which he so held that it fell
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: each time across the hole made by his body. But
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: a cold snap was on the thermometer, registering fifty below zero,
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: and each time he broke through he was compelled for
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: very life to build a fire in Drya's garments. Nothing
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: daunted him, and it was because nothing daunted him that
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: he had been chosen for government courier. He took all
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: manner of risks, resolutely, thrusting his little weazened face into
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: the frost and struggling on from dim dawn to dark,
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: he skirted the frowning shores on rim ice that bent
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: and crackled under foot, and upon which they dared not halt.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: Once the sledge broke through with Dave and Buck, and
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: they were half frozen and all but drowned by the
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: time they were dragged out. The usual fire was necessary
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: to save them. They were coated solidly with ice, and
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: the two men kept them on the run around the fire,
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: sweating and thawing, so close that they were singed by
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: the flames. At another time, Spitz went through, dragging the
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: whole team after him, up to Buck, who strained backwards
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: with all his strength, his fore paws on the slippery edge,
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: and the ice quivering and snapping all around. But behind
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: him was Dave, likewise straining backwards, and behind the sled
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: was Francois, pulling till his tendons cracked again. The rim
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: ice broke away before and behind, and there was no
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: escape except up the cliff. Pereut scaled it by a miracle,
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: while Francois prayed for just that miracle, and with every
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: thong and sled lashing and the last bit of harness,
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: rove into a long rope the dogs were hoisted one
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: by one to the cliff crest. Francois came up last
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: after the sled and load. Then came the search for
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: a place to descend, which descent was ultimately made by
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: the aid of a rope. And night found them back
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: on the river with a quarter of a mile to
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: the day's credit. By the time they made Hutelinka and
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: good ice, Buck was played out. The rest of the
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: dogs were in like condition, but perrot to make up
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: lost time pushed them late and early. The first day
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: they covered thirty five miles to the big salmon, the
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: next day thirty five more to the little salmon, the
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: third day forty miles, which brought them well up toward
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: five fingers. Buck's feet were not so compact and hard
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: as the feet of the huskies. His had softened during
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: the many generations since the day his last wild ancestor
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: was tamed by a cave dweller a river man. All
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: day long he limped in agony and camp once made
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: lay down like a dead dog. Hungry as he was,
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: he would not move to receive his ration of fish,
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: which Francois had to bring him. Also, the dog iver
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: rubbed Buck's feet for half an hour each night after supper,
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: and sacrificed the tops of his own moccasins to make
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: four moccasins for Buck. This was a great relief, and
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: Buck caused even the weazened face of Pierrot to twist
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: itself into a grin. One morning, when Francois forgot the moccasins,
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: and Buck lay on his back, his four feet waving
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: appealingly in the air, and refused to budge without them. Later,
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: his feet grew hard to the trail and the worn
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: out foot gear was thrown away at the pelly. One morning,
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: as they were harnessing up, Dolly, who'd never been conspicuous
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: for anything, went suddenly mad. She announced her condition by
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: a long, heartbreaking wolf howl that sent every dog bristling
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: with fear, then sprang straight for Buck. He had never
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: seen a dog go mad, nor did he have any
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: reason to fear madness. Yet he knew that here was horror,
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: and he fled away from it in a panic straightway.
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: He raced with Dolly, panting and frothing, one leap behind.
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Nor could she gain on him, so great was his terror,
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: nor could he leave her, so great was her madness.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: He plunged through the wooded breast of the island, flew
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: down to the lower end, crossed a back channel filled
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: with rough ice to another island, gained a third island,
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: curved back to the main river, and in desperation, started
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: to cross it. And all the time, though he did
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: not look, he could hear her snarling just one leap behind.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: Francois called to him a quarter of a mile away,
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: and he doubled back, still one leap ahead, gasping painfully
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: for air and putting all his faith in that Francois
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: would save him. The dog driver held the axe poised
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: in his hand, and as Buck shot past him, the
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: axe crashed down upon Mad Dolly's head. Buck staggered over
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: against the sled, exhausted, sobbing for breath, helpless. This was
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Spitz's opportunity. He sprang upon Buck, and twice his teeth
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: sank into his unresisting foe and ripped and tore the
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: flesh to the bone. Then Francois lash descended, and Buck
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: had the satisfaction of watching. Spits received the worst whipping
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: as as yet administered to any of the teams. When
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: Devil Dat's boots remarked, Pirot, some damn day em kill
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: dap buck. H dat Buck too devil, was Francois rejoinder
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: all the time I watched up Buck. I know for
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: sure listen, some damn fine day he'm get mad like
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: Hill and Danny Chu Dat speeds up and spit him
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: out on the ground. Sure, I know from then on
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: it was war between them, spits. As lead dog and
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: acknowledged master of the team, felt his supremacy threatened by
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: this strange Southland dog, and strange Buck was to him.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: For of the many Southland dogs he'd known, not one
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: had shone up worthily in camp and on trail. They
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: were all too soft, dying under the toil, the frost,
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: and starvation. Buck was the exception. He alone endured and prospered,
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: matching the husky and strength, savagery and cunning. Then he
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: was a masterful dog, and what made him dangerous was
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: the fact that the club of the Man in the
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: red sweater had knocked all blind, pluck and rashness out
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: of his desire for mastery. He was pre eminently cunning
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: and could bide his time with the patience that was
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: nothing less than primitive it was inevitable that the clash
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: for leadership should come. Buck wanted it. He wanted it
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: because it was his nature, because he had been gripped
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: tight by that nameless, incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace,
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: That pride which holds dogs in the toil to the
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: last gasp, which lures them to die joyfully in the harness,
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: and breaks their hearts if they're cut out of the harness.
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: This was the pride of Dave's wheel dog of Soulex
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: as he pulled with all his strength. The pride that
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: laid hold of them at break of camp, transforming them
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: from sour and sullen brutes into straining, eager, ambitious creatures.
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: The pride that spurred them on all day and dropped
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: them at pitch of camp at night, letting them fall
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: back into gloomy, unrest and uncontent. This was the pride
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: that bore up Spitz and made him thrash the sled
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: dogs who blundered and shirked in the traces or hid
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: away at harness up time in the morning. Likewise, it
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: was this pride that made him fear Buck as a
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: possible lead dog. And this was Buck's pride too. He
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: openly threatened the other's leadership. He came between him and
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: the Shirks. He should have punished, and he did it deliberately.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: One night there was a heavy snowfall, and in the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: morning Pike the malingerer, did not appear. He was securely
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: hidden in his nest under a foot of snow. Francois
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: called him and sought him in vain. Spitz was wild
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: with wrath. He raged through the camp, smelling and digging
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: in every likely place, snarling so frightfully that Pike heard
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: and shivered in his hiding place. But when he was
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: at last unearthed and Spits flew at him to punish him,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: Buck flew with equal rage in between. So unexpected was it,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: and so shrewdly managed that Spitz was hurled backwards and
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: off his feet. Pike, who had been trembling at a
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: jectly took heart at this open mutiny, and sprang upon
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: his overthrown leader, Buck, to whom fair play was a
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: forgotten code, likewise sprang upon Spits. But Francois, chuckling at
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: the incident, while unswerving in the administration of justice, brought
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: his lash down upon Buck with all his might, this
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: failed to drive Buck from his prostrate rival, and the
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: butt of the whip was brought into play. Half stunned
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: by the blow, Buck was knocked backwards and the lash
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: laid upon him again and again, while Spitz soundly punished
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: the many times offending Pike. In the days that followed,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: as Dawson grew closer and closer, Buck still continued to
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: interfere between Spits and the Culprits, but he did it
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: craftily when Francois was not around. With the covert mutiny
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: of Buck, a general insubordination sprang up and increased. Dave
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: and Soles were unaffected, but the rest of the team
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: went from bad to worse. Things no longer went right.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 3: There was continual bickering and jangling. Trouble was always afoot,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: and at the bottom of it was Buck. He kept France,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 3: while busy for the dog, driver, was in constant apprehension
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: of the life and death struggle between the two, which
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: he knew must take place sooner or later, and on
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: more than one night, the sounds of quarreling and strife
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: among the other dogs turned him out of his sleeping robe,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 3: fearful that Buck and spits were at it, but the
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: opportunity did not present itself, and they pulled into Dawson
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: one dreary afternoon, with the great fight still to come.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: Here were many men and countless dogs, and Buck found
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: them all at work. It seemed the ordained order of
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: things that dogs should work all day. They swung up
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: and down the main street in long teams, and in
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: their night their jingling bells still went by. They hauled
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: cabin logs and firewood, freighted up to the mines, and
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: did all manner of work that horses did in the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: Santa Clara Valley. Here and there Buck met Southland dogs,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: but in the main they were the wild wolf Husky breed.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: Every night, regularly at nine at twelve they lifted a
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: nocturnal song, a weird and eerie chant, in which it
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: was Buck's delight to join with the Aurora borealis, flaming
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: coldly overhead, where the stars leaping in the frost dance,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: This song of the huskies might have been the defiance
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: of life, only it was pitched in a minor key,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: with long drawn wailings and half sobs. It was more
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: the pleading of life, the articulate travial of existence. It
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: was an old song, old as the breed itself, one
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: of the first songs of the younger world, in a
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: day when songs were sad. It was invested with the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: woe of unnumbered generations. This plaint by which Buck was
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: so strangely stirred when he moaned and sobbed. It was
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: with the pain of living that was of old, the
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: pain of his wild father's and the fear and mystery
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: of the cold and dark that was to them fear
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: and mystery, And that he should be stirred by it
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: marked the completeness with which he harked back through the
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: life in the howling ages. Seven days from the time
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: they pulled into Dawson, they dropped down the steep bank
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: by the barracks to the Yukon Trail and polled for
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: dyet and salt water. Pero was carrying dispatches, if anything,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 3: more urgent than those he brought in. Also, the travel
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: pride had gripped him, and he proposed to make the
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: record trip of the year. Several things favored him in this.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: The week's rest had recuperated the dogs and put them
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: in thorough trim. The trail they had broken into the
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: country was packed hard by later journeyers, and further the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: police had arranged in two or three places deposits of
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: grub for dog and man, and he was traveling light.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: They made sixty mile, which is a fifty mile run,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: on the first day, and the second day saw them
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 3: booming up the Yukon well on their way to Pelly.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: But such splendid running was achieved not without great trouble
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: and vexation on the part of Francois. The insidious revolt
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: led by Buck had destroyed the solidarity of Goa the team.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: It no longer was as one dog leaping in the traces.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: The encouragement Buck gave the rebels led them into all
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: kinds of petty misdemeanors. No more was Spitz a leader
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: greatly to be feared. The old awe departed, and they
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 3: grew equal to challenging his authority. Pike robbed him of
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: half a fish one night and gulped it down Under
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: the protection of Buck. Another knight, Dub and Joe, fought
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: Spitz and made him forego the punishment they deserved. And
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: even Billy, the good natured, was less good natured, and
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: whined not half so placatingly as in former days. Buck
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: never came near Spitz without snarling and bristling menacingly. In fact,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: his conduct approached that of a bully, and he was
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: given to swaggering up and down before Spitz's very nose.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: The breaking down of discipline likewise affected the dogs in
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: their relations with one another. They quarreled and bickered more
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: than ever among themselves, till at times the camp was
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: a howling bedlam. Dave and Soulex alone were unaltered, though
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: they were made irrita the unending squabbling. Francois swore strange,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: barbarous oaths, and stamped the snow in feudal rage and
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: tore his hair. His lash was always singing among the dogs,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: but it was of small avail. Directly his back was turned,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: they were at it again. He backed up Spits with
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: his whip, while Buck backed up the remainder of the team.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: Francois knew he was behind all the trouble, and Buck
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: knew he knew, but Buck was too clever. Ever again,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: to be caught red handed. He worked faithfully in the harness,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: for the toil had become a delight to him. Yet
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: it was a greater delight slightly to precipitate a fight
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: amongst his mates and tangle the traces. At the mouth
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: of the Taquina. One night after supper dub turned up,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: a snowshoe rabbit blundered it and missed. In a second.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: The whole team was in full cry. A hundred yards
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: away was a camp of Northwest police with fifty dogs huskies,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: all who joined the chase. The rabbit sped down the river,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: turned off into a small creek, up the frozen bed
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: of which it held steadily. It ran lightly on the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: surface of the snow, while the dogs plowed through by
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: main strength. Buck led the pack sixty strong around, bend
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: after bend, but he could not gain. He laid down
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: low to the race, whining eagerly, his splendid body flashing
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 3: forward leap by leap in the wan white moonlight, and
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: leap by leap like some pale frost wraith. The snowshoe
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: rabbit flashed on ahead, all that stirring of old instincts
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 3: which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: cities to forest and plane, to kill things by chemically
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 3: propelled leaden pellets. The bloodlust, the joy to kill all
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: this was Bucks only was infinitely more intimate. He was
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: and beyond which life cannot rise in such as the
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: paradox of living. This ecstasy comes when one is most alive,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 3: This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: It comes to the soldier war mad on a stricken
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: field and refusing quarter. And it came to Buck, leading
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: the pack, sounding the old wolf, cry straining after the
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: and the parts of his nature that were deeper than he,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: Going back to the womb of time. He was mastered
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: being the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint and sinew,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: and that it was everything that was not death, that
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: it was a glow and rampant expressing itself in movement,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: dead matter that did not move but spits, cold and
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: calculating even in his supreme moods left the pack and
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: cut across a narrow neck of land, where the creek
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: made a lia long bend around. Buck did not know
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: of this, and as he rounded the bend, the frost
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 3: wrath of the rabbit still flitting before him, he saw
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: another and larger frost wraith leap from the overhanging bank
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: into the immediate path of the rabbit. It was spits.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: The rabbit could not turn, and as the white teeth
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: broke its back in mid air, it shrieked as loudly
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: as a stricken man may shriek. At the sound of this,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: the cry of life plunging down from life's apex in
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: the grip of death, the fall packet Buck's heels raised
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: a hell's chorus of delight. Buck did not cry out,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: He did not check himself, but drove in upon spits,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: shoulder to shoulder, so hard that he missed the throat.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 3: They rolled over and over in the powdery snow spits.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: Gained his feet almost as though he had not been overthrown,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: slashing Buck down the shoulder and leaping clear twice. His
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: teeth clipped together like the steel jaws of a trap
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: as he backed away for better footing with lean and
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: lifting lips that writhed in snarled in a flash, Buck
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: knew it that time had come. It was to the death.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: As they circled about, snarling ears, laid back, keenly, watchful
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: for the advantage. The scene came to Buck with a
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: sense of familiarity. He seemed to remember it all, the
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: white woods and the earth, and moonlight, and the thrill
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: of battle. Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: There was not the faintest whisper of air. Nothing moved,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: not a leaf quivered, the visible breaths of the dogs
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: rising slowly and lingering in the frosty air. They had
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: made short work of the snowshoe rabbit, those dogs that
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: were ill tamed wolves, and they were now drawn up
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: in an expectant circle. They too were silent, their eyes
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 3: only gleaming, and their breaths drifting slowly upward. To Buck,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 3: it was nothing new or strange, the scene of old time.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: It was as though it had always been the wonted
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: way of things. Spits was a practiced fight from Spitzenberg,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: through the Arctic and across Canada and the barrens. He
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: had held his own with all manner of dogs, and
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: achieved to mastery over them. Bitter rage was his, but
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: never blind rage. In passion to rend and destroy, he
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: never forgot that his enemy was in like passion to
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: rent and destroy. He never rushed until he was prepared
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: to receive a rush. He never attacked till he had
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: first defended that attack. In vain, Buck strove to sink
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: his teeth in the neck of the big white dog.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: Wherever his fangs struck for the softer flesh, they were
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: countered by the fangs of spits. Fang clashed, bang, and
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: lips were cut and bleeding, but Buck could not penetrate
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: his enemy's guard. Then he warmed up and envelove spits
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 3: in a whirlwind of rushes. Time and time again, he
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: tried for the snow white throat, where life bubbled near
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: to the surface, and each and every time Spit slashed
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: him and got away. Then Buck took to rushing, as
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 3: though for the throat, when suddenly drawing back his head
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: and curving in from the side, he would drive his
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: shoulder at the shoulder of Spits as a ram by
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: which to overthrow him, but instead Buck's shoulder was slashed
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: down each time as Spitz leaped lightly away, Spitz was untouched,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard. The
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: fight was growing desperate, and all the while the silent
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: and wolfish circle waited to finish off whichever dog went down.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: As Buck grew winded, Spitz took to rushing, and he
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: kept him staggering for footing. Once Buck went over and
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: the whole circle of sixty dogs started up, but he
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 3: recovered himself almost amid air, and the circle sank down
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 3: again and waited. But Buck possessed a quality that made
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 3: for greatness imagination. He fought by instinct, but he could
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: fight by head as well. He rushed as though attempting
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: the old shoulder trick, but at the last instant swept
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: low to the snow and in his teeth closed on
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: Spitz's left foreleg. There was a crunch of breaking bone,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: and the white dog they him on three legs. Thrice
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 3: he tried to knock him over, then repeated the trick
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: and broke the ripe fore leg. Despite the pain and helplessness,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: Spits struggled madly to keep up. He saw the silent circle,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: with gleaming eyes, lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: closing in upon him, as he had seen similar circles
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: closing in upon beaten antagonists in the past, Only this
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 3: time he was the one who was beaten. There was
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: no hope for him. Buck was inexorable. Mercy was a
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: thing reserved for gentler climes. He maneuvered for the final rush.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: The circle had tightened till he could feel the breaths
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: of the huskies on his flanks. He could see them
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 3: beyond Spits and to either side, half crouching for the spring,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 3: their eyes fixed upon him. A pause seemed to fall.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: Every animal was motionless, as though turned to stone. Only
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 3: Spits quivered and bristled as he staggered back and forth,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: snarling with horrible menace, as though to frighten off impending death.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: Then Buck sprang in and out, but while he was
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: in shoulder had last squarely met shoulder. The dark circle
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: became a dot on the moon flooded snow. As Spitz
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: disappeared from view, Buck stood and looked on the successful champion,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: the dominant primordial beast, who had made his kill and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: found it good. End of chapter three, Chapter four, Who
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: has won to mastership?
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: Eh?
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: What I say, I speak too when I say, dat
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: Buck too, devil. This was Francois's speech the next morning,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: when he discovered Spits missing and Buck covered with wounds.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: He drew him to the fire and by its light,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: pointed them out. Dot Spitz, fight like hell, said Peurot
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: as he surveyed the gaping rips and cuts. And dat
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: Buck fight like too, hell, was Francois's answer. And now
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: we make good time. No more Spitz, no more trouble. Sure.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: While Pierrout packed the camp outfit and loaded the sled,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: the dog driver proceeded to harness the dogs. Buck trotted
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: up to the place Spitz would have occupied his leader,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: but Francois, not noticing him, brought Solex to the coveted position.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: In his judgment, Solex was the best lead dog left.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 3: Buck sprang upon Solex in a fury, driving him back
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: and standing in his place. Eh He, Francois cried, slapping
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 3: his thighs gleefully look at tat Buck in keeled out
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 3: spitzen tink to take the job. Go away, Chuck, he cried,
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 3: but Buck refused to budge. He took Buck by the
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 3: scruff of the neck, and though the dog growled threateningly,
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: dragged him to one side and replaced Solex. The old
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: dog did not like it and showed plainly that he
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: was afraid of Buck. Francois was obdurate, but when he
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: turned his back, Buck again displaced Solex, who was not
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: at all unwilling to go. Francois was angry now by
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: garat I fix you, he cried, coming back with a
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: heavy club in his hand. Buck remembered the man in
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: the red sweater and retreated slowly. Nor did he attempt
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 3: to charge in when Solex was once more brought forward,
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: but he circled just beyond the range of the club,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 3: snarling with bitterness and rage. And while he circled, he
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: watched the club so as to dodge it if thrown
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 3: by Francois, for he was become wise in the way
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: of clubs. The driver went about his work, and he
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: called to Buck when he was ready to put him
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 3: in his old place in front of Dave. Buck retreated
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: two or three steps. Francois followed him up, whereupon he
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 3: again retreated. After some time of this, Francois threw down
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 3: the club, thinking that Buck feared a thrashing. But Buck
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: was an open revolt. He wanted not to escape a clubbing,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: but to have the leadership. It was his by right,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: he had earned it, and he would not be content
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 3: with less. Perrot took a hand between them. They ran
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: him about for the better part of an hour. They
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 3: threw clubs at him. He dodged. They cursed him and
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 3: his fathers and mothers before him, and all his seed
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: to come after him, down to the remotest generation, and
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: every hair in his body and drop of blood in
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: his veins. And he answered curse with snarl and kept
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 3: out of their reach. He did not try to run away,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 3: but retreated around and around the camp, advertising plainly that
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 3: when his desire was met, he would come in and
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: be good. Francois sat down and scratched his head. Pierraut
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: looked at his watch and swore time was flying and
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: they should have been on the trail an hour gone.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: Francois scratched his head again. He shook it and grinned
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 3: sheepishly at the courier, who shrugged his shoulders and signed
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 3: that they were beaten. Then Francois went up to where
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 3: Solek stood and called to Buck. Buck laughed as dog's laugh,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: yet kept his distance. Francois unfastened Solec's traces and put
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 3: him back in his old place. The team stood harnessed
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: to the sled in an unbroken line, ready for the trail.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: There was no place for Buck save at the front.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: Once more Francois called, and once more Buck laughed and
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: kept away. Troll down to krub Perau commanded. Francois complied,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 3: whereupon Buck trotted in, laughing triumphantly, and swung into position
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 3: at the head of the team. His traces were fastened.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: The sledge broken out, and with both men running, they
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 3: dashed out onto the river trail. Highly as the dog
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 3: driver had four valued Buck with his two devils, he found,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: while the day was yet young, that he had undervalued
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: at a bound Buck took up the duties of leadership,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: and where judgment was required, and quick thinking and quick acting,
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: he showed himself the superior even of Spits, of whom
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: Francois had never seen an equal. But it was in
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: giving the law and making his mates live up to
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 3: it that Buck excelled. Dave and Solex did not mind
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 3: the change in leadership. It was none of their business.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 3: Their business was to toil, and toil mightily in the traces.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 3: So long as that were not interfered with, they did
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 3: not care what happened. Billy, the good natured, could lead
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 3: for all they cared, so long as he kept order.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 3: The rest of the team, however, had grown unruly during
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 3: the last days of Spits, and their surprise was great
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: now that Buck proceeded to lick them into shape. Pike,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 3: who pulled at Buck's heels, and who never put an
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 3: ounce more of his weight against the breast band than
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: he was compelled to do, was swiftly and repeatedly shaken
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 3: for loafing, and near the first day was done, he
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: was pulling more than ever before in his life. The
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: first night in camp, Joe the sour one, was punished roundly,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: a thing that Spitz had never succeeded in doing. Buck
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 3: simply smothered him by virtue of his superior weight and
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 3: cut him up until he ceased snapping and began to
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 3: whine for mercy. The general tone of the team picked
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 3: up immediately. It recovered its old time solidarity, and once
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: more the dogs leaped as one dog in the traces
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 3: at the rink rapids. Two native huskies, Teak and Cuno,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: were added, and the celerity with which Buck broke them
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 3: in took away Francois's breath. Nevielle such a dog as
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 3: dab Buck, He cried, no, neverlle e'n worth one thousand
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 3: dollars back out? Eh what you say? Perro Empero nodded.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 3: He was ahead of the record then and gaining day
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 3: by day. The trail was in excellent condition, well packed
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 3: and hard, and there was no new fallen snow with
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 3: which to contend. It was not too cold. The temperature
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: dropped to fifty below zero and remained there the whole trip.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 3: The men rode and ran by turn, and the dogs
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: were kept on the jump, but with infrequent stoppages. The
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 3: thirty mile riar. It was comparatively coated with ice, and
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 3: they covered in one day going out what had taken
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 3: them ten days. Coming in. In one run, they made
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: a sixty mile dash from the foot of Lake Lebarge
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: to the White Horse Rapids, across Marsh to Guiche and
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: Bennett seventy miles of lakes. They flew so fast that
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 3: the man whose turn it was to run towed behind
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: the sled at the end of a rope. And on
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 3: the last night of the second week, they topped White
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: Pass and dropped down the sea slope with the lights
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: of Sagoway and of the shipping at their feet. It
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 3: was a record run. Each day for fourteen days they
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: had averaged forty miles. For three days, Pirot and Francois
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: threw chests up and down the main street of Saguay
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 3: and were deluged with invitations to drink, while the team
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 3: was the constant center of a worshipful crowd of dog
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: busters and mushers. Then three or four Western bad men
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: aspired to clean out the town and were riddled by
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 3: pepper boxes for their pains, and the public interests turned
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 3: to other i idols. Next came official orders. Francois called
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 3: Buck to him threw his arms around him and wept
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: over him. And that was the last of Francois and perout.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: Like other men, they passed out of Buck's life for good.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: A Scotch half breed took charge of him and his mates,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 3: and in company with a dozen other dog teams, he
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 3: started back over the weary trail to Dawson. There was
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: no light running now, nor record time, but heavy toil
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 3: each day with a heavy load behind, For this was
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 3: the mail train, carrying word from the world to the
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: men who sought gold under the shadow of the pole.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 3: Buck did not like it, but he bore up well
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: to the work, taking pride in it after the manner
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: of Dave and Solex, and seeing that his mates, whether
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 3: they prided in it or not, did their fair share.
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 3: It was a monotonous life, operating with machine like regularity.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: One day was very like another. At a certain time
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 3: each morning, the cooks turned out, fires were built, and
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: breakfast was eaten. Then while some broke camp, others harnessed
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: the dogs, and they were underway an hour or so
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: before the darkness spell which gave warning of dawn at night.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 3: Camp was made. Some pitched the flies, others cut firewood
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: and pine boughs for the beds, and still others carried
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: water or rice for the cooks. Also, the dogs were
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 3: fed to them. This was the one feature of the day,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: though it was good to loaf around after the fish
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 3: was eaten for an hour or so with the other dogs,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: of which they were five score and odd. They were
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 3: fierce fighters among them, but three battles with the fiercest
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: brought Buck to mastery, so that when he bristled and
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: showed his teeth, they got out of the way. Best
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: of all, perhaps he loved to lie near the fire,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 3: hind legs crouched under him, four legs stretched out in front,
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: head raised, and eyes blinking dreamily at the flames. Sometimes
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: he thought of Judge Miller's big house in the sun
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: kissed Santa Clara Valley, and of the cement swimming tank,
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: and Isabel the Mexican hairless and Toots the Japanese pug.
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 3: But oftener he remembered the man in the red sweater,
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 3: the death of Curly, the great fight with spits, and
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 3: the good things he had eaten and would like to eat.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 3: He was not homesick. The sunland was very dim and distant,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: and such memories had no power over him. Far more
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 3: potent were the memories of his heredity, that gave things
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: he had never seen before a seeming familiarity. The instincts
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 3: which were but the memories of his ancestors become habits,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 3: which had lapsed in later days and still later in him,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 3: quickened and became alive again. Sometimes, as he crouched there,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 3: blinking dreamily at the flames, it seemed that the flames
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 3: were of another fire, and that as he crouched by
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 3: this other fire, he saw another and different man from
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: the half breed cook before him. This other man was
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: shorter of leg and longer of arm, with muscles that
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 3: were stringy and naughty, rather than rounded and swelling. The
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 3: hair of this man was long and matted, and his
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 3: head slanted back under it from the eyes. He uttered
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: strange sounds, and seemed very much afraid of the darkness
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 3: into which he peered, continually, clutching in his hand, which
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: hung midway between knee and foot, a stick with a
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 3: heavy stone made fast to the end. He was all
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 3: but naked, a ragged and fire scorched skin hanging part
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: way down his back, but on his body there was
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 3: much hair in some places, across the chest and shoulders,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 3: and down the outside of the arms and thighs, it
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 3: was matted into almost a thick fur. He did not
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: stand erect, but with trunk inclined forward from the hips
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: on legs that bent at the knees. About his body,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: there was a peculiar springiness or resiliency, almost catlike, and
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 3: a quick alertness, as of one who lived in perpetual
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: fear of things seen and unseen. At other times, this
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: hairy man squatted by the fire with head between his legs,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 3: and slept. On such occasions his elbows were on his knees,
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 3: his hands clasped above his head, as though to shed
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 3: rain by the hairy arms. And beyond that fire, in
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 3: the circling darkness, Buck could see many gleaming coals, two
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 3: by two, always two by two, which he knew to
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: be the eyes of great beasts of prey. He could
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 3: hear the crashing of their bodies through the undergrowth, and
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 3: the noises that they made in the night. And dreaming
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 3: there by the Yukon bank with lazy eyes blinking by
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 3: the fire, these sights and sounds of another world would
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 3: make the hair to rise along his back and stand
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 3: on end, across his shoulders and up his neck, till
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 3: he whimpered low and suppressedly, or growled softly, and the
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 3: half breed cook shouted at him, hey, you buck, wake up,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 3: whereupon the other world would vanish, and the real world
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 3: come into his eyes, and he would get up and
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: yawn and stretch as though he'd been asleep. It was
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: a hard trip with the mail behind them, and the
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 3: heavy work wore them down. They were short of weight
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 3: and in poor condition when they made Dawson, and should
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 3: have had ten days or a week's rest at least,
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 3: But in two days time they dropped down the Yukon
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 3: Bank from the barracks, loaded with letters for the outside.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 3: The dogs were tired, the drivers grumbling, and to make
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 3: matters worse, it snowed every day. This meant a soft trail,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 3: greater friction on the runners, and heavier pulling for the dogs.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: Yet the drivers were fair through it all and did
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 3: their best for the animals. Each night the dogs were
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: attended to first. They ate before the drivers ate, and
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 3: no man sought his sleeping robe till he had seen
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: to the feet of the dogs he drove. Still, their
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 3: strength went down since the beginning of the winter. Since
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 3: the beginning of the winter, they had traveled eighteen hundred
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 3: miles dragging sleds the whole weary distance, and eighteen hundred
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: miles will tell upon life of the toughest buck stood it,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: keeping his mates up to their work and maintaining discipline,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: though he too was very tired. Billy cried and whimpered
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 3: regularly in his sleep each night. Joe was sourer than ever,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 3: and Solex was unapproachable blind side or other side. But
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: it was Dave who suffered most of all. Something had
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 3: gone wrong with him. He became morose and ere, and
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 3: when camp was pitched it once made his nest where
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 3: his driver fed him. Once out of the harness and down,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: he did not get on his feet again till harness
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 3: up time in the morning. Sometimes in the traces, when
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 3: jerked by a sudden stoppage of the sled or straining
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 3: to start, he would cry out with pain. The driver
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 3: examined him but could find nothing. All the drivers became
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: interested in his case. They talked it over at meal
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 3: time and over their last pipes before going to bed,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: and one night they held a consultation. He was brought
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: from his nest to the fire and was pressed and
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: prodded till he cried out many times something was wrong inside,
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 3: but they could locate no broken bones and could not
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 3: make it out. By the time cassiar Bar was reached,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 3: he was so weak that he was falling repeatedly in
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 3: the traces. The Scotch halfbreed called a halt and took
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 3: him out of the team, making the next dog Solex
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: fast to the sled. His intention was to rest Dave,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: letting him run free behind the sled. Sick as he was.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: Dave resented being taken out, grunting and growling while the
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: traces were unfastened, and whimpering brokenheartedly. When he saw Soles
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 3: in the position he had held and served so long
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: for the pride of trace and trail was his, and
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 3: sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: should do his work. When the sledge started, he floundered
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 3: in the soft snow alongside the beaten trail, attacking Soleks
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 3: with his teeth rushing against him and trying to thrust
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 3: him off into the soft snow on the other side,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 3: striving to leap inside his traces and get between him
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 3: and the sled, and all the while whining and yelping
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 3: and crying with grief and pain. The half breed tried
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 3: to drive him away with the whip, but he paid
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: no heed to the stinging lash, and the man had
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 3: not the heart to strike harder. Dave refused to ran
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: quietly on the trail behind the sled, where the going
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: was easy, but continued to flounder alongside in the soft snow,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 3: where the going was most difficult, till exhausted. Then he
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 3: fell and lay where he fell, howling lugubriously as the
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 3: long train of sleds turned by. With the last remnant
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 3: of his strength, he managed to stagger along behind the
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: train made another stop when he floundered past the sleds
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 3: to his own, where he stood alongside Solex. His driver
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 3: lingered a moment to get a light for his pipe
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 3: from the man behind. Then he returned and started his dogs.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 3: They swung out on the trail with remarkable lack of exertion,
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 3: turned their heads uneasily, and stopped in surprise. The driver
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 3: was surprised too, the sled had not moved. He called
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 3: his comrades to witness the sight. Dave had bitten through
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: both of Solec's traces, and was standing directly in front
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: of the sled in his proper place. He pleaded with
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: his eyes to remain there. The driver was perplexed. His
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 3: comrades talked of how a dog would break its heart
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 3: through being denied the work that killed it, and recalled
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 3: instances they had known were dogs too old for the
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 3: toil or injured, had died because they were cut out
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 3: of the traces. Also, they held it a mercy, since
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 3: Dave was to die anyway, that he should die in
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 3: the traces. Heart easy and content, so he was harnessed
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 3: in again, and proudly he pulled as of old, though
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 3: more than once he cried out involuntarily from the bite
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 3: of his inward hurt. Several times he fell down and
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: was dragged in the traces, and once the sled ran
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: upon him, so that he limped thereafter in one of
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 3: his hind legs. But he held out till camp was reached,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 3: when his driver made a place for him by the fire.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 3: Morning found him too weak to travel at harness up time,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 3: he tried to crawl to his driver by convulsive efforts.
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 3: He got on his feet, staggered and fell. Then he
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 3: warmed his way forward slowly toward where the harnesses were
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 3: being put on his mates. He would advance his fore
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 3: legs and drag his body up with this sort of
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 3: hitching movement. Then he would advance his fore legs and
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: hitch again ahead for a few more inches. His strength
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 3: left him, and the last his mates saw of him,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 3: he lay gasping in the snow and yearning toward them.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 3: But they could hear him mournfully howling till they passed
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 3: out of sight behind a belt of river timber. Here
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 3: the train was halted. The Scotch half breed slowly retraced
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 3: his steps to the camp they had left. The men
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 3: ceased talking. A revolver shot rang out. The man came
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 3: back hurriedly. The whip snapped, the bells tinkled merrily, the
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 3: sleds chirned along the trail. But Buck new and every
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 3: dog new what had taken place behind the belt of
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 3: river trees. End of chapter.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 4: Four, Chapter five, The Toil of Trace and Trail. Thirty
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 4: days from the time it left Dawson, the Salt Water Mail,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 4: with Buck and his mates at the fore, arrived at Skagway.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 4: They were in a wretched state, worn out and worn down.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 4: Buck's one hundred and forty pounds had dwindled to one
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 4: hundred and fifteen. The rest of his mates, though lighter dogs,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 4: had relatively lost more weight than he. Pike, the malingerer,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 4: who in his lifetime of deceit had often successfully feigned
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 4: a hurt leg, was now limping in earnest. Sol Leks
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 4: was limping and Dub was suffering from a wrenched shoulder blade.
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 4: They were all terribly footsore. No spring or rebound was
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 4: left in them. Their feet fell heavily on the trail,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 4: jarring their bodies and doubling the fatigue of a day's travel.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 4: There was nothing the matter with them except that they
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 4: were dead tired. It was not the dead tiredness that
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 4: comes through brief and excessive effort, from which recovery is
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 4: a matter of hours. But it was the dead tiredness
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 4: that comes through the slow and prolonged strength drainage of
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 4: months of toil. There was no power of recuperation left,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 4: no reserve strength to call upon. It had all been used,
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 4: the last least bit of it. Every muscle, every fiber,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 4: every cell was tired, dead tired, and there was reason
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 4: for it. In less than five months. They had traveled
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 4: twenty five hundred miles during the last eighteen hundred, of
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 4: which they had had but five days rest. When they
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 4: arrived at Skagway, they were apparently on their last legs.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 4: They could barely keep the traces taut, and on the
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 4: downgrades just managed to keep out of the way of
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 4: the sled mushan poor sore feats, the driver encouraged them
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 4: as they tottered down the main street of Skagway. This
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 4: is the las. Then we get one long ress, ef
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 4: for sure, one bully long ress. The drivers confidently expected
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 4: a long stopover themselves. They had covered twelve hundred miles
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 4: with just two days rest, and in the nature of
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 4: reason and common justice, they deserved an interval of loafing.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 4: But so many were the men who had rushed into
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 4: the Klondike, and so many were the sweethearts, wives and
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 4: kin that had not rushed in that the congested mail
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 4: was taking on alpine proportions. Also, there were official orders
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 4: fresh batches of Hudson Bay dogs were to take the
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 4: places of those worthless for the trail. The worthless ones
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 4: were to be got rid of, and since dogs count
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 4: for little against dollars they were to be sold. Three
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 4: days passed, by which time Buck and his mates found
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 4: how really tired and weak they were. Then, on the
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 4: morning of the fourth day, two men from the States
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 4: came along and bought them harness and all for a song.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 4: The men addressed each other as Hal and Charles. Charles
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 4: was a middle aged, lightish colored man with weak and
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 4: watery eyes and a mustache that twisted fiercely and vigorously up,
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 4: giving the lie to the limply drooping lip it concealed.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 4: Hal was a youngster of nineteen or twenty, with a
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 4: big Colt's revolver and a hunting knife strapped about him
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 4: on the belt that fairly bristled with cartridges. This belt
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 4: was the most salient thing about him. It advertised his callowness,
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 4: a callowness, sheer and unutterable. Both men were manifestly out
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 4: of place, and why such as they should adventure north
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 4: is part of the mystery of things that passes understanding.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 4: Buck heard the chaffering, saw the money pass between the
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 4: man and the government agent, and knew that the Scotch
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 4: half breed and the mail train drivers were passing out
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 4: of his life on the heels of Perrault and Francois
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 4: and the others who had gone before. When driven with
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 4: his mates to the new owner's camp, Buck saw a
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 4: slip shod and slovenly affair tent, half stretched, dishes, unwashed,
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 4: everything in disorder. Also he saw a woman, Mercedes. The
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 4: men called her. She was Charles's wife and Hal's sister,
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 4: a nice family party. Buck watched them apprehensively as they
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 4: proceeded to take down the tent and load the sled.
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 4: There was a great deal of effort about their manner,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 4: but no businesslike method. The tent was rolled into an
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 4: awkward bundle three times as large as it should have been.
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 4: The tin dishes were packed away unwashed. Mercedes continually fluttered
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 4: in the way of her men and kept up an
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 4: unbroken chattering of remonstrance and advice. When they put a
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 4: clothes sack on the front of the sled, she suggested
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 4: it should go on the back, And when they had
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 4: put it on the back and covered it over with
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 4: a couple of other bundles, she discovered overlooked articles which
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 4: could abide nowhere else but in that very sack. And
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 4: they unloaded again. Three men from a neighboring tent came
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 4: out and looked on, grinning and winking at one another.
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 4: You've got a right smart load as it is, said
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 4: one of them. And it's not me should tell you
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 4: your business. But I wouldn't tote that tent along if
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 4: I was you. I'm dreamed of, cried Mercedes, throwing her
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 4: hands in a dainty dismay. However in the world would
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 4: I manage without a tent. It's springtime and you won't
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 4: get any more cold weather, the man replied. She shook
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 4: her head decidedly, and Charles and half with the last
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 4: odds and ends on top of the mountainous load. Think
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 4: it'll ride. One of the men asked, why shouldn't it,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 4: Charles demanded rather shortly. Oh that's all right, that's all right,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 4: The man hastened meekly to say, I was just a
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 4: wonderin that is all. It seemed a mite top heavy.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 4: Charles turned his back and drew the lashings down as
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 4: well as he could, which was not in the least well.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 4: And of course the dogs can hike along all day
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: with that contraption behind them, affirmed the second of the men,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 4: certainly said, hal with freezing politeness, taking hold of the
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 4: g pole with one hand and swinging his whip from
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 4: the other. Mush He shouted, mush on there. The dogs
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 4: sprang against the breast band, strained hard for a few moments,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 4: then relaxed. They were unable to move the sled lazy brutes.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 4: I'll show them, he cried, preparing to lash out at
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 4: them and with the whip, but Mercedes interfered, crying, oh, hal,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 4: you mustn't, as she caught hold of the whip and
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 4: wrenched it from him. The poor DearS. Now you must
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 4: promise you won't be harsh with them for the rest
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 4: of the tripp or I won't go a step, precious lot,
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 4: you know about dogs. Her brother sneered, and I wish
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 4: you'd leave me alone. They're lazy, I tell you, and
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 4: you've got to win them to get anything out of them.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 4: That's their way. You ask any one, ask one of
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 4: those men. Mercedes looked at them imploringly, untold repugnance at
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 4: sight of pain written in her pretty face. They're weak
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 4: as water, if you want to know, came the reply
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 4: from one of the men. Plumb tuckered out. That's what's
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 4: the matter. They need a rest rest be blanked, said
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 4: Hal with his beardless lips, and Mercedes said, oh, in
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 4: a pain and sorrow at the oath. But she was
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 4: a clannish creature and rushed at once to the defense
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 4: of her brother. Never mind that man, she said, pointedly.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 4: You're driving our dogs, and you do what you think
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 4: is best with them. Again, Hal's whip fell upon the dogs.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 4: They threw themselves against their breast bands, dug their feet
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 4: into the packed snow, got down low to it, and
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 4: put forth all their strength. The sled held as though
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 4: it were an anchor. After two efforts, they stood still, panting.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 4: The whip was whistling savagely. When once more Mercedes interfered.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 4: She dropped on her knees before Buck, with tears in
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 4: her eyes, and put her arms around his neck. You poor,
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 4: poor DearS, she cried sympathetically. Why don't you pull hard,
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 4: then you wouldn't be whipped. Buck did not like her,
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 4: but he was feeling too miserable to resist her, taking
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 4: it as part of the day's miserable work. One of
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 4: the onlookers, who had been clenching his teeth to suppress
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 4: hot speech, now spoke up. It's not that I care
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 4: a whip of what becomes of you. But for the
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 4: dog's sakes, I just want to tell you can help
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 4: them a mighty lot by breaking out that sled. The
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 4: runners are froze fast, throw your weight against the gee
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 4: pole right and left and break it out. A third
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 4: time the attempt was made, but this time, following the advice,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 4: Hal broke out the runners, which had been frozen to
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 4: the snow. The overloaded and unwieldy sled forged ahead. Buck
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 4: and his mates struggling frantically under the rain of blows.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 4: A hundred yards ahead, the path turned and sloped steeply
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 4: into the main street. It would have required an experienced
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 4: man to keep the top heavy sled upright, and Hal
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 4: was not such a man. As they swung on the turn,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 4: the sled went over, spilling half its load through the
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 4: loose lashings. The dogs never stopped. The lightened sled bounced
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 4: on its side behind them. They were angry because of
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 4: the ill treatment they had received and the unjust load.
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 4: Buck was raging. He broke into a run. The team
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 4: following his lead. Hal cried whoa, whoa, but they gave
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 4: no heed. He tripped and was pulled off his feet.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 4: The capsized sled ground over him, and the dogs dashed
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 4: on up the street, adding to the gaiety of Skagway.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 4: As they scattered the remainder of the outfit along its
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 4: cheap thoroughfare. Kind hearted citizens caught the dogs and gathered
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 4: up the scattered belongings. Also, they gave advice. Half the
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 4: load and twice the dogs if they ever expected to
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: reach Dawson, was what they said. Hal and his sister
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 4: and brother in law listened unwillingly, pitched tent and overhauled
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 4: the outfit. Canned goods were turned out that made men laugh.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 4: For canned goods on the long trail is a thing
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 4: to dream about. Blankets for a hotel, quoth one of
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 4: the men who laughed and helped half as many is
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 4: too much. Get rid of them. Throw away that tent
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 4: and all those dishes. Who's going to wash them anyway?
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 4: Good lord, d'ye think you're traveling on a pullman? And
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 4: so it went the inexorable elimination of the superfluous. Mercedes
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 4: cried when her clothes bags were dumped on the ground,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 4: and article after article was thrown out. She cried in general,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 4: and she cried in particular over each discarded thing, she
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 4: clasped hands about knees, Rocking back and forth broken heartedly.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 4: She averred that she would not go an inch, not
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 4: for a dozen charleses. She appealed to everybody and to
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 4: every thing, finally wiping her eyes and proceeding to cast
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 4: out even articles of apparel that were imperative necessaries and
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 4: in her zeal. When she had finished with her own,
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 4: she attacked the belongings of her men and went through
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 4: them like a tornado. This accomplished the outfit, though cut
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 4: in half, was still a formidable bulk. Charles and Hal
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 4: went out in the evening and bought six outside dogs.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 4: These added to the six of the original team, and
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 4: Teek and Kuna, the huskies obtained at the Rink Rapids
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 4: on the record trip, brought the team up to fourteen.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 4: But the outside dogs, though particularly broken in since their
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 4: landing did not amount to much. These were short haired pointers.
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 4: One was a Newfoundland and the other two were mongrels
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 4: of indeterminate breed. They did not seem to know anything
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 4: these newcomers. Buck and his comrades looked upon them with disgust,
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 4: and though he speedily taught them their places and what
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 4: not to do. He could not teach them what to do.
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 4: They did not take kindly to trace and trail, with
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 4: the exception of the two mongrels. They were bewildered and
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 4: spirit broken by the strange, savage environment in which they
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 4: found themselves and by the ill treatment they had received.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 4: The two mongrels were without spirit at all. Bones were
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 4: the only things breakable about them. With the newcomers hopeless
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 4: and forlorn, and the old team worn out by twenty
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 4: five hundred miles of continuous trail, the outlook was anything
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 4: but bright. The two men, however, were quite cheerful, and
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 4: they were proud too. They were doing the thing in
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 4: style with fourteen dogs. They had seen other sleds depart
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 4: over the pass for Dawn or come in from Dawson,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 4: but never had they seen a sled with so many
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 4: as fourteen dogs. In the nature of Arctic travel, there
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 4: was a reason why fourteen dogs should not drag one sled,
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 4: and that was that one sled could not carry the
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 4: food for fourteen dogs. But Charles and Hal did not
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 4: know this. They had worked the trip out with a pencil.
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 4: So much to a dog, so many dogs, so many
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 4: days Q E. D Mercedes looked over their shoulders and
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 4: nodded comprehensively. It was all so very simple. Late next morning,
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 4: Buck led the long team up the street. There was
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 4: nothing lively about it, no snap or go in him
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 4: and his fellows. They were starting dead weary. Four times
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 4: he had covered the distance between Salt Water and Dawson,
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 4: and the knowledge that, jaded and tired he was facing
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 4: the same trail once more made him bitter. His his
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 4: heart was not in the work, nor was the heart
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 4: of any dog. The outsides were timid and frightened, the
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 4: insides without confidence in their masters. Buck felt vaguely that
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 4: there was no depending upon these two men and the woman.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 4: They did not know how to do anything, and as
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 4: the days went by it became apparent that they could
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 4: not learn. They were slack in all things, without order
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 4: or discipline. It took them half the night to pitch
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 4: a slovenly camp, and half the morning to break that
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 4: camp and get the sled loaded in a fashion so
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 4: slovenly that for the rest of the day they were
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 4: occupied in stopping and re arranging the load. Some days
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 4: they did not make ten miles. On other days they
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 4: were unable to get started at all, and on no
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 4: day did they succeed in making more than half the
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 4: distance used by the men as a basis in their
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 4: dog food computation. It was inevitable that they should go
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 4: short on dog food, but they hastened it by over feeding,
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 4: bringing the day nearer when the under feeding would commence.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 4: The outside dogs, whose digestions had not been trained by
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 4: chronic famine to make the most of little, had voracious appetites.
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 4: And when in addition to this the worn out huskies
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 4: pulled weakly, hal decided that the orthodox ration was too small,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 4: he doubled it, and to cap it all. When Mercedes,
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 4: with tears in her pretty eyes and a quaver in
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 4: her throat, could not cajole him into giving the dogs
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 4: still more, she stole from the fish sacks and fed
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 4: them slyly. But it was not food that Buck and
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 4: the huskies needed, but rest, And though they were making
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 4: poor time, the heavy load they dragged sapped their strength severely.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 4: Then came the under feeding. Hallowoke one day to the
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 4: fact that his dog food was half gone and the
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 4: distance only a quarter covered. Further that for love or money,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 4: no additional dog food was to be obtained, so he
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 4: cut down even the orthodox ration and tried to increase
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 4: the day's travel. His sister and brother in law seconded him,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 4: but they were frustrated by their heavy outfit and their
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 4: own incompetence. It was a simple matter to give the
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 4: dogs less food, but it was impossible to make the
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 4: dogs travel faster, while their own inability to get under
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 4: way earlier in the morning prevented them from traveling longer hours.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 4: Not only did they not know how to work dogs,
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 4: but they did not know how to work themselves. The
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 4: first to go was dub poor blundering thief that he
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 4: was always getting caught and punished, he had none the
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 4: less been a faithful worker. His wrenched shoulder blade, untreated
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 4: and unrested, went from bad to worse till finally hal
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 4: shot him with the big Colt's revolver. It is a
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 4: saying of the country that an outside dog starves to
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 4: death on the ration of the husky, So the six
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 4: outside dogs under Buck would do no less than die
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 4: on half the ration of the husky. The Newfoundland went first,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 4: followed by the three shor haired pointers and the two mongrels,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 4: hanging more grittily on to life, but going in the end.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 4: By this time all the amenities and gentleness of the
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 4: Southland had fallen away from the three people. Shorn of
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 4: its glamour and romance. Arctic travel became to them a
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 4: reality too harsh for their manhood and womanhood. Mercedes ceased
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 4: weeping over the dogs, being too occupied with weeping over
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 4: herself and with quarreling with her husband and brother. To
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 4: quarrel was the one thing they were never too weary
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 4: to do. Their irritability arose out of their misery, increased
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 4: with it, doubled upon it, out distanced it. The wonderful
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 4: patience of the trail, which comes to men who toil
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 4: hard and suffer sore and remain sweet of speech and kindly,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 4: did not come to these two men and the woman.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 4: They had no inkling of such paine. They were stiff
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 4: and in pain, their muscles ached, their bones ached, their
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 4: very hearts ached. And because of this they became sharp
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 4: of speech, and hard words were first on their lips
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 4: in the morning and last at night. Charles and Hal
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 4: wrangled whenever Mercedes gave them a chance. It was the
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 4: cherished belief of each that he did more than his
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 4: share of the work, and neither forbore to speak this
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 4: belief at every opportunity. Sometimes Mercedes sided with her husband,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 4: sometimes with her brother. The result was a beautiful and
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 4: unending family quarrel, starting from a dispute as to which
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 4: should chop a few sticks for the fire, a dispute
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 4: which concerned only Charles and Hal presently would be lugged
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 4: in the rest of the family fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 4: people thousands of miles away, and some of them dead.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 4: That Hal's views on art or the sort of society
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 4: plays his mother's brother wrote, would have anything to do
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 4: with chopping a few sticks of firewood passes comprehension. Nevertheless,
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 4: the quarrel was as likely to tend in that direction
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 4: as in the direction of charles political prejudices, and that
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 4: Charles's sister's tale bearing tongue should be relevant to the
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 4: building of a Yukon fire was apparent only to Mercedes,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 4: who disburdened herself of copious opinions upon that topic, and
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 4: incidentally upon a few other traits unpleasantly peculiar to her
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 4: husband's family. In the meantime, the fire remained unbuilt, the
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 4: camp half pitched, and the dogs unfed. Mercedes nursed a
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 4: special grievance, the grievance of sex. She was pretty and
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 4: soft and had been chivalrously treated all her days, but
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 4: the present treatment by her husband and brother was everything
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 4: save chivalrous. It was her custom to be helpless. They
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 4: complained upon which impeachment of what to her was her
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 4: most essential sex prerogative. She made their lives unin durable.
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 4: She no longer considered the dogs, and because she was
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 4: sore and tired, she persisted in riding on the sled.
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 4: She was pretty and soft, but she weighed one hundred
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 4: and twenty pounds, a lusty last straw to the load.
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 4: Dragged by the weak and starving animals, she rode for
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 4: days till they fell in the traces and the sledge
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 4: stood still. Charles and hal begged her to get off
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 4: and walk, pleaded with her, entreated the while she wept
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 4: and importuned Heaven with the recital of their brutality. On
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 4: one occasion they took her off the sled by main strength.
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 4: They never did it again. She let her legs go
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 4: limp like a spoiled child, and sat down on the trail.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 4: They went on their way, but she did not move.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 4: After they had traveled three miles, they unloaded the sled,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 4: came back for her, and by main strength, put her
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 4: on the sled again. In the excess of their own misery,
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 4: they were callous to the suffering of their animals. Hal's theory,
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 4: which he practiced on others, was that one mustn't get hardened.
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 4: He had started out preaching it to his sister and
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 4: brother in law. Failing there, he hammered it into the
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 4: dogs with a club at the five fingers. The dog
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 4: food gave out, and a toothless old squaw offered to
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 4: trade them a few pounds of frozen horse hide for
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 4: the colt's revolver that kept the big hunting knife company
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 4: at Hal's hip. A poor substitute for the food was
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 4: this hide, just as it had been stripped from the
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 4: starved horses of the cattleman six months back. In its
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 4: frozen state, it was more like strips of galvanized iron,
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 4: and when a dog wrestled it into his stomach, it
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 4: thawed into thin and innutritious leathery strings, and into mass
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 4: of short hair, irritating and indigestible, And through it all
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 4: Buck staggered along at the head of the team as
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 4: in a nightmare. He pulled when he could. When he
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 4: could know no longer pull, he fell down and remained
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 4: down till blows from whip or club drove him to
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 4: his feet again. All the stiffness and gloss had gone
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 4: out of his beautiful furry coat. The hair hung down,
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 4: limp and draggled or matted with dried blood. Where Hal's
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 4: club had bruised him, his muscles had wasted away to
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 4: knotty strings, and the flesh pads had disappeared, so that
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 4: each rib and every bone in his frame were outlined
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 4: cleanly through the loose hide that was wrinkled in folds
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 4: of emptiness. It was heart breaking. Only Buck's heart was unbreakable.
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 4: The man in the red sweater had proved that. As
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 4: it was with Buck, so it was with his mates.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 4: They were perambulating skeletons. There were seven altogether, including him.
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 4: In their very great misery, they had become insensible to
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 4: the bite of the lash or the bruise of the club.
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 4: The pain of the beating was dull and distant, just
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 4: as the things their eyes saw and their ears heard
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 4: seemed dull and distant. They were not half living or
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 4: quarter living. They were simply so many bags of bones
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 4: in which sparks of life fluttered faintly. When a halt
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 4: was made, they dropped down in the traces like dead dogs,
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 4: and the spark dimmed and paled and seemed to go out.
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 4: But when the clubb or whip fell upon them, the
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 4: spark fluttered feebly up, and they tottered to their feet
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 4: and staggered on. There came a day when Billy, the
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 4: good natured, fell and could not rise. Hal had traded
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 4: off his revolver, so he took the axe and knocked
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 4: Billy on the head as he lay in the traces,
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 4: then cut the carcass out of the harness and dragged
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 4: it to one side. Buck saw, and his mates saw,
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 4: and they knew that this thing was very close to them.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 4: And on the next day Kuna went and but five
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 4: of them remained. Joe too far gone to be malignant,
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 4: Pike crimped and limping, only half conscious, and not conscious
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 4: enough longer. Tom Linger sol Leks, the one eyed, still
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 4: faithful to the toil and trace and trail, and mournful
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 4: in that he had so little strength with which to
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 4: pull teek, who had not traveled so far that winter,
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 4: and who was now beaten more than the others, because
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 4: he was fresher and buck still at the head of
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 4: the team, but no longer enforcing discipline or striving to
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 4: enforce it, blind with weakness, half the time, in keeping
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 4: the trail by the loom of it and by the
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 4: dim feel of his feet. It was beautiful spring weather,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 4: but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it. Each
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 4: day the sun rose earlier and set later. It was
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 4: dawned by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 4: nine at night. The whole long day was a blaze
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 4: of sunshine. The ghostly winter silence had given way to
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 4: the great spring murmur of awakening life. This murmur arose
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 4: from all the land with the joy of living. It
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 4: came from the things that lived and moved again, things
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 4: which had been dead and which had not moved during
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 4: the long months of frost. The sap was rising in
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 4: the pines. The willows and aspens were bursting out in
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 4: young buds. Shrubs and vines were putting on fresh garbs
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 4: of green. Crickets sang in the nights and in the days.
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 4: All manner of creeping, crawling things rustled forth into the sun.
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 4: Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 4: Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wild
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 4: fowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 4: split the air. From every hill slope came the trickle
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 4: of running water, the music of unseen fountains. All things
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 4: were thawing, bending, snapping. The yukon was straining to break
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 4: loose the ice that had bound it down. It ate
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 4: away from beneath the sun, ate from above. Air Holes formed, fissures,
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 4: sprang and spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 4: through bodily into the river. And amid all this bursting, rending,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 4: throbbing of awakening life under the blazing sun and through
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 4: the soft, sighing breezes, like wayfarers to death, staggered the
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 4: two men, the woman and the huskies, With the dogs falling,
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 4: Mercedes weeping and riding, hal swearing innocuously, and Charles's eyes
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 4: wistfully watering, they staggered into John Thornton's camp at the
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 4: mouth of White River. When they halted, the dogs dropped
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 4: down as though they had all been struck dead. Mercedes
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 4: dried her eyes and looked at John Thornton. Charles sat
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 4: down on a log to rest. He sat down, very
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 4: slowly and painstakingly. What of his great stiffness? Hal did
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 4: the talking. John Thornton was whittling the last touches on
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 4: an axe handle he had made from a stick of birch.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 4: He whittled and listened and gave monosyllab replies, and when
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 4: it was asked terse advice. He knew the breed, and
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 4: he gave his advice in the certainty that it would
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 4: not be followed. They told us up above that the
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 4: bottom was dropping out of the trail, and that the
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 4: best thing for us to do is lay over, Hal said,
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 4: in response to Thornton's warning to take no more chances
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 4: on the rotten ice. They told us we couldn't make
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 4: White River, And here we are, this last with a
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 4: sneering ring of triumph in it. And they told you true,
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 4: John Thornton answered, the bottom's likely to drop out at
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 4: any moment. Only fools, with the blind luck of fools,
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 4: could have made it. I tell you straight, I wouldn't
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 4: risk my carcass on that ice for all the gold
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 4: in Alaska. That's because you're not a fool, I suppose,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 4: said Hal. All the same, we'll go on to Dawson.
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 4: He uncoiled his whip. Get up there, back, Ay, get
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 4: up there, mush On. Thornton went on whitling. It was
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 4: idle he knew to get between a fool and his folly,
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 4: while two or three the fools more or less would
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 4: not alter the scheme of things. But the team did
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 4: not get up at the command. It had long since
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 4: passed into the stage where blows were required to rouse it.
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 4: The whip flashed out here and there on its merciless errands.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 4: John Thornton compressed his lips. Sol Leks was the first
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 4: to crawl to his feet. Teek followed. Joe came next,
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 4: yelping with pain. Pike made painful efforts. Twice, he fell
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 4: over when half up, and on the third attempt he
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 4: managed to rise. Buck made no effort. He lay quietly
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 4: where he had fallen. The lash bit into him again
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 4: and again, but he neither whined nor struggled. Several times
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 4: Thornton started as though to speak, but changed his mind.
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 4: A moisture came into his eyes, and as the whipping continued.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 4: He arose and walked irresolutely up and down. This was
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 4: the first time Buck had failed in itself a sufficient
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 4: reas to drive Hal into a rage. He exchanged the
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 4: whip for the customary club. Buck refused to move under
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 4: the rain of heavier blows, which now fell upon him.
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 4: Like his mates, he barely able to get up, But
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 4: unlike them, he had made up his mind not to
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 4: get up. He had a vague feeling of impending doom.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 4: This had been strong upon him when he pulled into
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 4: the bank, and it had not departed from him. What
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 4: of the thin and rotten ice he had felt under
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 4: his feet all day, It seemed that he sensed disaster
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 4: close at hand, out there ahead on the ice where
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 4: his master was trying to drive him. He refused to stir.
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 4: So greatly had he suffered, and so far gone was
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 4: he that the blows did not hurt much, and they
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 4: continued to fall upon him. The spark of life within
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 4: flickered and went down. It was nearly out. He felt
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 4: strangely numb, as though from a great distance he was
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 4: aware that he was being beaten. The last sensations of
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 4: pain left him. He no longer felt anything though very faintly.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 4: He could hear the impact of the club upon his body,
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 4: but it was no longer his body. It seemed so
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 4: far away. And then, suddenly, without warning, uttering a cry
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 4: that was inarticulate and more like the cry of an animal,
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 4: John Thornton sprang upon the man who wielded the club.
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 4: Hal was hurled backward as though struck by a failing tree.
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 4: Mercedes screamed. Charles looked on wistfully wiped his watery eyes,
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 4: but did not get up because of his stiffness. John
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 4: Thornton stood over Buck, struggling to control himself, too convulsed
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 4: with rage to speak. If you strike that dog again,
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 4: I'll kill you. He at last managed to say, in
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 4: a choking voice, it's my dog. Hal replied, wiping the
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 4: blood from his mouth as he came back. Get out
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 4: of my way, or I'll fix you. I'm going to
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 4: dog soon. Thornton stood between him and Buck, and evinced
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 4: no intention of getting out of the way. Hal drew
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 4: his long hunting knife. Mercedes screamed, cried, laughed, and manifested
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 4: the chaotic abandonment of hy area. Thornton rapped Hal's knuckles
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 4: with the axe handle, knocking the knife to the ground.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 4: He wrapped his knuckles again as he tried to pick
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 4: it up. Then he stooped, picked it up himself, and
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 4: with two strokes cut Buck's traces. Hal had no fight
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 4: left in him besides, his hands were full with his
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 4: sister or his arms rather, while Buck was too near
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 4: dead to be of further use in hauling the sled.
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 4: A few minutes later they pulled out from the bank
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 4: and down the river. Buck heard them go and raised
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 4: his head to see. Pike was leading, sol Leks was
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 4: at the wheel, and between were Joe Antique. They were
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 4: limping and staggering. Mercedes was riding the loaded sledge. Hal
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 4: guided at the gee pole, and Charles stumbled along in
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 4: the rear. As Buck watched them, Thornton knelt beside him
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 4: and with rough, kindly hands searched for broken bones. By
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 4: the time his search had disclosed nothing more than many
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 4: bruises and a state of terrible starvation. The sled was
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 4: a quarter of a mile away. Dog and man watched
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 4: it crawling along over the ice. Suddenly they saw its
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 4: back end drop down as into a rut, and the
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 4: ge pole, with Hal clinging to it, jerk into the air.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 4: Mercedes's scream came to their ears. They saw Charles turn
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 4: and make one step to run back, and then a
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 4: whole section of ice give way, and the dogs and
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 4: humans disappear. A yawning hole was all that was to
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 4: be seen. The bottom had dropped out of the trail.
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 4: John Thornton and Buck looked at each other, You poor devil,
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 4: said John Thornton, and Buck licked his hand. Chapter six,
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 4: For the Love of a Man. When John Thornton froze
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 4: his feet in the previous December, his partners had made
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 4: him comfortable and left him to get well, going on
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 4: themselves up the river to get out a raft of
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 4: saw logs for Dawson. He was still limping slightly at
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 4: the time he rescued Buck, but with the continued warm weather,
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 4: even the slight limp left him. And here, lying by
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 4: the river bank through the long spring days, watching the
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 4: running water, listening lazily to the songs of birds and
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 4: the hum of nature, Buck slowly won back his strength.
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 4: A rest comes very good after one has traveled three
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 4: thousand miles. And it must be confessed that Buck waxed
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 4: lazy as his wounds healed. His muscles swelled out and
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 4: the flesh came back to cover his bones. For that matter,
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 4: they were all loafing Buck, John Thornton, and Skeet and Nig,
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 4: waiting for the raft to come that was to carry
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 4: them down to Dawson. Skeat was a little Irish setter
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 4: who early made friends with Buck, who, in a in
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 4: a dying condition, was unable to resent her first advances.
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 4: She had the doctor trait which some dogs possess, and
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 4: as a mother cat washes her kittens, so she washed
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 4: and cleansed Buck's wounds regularly each morning after he had
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 4: finished his breakfast. She performed her self appointed task until
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 4: he came to look for her ministrations as much as
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 4: he did for Thornton's Nig. Equally friendly, though less demonstrative,
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 4: was a huge black dog, half bloodhound and half deer hound,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 4: with eyes that laughed and a boundless good nature. To
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 4: Buck's surprise, these dogs manifested no jealousy toward him. They
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 4: seemed to share the kindliness and largeness of John Thornton.
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 4: As Buck grew stronger, they enticed him into all sorts
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 4: of ridiculous games in which Thornton himself could not forbear
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 4: to join. And in this fashion Buck romped through his
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 4: convalescence and into a new existence. Love, genuine passionate love
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 4: was his for the first time. This he had never experienced.
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 4: At Judge Miller's down in the sun kissed Santa Clara Valley,
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 4: with the Judge's sons hunting and tramping. It had been
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 4: a working partnership with the judge's grandsons a sort of
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 4: pompous guardianship, and with the Judge himself a stately and
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 4: dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning. That
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 4: was adoration. That was madness. It had taken John Thornton
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 4: to arouse. This man had saved his life, which was something.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 4: But further, he was the ideal master. Other men saw
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 4: to the welfare of their dogs from a sense of
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 4: duty and business expediency. He saw to the welfare of
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 4: his as if they were his own children, because he
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 4: could not help it. And he saw further, he never
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 4: forgot a kindly greeting or a cheering word, And to
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 4: sit down for a long talk with them, gas as
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 4: he called it, was as much his delight as theirs.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 4: He had a way of taking Buck's head roughly between
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 4: his hands and resting his own head upon Buck's, of
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 4: shaking him back and forth, the while calling him ill
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 4: names that to Buck were love names. Buck knew no
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 4: greater joy than that rough embrace and the sound of
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 4: murmured oaths. And in each jerk back and forth, it
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 4: seemed that his heart would be shaken out of his body,
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 4: so great was its ecstasy. And when released, he sprang
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 4: to his feet, his mouth laughing, his eyes eloquent, his
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 4: throat vibrant with unuttered sound, and in that fashion remained
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 4: without movement. John Thornton would reverently exclaim, God, you can
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 4: all but speak. Buck had a trick of love expression
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 4: that was akin to hurt. He would often seize Thornton's
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 4: hand in his mouth and close so fiercely that the
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 4: flesh bore the impress of his teeth for some time afterward,
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 4: and Buck understood the oaths to be love words, so
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 4: the man understood this feigned bite for a caress. For
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 4: the most part, however, Buck's love was expressed in adoration,
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 4: while he went wild with happiness when Thornton touched him
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 4: or spoke to him. He did not seek these tokens,
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 4: unlike skeete who was wont to shove her nose under
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 4: Thornton's hand and nudge and nudge until petted, or nig
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 4: who would stalk up and rest his great head on
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 4: Thornton's knee. Buck was content to adore at a distance.
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 4: He would lie by the hour, eager alert, at Thornton's feet,
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 4: looking up into his face, dwelling upon it, studying it,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 4: following it with keenest interest each fleeting expression, every movement
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 4: or change of feature, or as chance might have it,
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 4: he would lie farther away to the side or rear,
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 4: watching the outlines of the man and the occasional movements
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 4: of his body. And often such was the communion in
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 4: which they lived. The strength of Buck's gaze would draw
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 4: John Thornton's head around, and he he would return the
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 4: gaze without speech, his heart shining out of his eyes
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 4: as Buck's heart shone out. For a long time after
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 4: his rescue, Buck did not like Thornton to get out
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 4: of his sight. From the moment he left the tent
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 4: to when he entered it again, Buck would follow at
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 4: his heels. His transient masters. Since he had come into
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 4: the Northland, had bred in him a fear that no
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 4: master could be permanent. He was afraid that Thornton would
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 4: pass out of his life as Pierrot and Francois and
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 4: the Scotch half breed had passed out. Even in the
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 4: night in his dreams. He was haunted by this fear.
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 4: At such times he would shake off sleep and creep
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 4: through the chill of the flap of the tent, where
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 4: he could stand and listen to the sound of his
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 4: master's breathing. But in spite of this great love he
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 4: bore John Thornton, which seemed to bespeak the soft civilizing influence,
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 4: the strain of the primitive which the Northland had aroused
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 4: in him, remained alive and active, faithfulness and devotion when
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 4: things born of fire and roof were his. Yet he
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 4: retained his wildness and wiliness. He was a thing of
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 4: the wild, come in from the wild to sit by
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 4: John Thornton's fire, rather than a dog of the soft Southland,
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 4: stamped with the marks of generations of civilization. Because of
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 4: his very great love, he could not steal from this man,
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 4: but from any other man in any other camp. He
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 4: did not hesitate an instant, while the cunning with which
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 4: he stole enabled him to escape detection. His face and
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 4: body were scored by the teeth of many dogs, and
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 4: he fought as fiercely as ever and more shrewdly. Skeat
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 4: and Nig were too good natured for quarreling. Besides, they
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 4: belonged to John Thornton. But the strange dog, no matter
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 4: what the breed or valor, swiftly acknowledged Buck's supremacy or
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 4: found himself struggling for life with a terrible antagonist. And
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 4: Buck was merciless. He had learned well the law of
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 4: club and fang, and he never fore whad an advantage
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 4: or drew back from a foe. He had started on
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 4: the way to death. He had lessened from spits and
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 4: from the chief fighting dogs of the police and mail,
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 4: and he knew there was no middle course. He must
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 4: master or be mastered. While to show mercy was a weakness.
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 4: Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 4: misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 4: or be killed, eat or be eaten was the law,
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 4: and this mandate down out of the depths of time,
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 4: he obeyed. He was older than the days he had seen,
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 4: and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 4: with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 4: him in a mighty rhythm, to which he swayed as
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 4: the tides and seasons swayed. He sat by John Thornton's fire,
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 4: a broad breasted dog, white fanged, and long furred. But
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 4: behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs,
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 4: half wolves, and wild wolves, urgent and prompting, tasting the
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 4: savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 4: he drank, scenting the wind with him, listening with him
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 4: and telling him the sounds made by the wild life
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 4: in the forest, dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 4: down to sleep with him when he lay down, and
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 4: dreaming with him, beyond him, and becoming themselves the stuff
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 4: of his dreams. So peremptorily did these shades beckon him,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 4: that each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 4: farther from him. Deep in the forest, a call was sounding,
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 4: And as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 4: and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 4: the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 4: plunge into the forest, and on and on. He knew
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 4: not where or why, nor did he wonder where or
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 4: why the call sounding imperiously deep in the forest. But
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 4: as often as he gained the soft, unbroken earth and
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 4: the green shade, the love for John Thornton drew him
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 4: back to the fire again. Thornton alone held him. The
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 4: rest of mankind was as nothing. Chance travelers might praise
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 4: or pet him, but he was cold under it all,
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 4: and from a too demonstrative man, he would get up
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 4: and walk away. When Thornton's partners, Hans and Pete arrived
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 4: on the long expected raft, Buck refused to notice them
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 4: until he learned they were close to Thornton. After that
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 4: he tolerated them in a passive sort of way, accepting
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 4: favors from them as though he favored them by accepting
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 4: they were of the same large type as Thornton, living
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 4: close to the earth, thinking simply and seeing clearly. And
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 4: ere they swung the raft into the big Eddy by
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 4: the sawmill at Dawson. They understood Buck and his ways
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 4: and did not insist upon an intimacy such as obtained
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 4: with Skeet and Nig. For Thornton, however, his love seemed
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 4: to grow and grow. He alone among men could put
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 4: a pack upon Buck's back. In the summer traveling, nothing
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 4: was too great for Buck to do. When Thornton commanded.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 4: One day, they had grub staked themselves from the proceeds
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 4: of the raft and left Dawson for the head waters
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 4: of the Tanana. The men and dogs were sitting on
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 4: the crest of a cliff which fell away straight down
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 4: to naked bed rock three hundred feet below. John Thornton
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 4: was sitting near the edge, Buck at his shoulder. A
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 4: thoughtless whim seized Thornton, and he drew the attention of
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 4: Hans and Pete to the experiment he had in mind.
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 4: Jump Buck. He commanded, sweeping his arm out over the chasm.
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 4: The next instant he was grappling with Buck on the
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 4: extreme edge, while Hans and Pete were dragging them back
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 4: into safety. It's uncanny, Pete said, after it was over
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 4: and they had caught their speech. Thornton shook his head. No,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 4: it is splendid, and it is terrible too know. It
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 4: sometimes makes me afraid. I'm not hankering to be the
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 4: man that lays hands on you while he's around Pete
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 4: announced conclusively, nodding his head toward Buck. Pi Jingo was
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 4: hans contribution, not mine self either. It was at Circle
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 4: City ere the year was out that Pete's apprehensions were realized.
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 4: Black Burton, a man evil tempered and malicious, had been
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 4: picking a quarrel with the Tenderfoot at the bar when
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 4: Thornton stepped good naturedly between Buck, as was his custom,
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 4: was lying in a corner, head on pause, watching his
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 4: master's every action. Burton struck out without warning, straight from
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 4: the shoulder. Thornton was sent spinning and saved himself from
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 4: falling only by clutching the rail of the bar. Those
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 4: who were looking on heard what was neither a bark
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 4: nor a yelp, but something which is best described as
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 4: a roar, and they saw Buck's body rise up in
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 4: the air as he left the floor for Burton's throat.
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 4: The man saved his life by instinctively throwing out his arm,
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 4: but was hurled backward to the floor with Buck on
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 4: top of him. Buck loosed his teeth from the flesh
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 4: of the arm and drove again for the throat. This
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 4: time the man succeeded only in partly blocking and his
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 4: throat was torn open. Then the crowd was upon Buck
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 4: and he was driven off, But while a surgeon checked
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 4: the bleeding, he prowled up and down, growling furiously, attempting
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 4: to rush in and being forced back by an array
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 4: of hostile clubs. A miners meeting called on the spot
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 4: decided that the dog had sufficient provocation, and Buck was discharged.
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 4: But his reputation was made, and from that day his
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 4: name spread through every camp in Alaska. Later on, in
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 4: the fall of the year, he saved John Thornton's life
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 4: in quite another fashion. The three partners were lining a
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 4: long and narrow poling boat down a bad stretch of
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 4: rapids on the forty Mile Creek. Hans and Pete moved
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 4: along the bank, snubbing with a thin manilla rope from
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 4: tree to tree, while Thornton remained in the boat, helping
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 4: its descent by means of a pole and shouting directions
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 4: to the shore. Buck on the bank, worried and anxious,
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 4: kept abreast of the boat, his eyes never off his master.
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 4: At a particularly bad spot, where a ledge of barely
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 4: submerged rocks jutted out into the river, Hans cast off
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 4: the rope and while Thornton pulled the boat out into
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 4: the stream, ran down the bank with the end of
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 4: his hand to snub the boat when it had cleared
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 4: the ledge. This it did, and was flying down stream
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 4: in a current as swift as a mill race when
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 4: Hans checked it with the rope and checked too. Suddenly
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 4: the boat flirted over and snubbed into the bank bottom up,
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 4: while Thornton flung sheer out of it was carried down
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 4: stream towards the worst part of the rapids, a stretch
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 4: of wild water in which no swimmer could live. Buck
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 4: had sprung in on the instant, and at the end
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 4: of three hundred yards, amid a mad swirl of water,
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 4: he overhauled Thornton. When he felt him grasp his tail.
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 4: Buck headed for the bank, swimming with all his splendid
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 4: so strength. But the progress shoreward was slow, the progress
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 4: downstream amazingly rapid. From below came the fatal roaring, where
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 4: the wild current went wilder and was rent in shreds
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 4: and spray by the rocks, which thrust through like the
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 4: teeth of an enormous comb. The suck of the water
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 4: as it took the beginning of the last steep pitch
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 4: was frightful, and Thornton knew that the shore was impossible.
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 4: He scraped furiously over a rock, bruised across a second,
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 4: and struck a third with a crushing force. He clutched
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 4: its slippery top with both hands, releasing Buck, and above
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 4: the roar of the churning water, shouted.
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: Go Buck, Go.
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 4: Buck could not hold his own and swept on downstream,
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 4: struggling desperately but unable to win back. When he heard
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 4: Thornton's command repeated, he partly reared out of the water,
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 4: throwing his head high as though for a last look,
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 4: then turned obediently toward the bank. He swam powerfully and
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 4: was dragged ashore by Pete and Hans at the very
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 4: point where swimming ceased to be possible and destruction began.
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 4: They knew that the time a man could cling to
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 4: a slippery rock in the face of that driving current
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 4: was a matter of minutes, and they ran as fast
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 4: as they could up the bank to the point far
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 4: above where Thornton was hanging on. They attached the line
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 4: with which they had been snubbing the boat to Buck's
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 4: neck and shoulders, being careful that it should neither strangle
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 4: him nor impede his swimming, and launched him into the stream.
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 4: He struck out boldly, but not straight enough into the stream.
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 4: He discovered the mistake too late, when Thornton was abreast
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 4: of him and a bare half dozen strokes away. While
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 4: he was being carried helplessly past, Hans promptly snubbed with
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 4: the rope as though Buck were a boat. The rope
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 4: thus tightening on him, and the sweep of the current,
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 4: he was jerked under the surface. And under the surface
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 4: he remained till his body struck against the bank and
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 4: he was hauled out. He was half drowned, and Hans
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 4: and Peete threw themselves upon him, pounding the breath into
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 4: him and the water out of him. He staggered to
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 4: his feet and fell down. The faint sound of Thornton's
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 4: voice came to them, and though they could not make
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 4: out the words of it, they knew that he was
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 4: in his extremity. His master's voice acted on Buck like
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 4: an electric shock. He sprang to his feet and ran
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 4: up the bank ahead of the men, to the point
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 4: of his previous departure. Again, the rope was attached and
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 4: he was launched, and again he struck out, but this
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 4: time straight into the stream. He had miscalculated once, but
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 4: he would not be guilty of it a second time.
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 4: Hans paid out the rope, permitting no slack, while Pete
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 4: kept it clear of coils. Buck held on till he
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 4: was on line straight above Thornton, and then he turned and,
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 4: with the speed of an express train, headed down upon him.
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 4: Thornton saw him coming, and as Buck struck him like
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 4: a battering ram with the whole force of the current
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 4: behind him, he reached up and closed with both arms
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 4: around the shaggy neck. Hans snubbed the rope around the tree,
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 4: and Buck and Thornton were jerked under water, strangling, suffocating,
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 4: sometimes one uppermost and sometimes the other, dragging over the
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 4: jagged bottom, smashing against rocks and snags. They veered into
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 4: the bank. Thornton came to belly downward and being violently
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 4: propelled back and forth across a drift log by Hans
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 4: and Pete. His first glance was for Buck, over whose
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 4: limp and apparently lifeless body Nig was setting up a
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 4: howl while Skeet was licking the wet face and closed eyes.
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 4: Thornton was himself bruised and battered, and he went carefully
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 4: over Buck's body when he had been brought around, finding
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 4: three broken ribs. That settles it. He announced, we camp
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 4: right here. In camp they did till Buck's ribs knitted,
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 4: and he was able to travel that winter. At Dawson,
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 4: Buck performed another exploit, not so heroic, perhaps, but one
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 4: that put his name many notches higher on the totem
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 4: pole of Alaskan fame. This exploit was particularly gratifying to
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 4: the three men, for they stood in need of the outfit,
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 4: which it furnished, and were enabled to make a long
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 4: desired trip into the Virgin East, where miners had not
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 4: yet appeared. It was brought about by a conversation in
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 4: the El Dorado saloon in which men waxed boastful of
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 4: their favorite dogs. Buck, because of his record, was the
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 4: target for these men, and Thornton was driven stoutly to
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 4: defend him. At the end of half an hour, one
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 4: man stated that his dog could start a sledge with
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 4: five hundred pounds and walk off with it. A second
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 4: bragged six hundred for his dog, and a third seven hundred.
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 4: Pooh pooh, said John Thornton. Buck can start a thousand
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 4: pounds and break it out and walk off with it
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 4: for a hundred yards, demanded Matthewson of a Nanza king,
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 4: he of seven hundred vaunt and break it out and
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 4: walk off with it for a hundred yards. John Thornton
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 4: said coolly. Well, Matthewson said, slowly and deliberately, so that
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 4: all could hear. I've got a thousand dollars. That says
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 4: he can't, And there it is so saying, he slammed
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 4: a sack of gold dust of the size of a
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 4: blooney scent, which down upon the bar. Nobody spoke Thornton's bluff.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 4: If if bluff it was had been called, he could
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 4: feel a flush of warm blood creeping up his face.
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 4: His tongue had tricked him. He did not know whether
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 4: Buck could start a thousand pounds half a ton. The
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 4: enormousness of it appalled him. He had great faith in
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 4: Buck's strength, and had often thought him capable of starting
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 4: such a load, but never as now had he faced
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 4: the possibility of it. The eyes of a dozen men
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 4: fixed upon him, silent and waiting further. He had no
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 4: thousand dollars, nor Hans or Pete. I've got a sledge
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 4: standing outside now with twenty fifty dye pound sacks of
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 4: flour on it. Matthewson went on with brutal directness, So
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 4: don't let that hinder you. Thornton did not reply. He
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 4: did not know what to say. He glanced from face
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 4: to face in the absent way of a man who
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 4: has lost the power of thought and is seeking somewhere
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 4: to find the thing that will start it going again.
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 4: The face of Jim O'Brien, a Masta don king, an
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 4: old time comrade, caught his eyes. It was a cue
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 4: to him, seeming to rouse him to do what he
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 4: would never have dreamed of doing. Can you lend me
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 4: a thousand? He asked, almost in a whisper. Sure, O'Brien answered,
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 4: thumping down a plethoric sack by the side of Matthewson's.
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 4: Though it's little faith I'm having John, that's a beast
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 4: can do the trick. The El Dorado emptied its occupants
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 4: into the street to see the test. The tables were deserted,
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 4: and the dealers and gamekeepers came forth to see the
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 4: outcome of the wager and to lay odds. Several hundred
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 4: men furred and mittened banked around the sled with easy distance.
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 4: Matthewson's sled, loaded with a thousand pounds of flour, had
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 4: been standing for a couple of hours, and in the
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 4: intense cold it was sixty below zero. The runners had
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 4: frozen fast to the hard packed snow. Men offered odds
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 4: of two to one that Buck could not budge the sled.
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 4: A quibble arose concerning the phase break out. O'Brien contended
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 4: it was Thornton's privilege to knock the runners loose, leaving
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 4: Buck to break it out from a dead standstill. Matthewson
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 4: insisted that the phrase included breaking the runners from the
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 4: frozen grip of the snow. A majority of the men
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 4: who had witnessed the making of the bet decided in
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 4: his favor. Whereat the odds went up to three to
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 4: one against Buck, there were no takers. Not a man
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 4: believed him capable of the feet. Thornton had been hurried
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 4: into the wager heavy with doubt, and now that he
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 4: looked at the sled itself, the concrete fact with the
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 4: regular team of ten dogs curled up in the snow
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 4: before it, the more impossible. The task appeared Matthewson waxed jubilant.
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 4: Three to one. He proclaimed, I'll lay you another thousand
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 4: at that figure, Thornton, what do you say? Thornton's doubt
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 4: was strong in his face, but his fighting spirit was aroused.
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 4: The fighting spirit that soars above odds, fails to recognize
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 4: the impossible, and is deaf to all save the clamor
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 4: for battle. He called Hans and Pete to him. Their
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 4: sacks were slim, and with his own, the three partners
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 4: could rake together only two hundred dollars in the ebb
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 4: of their fortunes. This sum was their total capital, yet
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 4: they laid it unhesitatingly against Matthewson's six hundred. The team
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 4: of ten dogs was unhitched, and Buck, with his own harness,
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 4: was put into the sled. He had caught the contagion
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 4: of the excitement, and he felt that in some way
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 4: he must do a great thing for John Thornton. Murmurs
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 4: of admiration at his splendid appearance went up. He was
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 4: in per condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 4: the one hundred fifty pounds that he weighed were so
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 4: many pounds of grit and virility. His furry coat, shone
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 4: with the sheen of silk down the neck and across
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 4: the shoulders. His mane in repose, as it was half bristled,
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 4: and seemed to lift with every movement, as though excessive
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 4: vigor made each particular hair alive and active. The great
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 4: breast and heavy fore legs were no more than in
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 4: proportion with the rest of his body, where the muscles
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 4: showed in tight rolls underneath the skin. Men felt these
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 4: muscles and proclaimed them hard as iron, and the odds
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 4: went down to two to one. Gad, Sir, Gad, Sir,
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 4: stuttered a member of the latest dynasty, a king of
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 4: the Scuokum benches. I offer you eight hundred for him, sir,
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 4: before the test, Sir, eight hundred. Just as he stands.
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 4: Thornton shook his head and stepped to Buck's side. You
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 4: must stand off from him. Matthewson protested free play and
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 4: plenty a room. The crowd fell silent. Only could be
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 4: heard the voices of the gamblers, vainly offering two to one.
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 4: Everybody acknowledged Buck a magnificent animal, but twenty fifty pound
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 4: sacks of flour bulked too large in their eyes for
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 4: them to loosen their pouch strings. Thornton knelt down by
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 4: Buck's side. He took his head in his two hands
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 4: and rested cheek on cheek. He did not playfully shake him,
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 4: as was his wont or Murmur's soft love curses, but
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 4: he whispered in his ear, As you love me, Buck,
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 4: As you love me was what he whispered. Buck whined
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 4: with suppressed eagerness. The crowd was watching curiously. The affair
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 4: was growing mysterious. It seemed like a conjuration. As Thornton
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 4: got to his feet, Buck seized his mittened hand between
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 4: his jaws, pressing in with his teeth and releasing slowly,
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 4: half reluctantly. It was the answer in terms not of speech,
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 4: but of love. Thornton stepped well back now, Buck, he said.
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 4: Buck tightened the traces, then slacked them for a matter
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 4: of several inches. It was the way he had learned. Gee.
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 4: Thornton's voice rang out sharp in the tense silence. Buck
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 4: swung to the right, ending the movement in a plunge
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 4: that took up the slack, and with sudden jerk, arrested
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 4: his one hundred and fifty pounds. The load quivered and
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 4: from under the runners arose a crisp crackling. Haw Thornton
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 4: commanded Buck duplicated the maneuver, this time to the left.
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 4: The crackling turned into a snapping, and the sled pivoting,
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 4: and the runners slipping and grating several inches to the side.
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 4: The sled was broken out. Men were holding their breaths intensely,
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 4: unconscious of the fact. Now mush Thornton's command cracked out
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 4: like a pistol shot. Buck threw a himself forward, tightening
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 4: the traces with a jarring lunge. His whole body was
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 4: gathered compactly together in the tremendous effort, the muscles writhing
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 4: and nodding like live things under the silky fur. His
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 4: great chest was low to the ground, his head forward
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 4: and down, while his feet were flying like mad, the
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 4: claws scarring the hard packed snow in parallel grooves. The
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 4: sledge swayed and trembled, half started forward. One of his
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 4: feet slipped, and one man groaned aloud. Then the sled
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 4: lurched ahead in what appeared a rapid succession of jerks,
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 4: though it never really came to a dead stop again
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 4: half an inch, an inch, two inches, The jerks perceptibly
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 4: diminished as the sled gained momentum. He caught them up
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 4: till it was moving steadily along. Men gasped and began
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 4: to breathe again, unaware for a moment that they had
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 4: ceased to breathe. Thornton was running behind, encouraging Buck with short,
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 4: cheery words. The disp had been measured off, and as
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 4: he neared the pile of firewood which marked the end
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 4: of the hundred yards, a cheer began to grow and grow,
• 2:31:08
  Speaker 4: which burst into a roar. As he passed the firewood
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 4: and halted at command. Every man was tearing himself loose,
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 4: even Matthewson. Hats and mittens were flying in the air.
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 4: Men were shaking hands, it did not matter with whom,
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 4: and bubbling over in general incoherent babble. But Thornton fell
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 4: on his knees beside Buck. Head was against head, and
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 4: he was shaking him back and forth. Those who hurried
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 4: up heard him cursing Buck, and he cursed him long
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 4: and fervently and softly and lovingly. Gad Sir, Gad sir,
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 4: sputtered the skookum bench king, I'll give you a thousand
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 4: for him. Sir A thousand, Sir twelve hundred. Sir Thornton
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 4: rose to his feet. His eyes were wet, the tears
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 4: were streaming frankly down his cheeks. Sir, he said to
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 4: the skookum bench king, No, sir, you can go to Hell, Sir,
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 4: It's the best I can do for you.
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 3: Sir.
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 4: Buck seized Thornton's hand in his teeth. Thornton shook him
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 4: back and forth, as though animated by a common impulse.
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 4: The onlookers drew back to a respectful distance, nor were
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 4: they again indiscreet enough to interrupt. This concludes chapters five
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 4: and six.
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 2: Chapter seven, The Sounding of the Call. When Buck earned
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 2: sixteen hundred dollars in five minutes for John Thornton, he
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 2: made it possible for his master to pay off certain
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 2: debts and to journey with his partners into the east
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 2: after a fabled lost mine, the history of which was
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 2: as old as the history of the country. Many men
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 2: had sought it, few had found it, and more than
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 2: a few there were who who had never returned from
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 2: the quest. This lost mine was steeped in tragedy and
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 2: shrouded in mystery. No one knew of the first man
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 2: the oldest tradition stopped before it got back to him.
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 2: From the beginning, there had been an ancient and ramshackle
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 2: cabin dying. Men had sworn to it and to the
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 2: mine the sight of which it marked, clinching their testimony
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 2: with nuggets that were unlike any known grade of gold
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 2: in the Northland. But no living man had looted this
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 2: treasure house, and the dead were dead. Wherefore John Thornton
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 2: and Pete and Hands, with Buck and half a dozen
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 2: other dogs faced into the east on an unknown trail
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 2: to achieve where men and dogs as good as themselves
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 2: had failed. They sledded seventy miles at the Yukon, swung
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 2: to the left into the Stuart River, passed the Mayo
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 2: and the Question, and held on until the Stewart itself
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 2: became a streamlet threading the upstanding peaks which marked the
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 2: backbone of the continent. John Thornton asked little of man
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 2: or nature. He was unafraid of the wild. With a
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 2: handful of salt and a rifle, he could plunge into
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 2: the wilderness and fare wherever he pleased, and as long
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 2: as he pleased. Being in no haste Indian fashion, he
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 2: hunted his dinner in the course of the day's travel,
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 2: and if he failed to find it, like the Indian,
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 2: he kept on traveling, secure in the knowledge that sooner
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 2: or later he would come to it. So on this
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 2: great journey into the East, stray meat was the bill
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 2: of fare. Ammunition and tools principally made up the load
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 2: on the sled, and the time card was drawn upon
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 2: the limitless future to book. It was boundless delight, this hunting, fishing,
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 2: and indefinite wandering through strange places. For weeks at a
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 2: time they would hold on steadily, day after day, and
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 2: for weeks upon end they would camp here and there,
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 2: the dogs loafing, and the men burning holes through frozen
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 2: muck and gravel, and washing countless pans of dirt by
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 2: the heat of the fire. Sometimes they went hungry, sometimes
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 2: they feasted riotously, all according to the abundance of game
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 2: and the fortune of hunting. Summer arrived, and the dogs
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 2: and men parked on their backs, rafted across blue mountain lakes,
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 2: and descended or ascended unknown rivers in slender boats whip
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 2: sawed from the standing forest. The months came and went,
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 2: and back and forth they twisted through the uncharted vastness
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 2: where no men were, and yet where men had been,
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 2: if the Lost Cabin were true. They went across divides
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 2: in summer blizzards, shivered under the midnight sun on naked
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 2: mountains between the timber line and the eternal snows, dropped
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 2: into summer valleys amid swarming gnats and flies, and in
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 2: the shadows of glaciers picked strawberries and flowers as ripe
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 2: and fair as any the Southland could boast. In the
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 2: fall of the year, they penetrated a weird lake country,
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 2: sad and silent where wild fowl had been, but where
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 2: then there was no life nor sign of life, only
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 2: the blowing of chill winds, the forming of ice in
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 2: sheltered places, and the melancholy rippling of waves on lonely beaches.
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 2: And through another winter they wandered on the obliterated trails
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 2: of men who had gone before. Once they came upon
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 2: a path blazed through the forest, an ancient path, and
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 2: the lost cabin seemed very near. But the path began
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 2: nowhere and ended nowhere, and it remained mystery, as the
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 2: man who made it and the reason he made it,
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 2: remained mystery. Another time they chanced upon the time graven
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 2: wreckage of a hunting lodge, and amid the shreds of
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 2: rotted blankets, John Thornton found a long, barrowed flint look
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 2: he knew it for a Hudson BayCon gun of the
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 2: young days in the Northwest, when such a gun was
• 2:38:04
  Speaker 2: worth its height in beaver skins packed flat. And that
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 2: was all no hint as to the man who in
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 2: an early day had reared the lodge and left the
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 2: gun among the blankets. Spring came on once more, and
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 2: at the end of all their wandering they found not
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 2: the lost cabin, but a shallow placer and a broad
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 2: valley where the gold showed like yellow butter across the
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 2: bottom of the washing pan. They sought no farther. Each
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 2: day they worked earned them thousands of dollars in clean
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 2: dust and nuggets. And they worked every day. The gold
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 2: was sacked in moose hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag,
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 2: and piled like so much firewood outside the spruce bough lodge.
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 2: Like giants, they toiled days, flashing on the heels of
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 2: days like dreams. As they heaped the treasure up. There
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 2: was nothing for the dogs to do save the hauling
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 2: in of meat now and again that Thornton killed, and
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 2: Buck spent long hours musing by the fire. The vision
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 2: of the short legged hairy man came to him more
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 2: frequently now that there was little work to be done,
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 2: and often blinking by the fire, Buck wandered with him
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 2: in that other world which he remembered. The salient thing
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 2: of this other world seemed fear. When he watched the
• 2:39:42
  Speaker 2: hairy man sleeping by the fire head between his knees
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 2: and hands clasped above, Buck saw that he slept restlessly,
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 2: with many starts and awakenings, at which times he would
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 2: peer fearfully into the darkness and fling more wood upon
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 2: the fire. Did they walk by the beach of a
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 2: sea where the hairy man gathered shellfish and ate them
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 2: as he gathered. It was with eyes that roved everywhere
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 2: for hidden danger, and with legs prepared to run like
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 2: the wind at its first appearance through the forest. They
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 2: crept noiselessly, Buck at the Harryman's heels, and they were
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 2: alert and vigilant, the pair of them, ears twitching and moving,
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 2: and nostrils quivering. For the man heard and smelled as
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 2: keenly as Buck the harry Man could spring up into
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 2: the trees and travel ahead as fast as on the ground,
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 2: swinging by the arms from limb to limb, sometimes a
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 2: dozen feet apart, letting go and catching, never falling, never
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 2: missing his grip. In fact, he seemed as much at
• 2:41:03
  Speaker 2: home among the trees as on the ground, and book
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 2: had memories of knights of vigil spent beneath trees wherein
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 2: the hairy Man roosted, holding on tightly as he slept.
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 2: And closely akin to the visions of the hairy Man
• 2:41:19
  Speaker 2: was the call still sounding in the depths of the forest.
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 2: It filled him with a great unrest and strange desires.
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 2: They caused him to feel a vague, sweet gladness, and
• 2:41:33
  Speaker 2: he was aware of wild yearnings and stirrings, for he
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 2: knew not what. Sometimes he pursued the coal into the forest,
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 2: looking for it as though it were a tangible thing,
• 2:41:47
  Speaker 2: barking softly or defiantly, as the mood might dictate. He
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 2: would thrust his nose into the cool wood moss, or
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 2: into the black soil where long grasses grew, and snort
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 2: with joy at the fat earth smells. Or he would
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 2: crouch for hours, as if in concealment behind fungus covered
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 2: trunks of fallen trees, wide eyed and wide eared to
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 2: all that moved and sounded about him. It might be
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 2: lying thus that he hoped to surprise. This call he
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 2: could not understand. But he did not know why he
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 2: did these various things. He was impelled to do them,
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 2: and did not reason about them at all. Irresistible impulses
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 2: seized him. He would be lying in camp, dozing lazily
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 2: in the heat of the day, when suddenly his head
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 2: would lift and his ears cook up, intent and listening,
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 2: and he would spring to his feet and dash away,
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 2: and on and on for hour, was through the forest
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 2: aisles and across the open spaces where the niggerheads bunched.
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 2: He loved to run down dry water courses and to
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 2: creep and spy upon the bird life in the woods.
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 2: For a day at a time he would lie in
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 2: the underbrush where he could watch the partridges drumming and
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 2: strutting up and down. But especially he loved to run
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 2: in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 2: the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 2: and sounds as man may read a book and seeking
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 2: for the mysterious something that called called waking or sleeping
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 2: at all times for him to come. One night he
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 2: sprang from sleep with a start, eager eyed, nostrils quivering
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 2: and scenting his mane bristly and recurrent waves from the
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 2: forest came the call, or one note of it, for
• 2:44:07
  Speaker 2: the call was many noted, distinct and definite as never before,
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 2: a long drawn howl, like yet unlike any noise made
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 2: by husky dog. And he knew it in the old
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 2: familiar way as a sound heard before. He sprang through
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 2: the sleeping camp, and in swift silence, dashed through the woods.
• 2:44:35
  Speaker 2: As he drew closer to the cry, he went more slowly,
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 2: with cushion in every movement, till he came to an
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 2: open place among the trees, and, looking out, sore erect
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 2: on haunches with nose pointed to the sky, a long,
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 2: lean timber wolf. He had made no noise, yet it
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 2: ceased from its howling and tried to sense his presence.
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 2: Buck stalked into the open, half crouching, body gathered compactly together,
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 2: tail straight and stiff, feet falling with unwonted care each
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 2: moment advertised or mingled, threatening and overture of friendliness. It
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 2: was the menacing truce that marks the meeting of wild
• 2:45:28
  Speaker 2: beasts that prey. But the wolf flared at sight of him.
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 2: He followed with wild leapings in a frenzy to overtake.
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 2: He ran him into a blind channel in the bed
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 2: of the creek, where a timber jam barred the way.
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 2: The wolf whirled about, pivoting on his hind legs after
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 2: the fashion of Joe and of all cornered husky dogs,
• 2:45:54
  Speaker 2: snarling and bristling, clipping his teeth together in a continuous
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 2: and rapid succession of snaps. Buck did not attack, but
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 2: circled about him and hedged him in with friendly advances.
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 2: The wolf was suspicious and afraid, for Buck made three
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 2: of him in wait while his head barely reached Buck's shoulder.
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 2: Watching his chance, he darted away, and the chase was
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 2: resumed time and again. He was cornered, and the thing repeated.
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 2: Though he was in poor condition or Buck could not
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 2: so easily have overtaken him. He would run till Buck's
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 2: head was even with his flank, when he would whirl
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 2: around at bay, only to dash away again at the
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 2: first opportunity, but in the end Buck's pertinacity was rewarded,
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 2: for the wolf, finding that no harm was intended, finally
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 2: sniffed noses with him. Then they became friendly and played
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 2: about in the nervous half coy way with which fierce
• 2:47:09
  Speaker 2: beasts belie their fierceness. After some time of this, the
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 2: wolf started off at an easy lope, in a manner
• 2:47:17
  Speaker 2: that plainly showed he was going somewhere. He made it
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 2: clear to Bock that he was to come, and they
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 2: ran side by side through the somber twilight, straight up
• 2:47:29
  Speaker 2: the creek bed into the gorge, from which it ensued,
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 2: and across the bleak divide, where it took its rise
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 2: on the opposite slope of the watershed. They came down
• 2:47:44
  Speaker 2: into a level country where were great stretches of forest
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 2: and menaced dreams. And through these great stretches they ran steadily,
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 2: hour after hour, the sun rising higher and the day
• 2:47:57
  Speaker 2: growing warmer. But was wildly glad he knew he was
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 2: at last answering the cool, running by the side of
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 2: his wood brother toward the place from where the cool
• 2:48:09
  Speaker 2: surely came. Old memories were coming upon him fast, and
• 2:48:14
  Speaker 2: he was stirring to them as of old, he stirred
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 2: to the realities of which they were, the shadows. He
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 2: had done this thing before, somewhere in that other and
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 2: dimly remembered world, and he was doing it again, now,
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 2: running free in the open, the unparked earth underfoot, the
• 2:48:38
  Speaker 2: wide sky overhead. They stopped by a running stream to drink,
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 2: and stopping, Buck remembered John Thornton. He sat down. The
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 2: wolf started on toward the place from where the cool
• 2:48:56
  Speaker 2: surely came, then returned to him, sniffing noses and making
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 2: actions as though to encourage him. But Buck turned about
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 2: and started slowly on the back track. For the better
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 2: part of an hour. The wild brother ran by his side,
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 2: whining softly. Then he sat down, pointed his nose upward,
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 2: and howled. It was a mournful howl, and as Buck
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 2: held steadily on his way, he heard it grow fainter
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 2: and fainter, until it was lost in the distance. John
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 2: Thornton was eating dinner, and Buck dashed into Cap and
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 2: sprang upon him in a frenzy of affection, overturning him,
• 2:49:46
  Speaker 2: scrambling upon him, licking his face, biting his hand, playing
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 2: the general tomfool, as John Thoughton characterized it. The while
• 2:49:57
  Speaker 2: he shook Buck back and forth and him lovingly for
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 2: two days and nights. Buck never left camp, never let
• 2:50:08
  Speaker 2: Thornton out of his sight. He followed him about at
• 2:50:13
  Speaker 2: his work, watched him while he ate, saw him into
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 2: his blankets at night and out of them in the morning.
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 2: But after two days the call in the forest began
• 2:50:26
  Speaker 2: to sound more and perilously than ever. Buck's restlessness came
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 2: back on him, and he was haunted by recollections of
• 2:50:36
  Speaker 2: the wild Brother, and of the smiling land beyond the divide,
• 2:50:41
  Speaker 2: and the run side by side through the wild forest stretches.
• 2:50:47
  Speaker 2: Once again, he took to wandering in the woods, but
• 2:50:50
  Speaker 2: the Wild Brother came no more, and though he listened
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 2: through long vigils, the mournful howl was never raised. He
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 2: began to sleep out at night, staying away from camp
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 2: for days at a time, and once he crossed the
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 2: divide at the head of the creek and went down
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 2: into the land of timber and streams. There he wandered
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 2: for a week, seeking vainly for fresh signs of the
• 2:51:24
  Speaker 2: Wild Brother, killing his meat as he traveled, and traveling
• 2:51:27
  Speaker 2: with the long easy lope that seemed never to tire.
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 2: He fished for salmon in a broad stream that emptied
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 2: somewhere into the sea, And by this stream he killed
• 2:51:39
  Speaker 2: a large black bear, blinded by the mosquitoes, while likewise
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 2: fishing and raging through the forest, helpless and terrible. Even so,
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 2: it was a hard fight, and it aroused the last
• 2:51:54
  Speaker 2: latent remnants of a buck's ferocity. And two days later later,
• 2:52:01
  Speaker 2: when he returned to his kill and found a dozen
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 2: wolverines quarreling over the spoil, he scattered them like chaff,
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 2: and those that fled left two behind who would quarrel
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 2: no more. The blood longing became stronger than ever before.
• 2:52:17
  Speaker 2: He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 2: the things that lived, unaided, loone by virtue of his
• 2:52:25
  Speaker 2: own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 2: where only the strong survived. Because of all this, he
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 2: became possessed of a great pride in himself, which communicated
• 2:52:42
  Speaker 2: itself like a contagion to his physical being. It advertised
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 2: itself in all his movements, was apparent in the play
• 2:52:51
  Speaker 2: of every muscle, spoke plainly our speech, in the way
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 2: he carried himself and made his glovelorious fairy coat of
• 2:53:01
  Speaker 2: anything more glorious. But for the stray brown on his
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 2: muzzle and above his eyes, and for the splash of
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 2: white hair that ran midmost down his chest, he might
• 2:53:13
  Speaker 2: well have been mistaken for a gigantic wolf, larger than
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 2: the largest of the breed. From his sat Bernard father,
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 2: he had inherited size and weight, but it was his
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 2: shepherd mother who had given shape to that size and weight.
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 2: His muzzle was the long wolf muzzle save that was
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 2: larger than the muzzle of any wolf, and his head,
• 2:53:39
  Speaker 2: somewhat broader, was the wolf head on a massive scale.
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 2: His cunning was wolf cunning and wild cunning. His intelligence
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 2: shepherd intelligence and sat Bernard intelligence, and all this, plus
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 2: an experience gained in the fiercest of schools, made him
• 2:53:59
  Speaker 2: as farmidable a creature as any that intelligence roamed the wild.
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 2: A carnivorous animal living on a straight meat diet, he
• 2:54:09
  Speaker 2: was in full flour at that high tide of his life,
• 2:54:13
  Speaker 2: overspilling with vigor and virility. When Thornton passed a caressing
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 2: hand along his back, a snapping and crackling followed the hand,
• 2:54:25
  Speaker 2: each hair discharging its pent magnetism. At the contact. Every part,
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 2: brain and body nerve to sue and fiber was keyed
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 2: to the most exquisite pitch, and between all the parts
• 2:54:39
  Speaker 2: there was a perfect equilibrium or adjustment to sights and
• 2:54:46
  Speaker 2: sounds and events which required action. He responded with lightning
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 2: quick rapidity, quickly as a husky dog could leap to
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 2: defend from attack or to attack. He could leap twice
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 2: as quick. He saw the movement or heard sound, and
• 2:55:03
  Speaker 2: responded in less time than another dog required to compass
• 2:55:07
  Speaker 2: the mere seeing or hearing. He perceived and determined and
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 2: responded in the same instant. In point of fact, the
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 2: three actions of perceiving, determining, and responding were sequential, but
• 2:55:23
  Speaker 2: so infinitesimal were the intervals of time between them that
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 2: they appeared simultaneous. His muscles were surcharged with fatality and
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 2: snapped into place sharply like steel springs. Life streamed through
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 2: him in splendid flood, glad and rampant, until it seemed
• 2:55:44
  Speaker 2: that it would burst him asunder and sheer ecstasy and
• 2:55:48
  Speaker 2: pour forth generously over the world. Never was there such
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 2: a dog, said John Thornton one day, as the partners
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 2: watched back marching out of can lump. When he was
• 2:56:03
  Speaker 2: made the mold was broke, said Pete Pijingo, I think
• 2:56:10
  Speaker 2: so myself. Hans affirmed they saw him marching out of camp,
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 2: but they did not see the instant and terrible transformation
• 2:56:21
  Speaker 2: which took place. As soon as he was within the
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 2: secrecy of the forest. He no longer marched at once.
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 2: He became a thing of the wild, stealing along softly,
• 2:56:34
  Speaker 2: cat footed, a passing shadow that appeared and disappeared among
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 2: the shadows. He knew how to take advantage of every cover,
• 2:56:43
  Speaker 2: to crawl on his belly like a snake, and like
• 2:56:47
  Speaker 2: a snake, to leap and strike. He could take a
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 2: ptarmigan from its nest, kill a rabbit as it slept,
• 2:56:57
  Speaker 2: and snap in mid air as the little chipmunks fleeing
• 2:57:00
  Speaker 2: a second too late for the trees. Fish in open
• 2:57:05
  Speaker 2: pools were not too quick for him, nor were beaver
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 2: mending their arms too wary. He killed to eat, not
• 2:57:16
  Speaker 2: from wantonness, but he preferred to eat what he killed himself.
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 2: So a lurking humor ran through his deeds, and it
• 2:57:27
  Speaker 2: was his delight to steal upon the squells. And when
• 2:57:31
  Speaker 2: he all but had them to let them go, chattering
• 2:57:35
  Speaker 2: and mortal fear to the tree tops. As the fall
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 2: of the year came on, the moose appeared in greater abundance,
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 2: moving slowly down to meet the winter. In the lower
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 2: and less rigorous valleys. Buck had already dragged down a stray,
• 2:57:54
  Speaker 2: part grown calf, but he wished strongly for larger and
• 2:57:59
  Speaker 2: more formidable quarry, and he came upon it one day.
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 2: On the divide, at the head of a creek, a
• 2:58:07
  Speaker 2: band of twenty moose had crossed over from the land
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 2: of streams and timber, and chief among them was a
• 2:58:14
  Speaker 2: great bull. He was in a savage temper, and standing
• 2:58:20
  Speaker 2: over six feet from the ground, was as formidable an
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 2: antagonist as even Buck could desire. Back and forth, the
• 2:58:29
  Speaker 2: bull tossed his great palmated antlers, branching to fourteen points
• 2:58:34
  Speaker 2: and embracing seven feet within the tips. His small eyes
• 2:58:41
  Speaker 2: burned with a vicious and bitter light, while he roared
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 2: with fury at sight of Buck. From the bull's side,
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 2: just forward of the flank protruded a feathered arrow end,
• 2:58:54
  Speaker 2: which accounted for his savageness. Guided by that instinct which
• 2:59:00
  Speaker 2: came from the old hunting days of the primordial world.
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 2: Buck proceeded to cut the bull out from the herd.
• 2:59:08
  Speaker 2: It was no slight task. He would bark and dance
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 2: about in front of the bull, just out of reach
• 2:59:14
  Speaker 2: of the great antlers and of the terrible splay hoofs,
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 2: which could have stamped his life out with a single blow.
• 2:59:22
  Speaker 2: Unable to turn his back on the fanged danger and
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 2: go on, the bull would be driven into paroxysms of rage.
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 2: At such moments he charged Buck, who retreated craftily, luring
• 2:59:36
  Speaker 2: him on by a simulated inability to escape. But when
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 2: he was thus separated from his fellows, two or three
• 2:59:45
  Speaker 2: of the younger bulls would charge back upon Buck and
• 2:59:48
  Speaker 2: enable the wounded bull to rejoin the herd. There is
• 2:59:55
  Speaker 2: a patience of the wild dogged tireless, persistent as life itself,
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 2: that holds motionless for endless hours. The spider in its web,
• 3:00:08
  Speaker 2: the snake in its coils, the panther in its armbuscade.
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 2: This patience belongs peculiarly to life when it hunts its
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 2: living food, and belonged to Buck as he clung to
• 3:00:22
  Speaker 2: the flank of the herd, retarding its march, irritating the
• 3:00:28
  Speaker 2: young bulls, worrying the cows with their half grown calves
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 2: and driving the wounded ball marred with helpless rage. For
• 3:00:38
  Speaker 2: half a day this continued, buck multiplied himself, attacking from
• 3:00:44
  Speaker 2: all sides, enveloping the herd in a whirlwind of menace,
• 3:00:49
  Speaker 2: cutting out his victim as fast as it could rejoin
• 3:00:51
  Speaker 2: its mates, wearing out the patience of creatures preyed upon,
• 3:00:56
  Speaker 2: which is the lesser patience than that of creatures preying.
• 3:01:03
  Speaker 2: As the day wore along and the sun dropped to
• 3:01:06
  Speaker 2: its bed in the northwest, the darkness had come back,
• 3:01:10
  Speaker 2: and the full nights were six hours long. The young
• 3:01:14
  Speaker 2: bulls retraced their steps more and more reluctantly to the
• 3:01:18
  Speaker 2: air of their beset leader. The down coming winter was
• 3:01:22
  Speaker 2: harrying them on to the lower levels, and it seemed
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 2: they could never shake off this tireless creature that held
• 3:01:29
  Speaker 2: them back. Besides, it was not the life of the
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 2: herd or of the young bulls that was threatened. The
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 2: life of only one member was demanded, which was a
• 3:01:43
  Speaker 2: remoter interest than their lives, and in the end they
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 2: were content to pay the toll. As twilight fell, the
• 3:01:55
  Speaker 2: old bulls stood with lowered head watching his mates cows.
• 3:02:00
  Speaker 2: He had known the calves, he had fathered, the bulls
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 2: he had mustered. As they shambled on at a rapid
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 2: pace through the fading light, he could not follow, for
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 2: before his nose leaped the merciless, fined terror that would
• 3:02:18
  Speaker 2: not let him go. Three hundredweight more than half a
• 3:02:23
  Speaker 2: ton he weighed, he had lived a long, strong, life,
• 3:02:28
  Speaker 2: full of fight and struggle, and at the end he
• 3:02:31
  Speaker 2: faced death at the teeth of a creature whose head
• 3:02:36
  Speaker 2: did not reach beyond his great knuckled knees. From then on,
• 3:02:40
  Speaker 2: night and day, Buck never left his prey, never gave
• 3:02:44
  Speaker 2: it a moment's rest, never permitted it to browse the
• 3:02:48
  Speaker 2: leaves of trees or the shoots of young birch and willow.
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 2: Nor did he give the wounded bowl opportunity to slake
• 3:02:56
  Speaker 2: his burning thirst. In the slender, trickling streams crussed often
• 3:03:03
  Speaker 2: in desperation, he burst into long stretches of flight. At
• 3:03:09
  Speaker 2: such times, Buck did not attempt to stay him, but
• 3:03:13
  Speaker 2: loped easily at his heels, satisfied with the way the
• 3:03:16
  Speaker 2: game was played, lying down when the moose stood still,
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 2: attacking him fiercely. When he strove to eatle, drink. The
• 3:03:25
  Speaker 2: great head dropped more and more under its tree of horns,
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 2: and a shambling trot grew weak and weaker. He took
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 2: to standing for long periods with nose to the ground,
• 3:03:37
  Speaker 2: and dejected ears dropped limply, and Buck found more time
• 3:03:41
  Speaker 2: in which to get water for himself and in which
• 3:03:43
  Speaker 2: to rest. At such moments, panting with red lulling tongue,
• 3:03:49
  Speaker 2: and with eyes fixed upon the big bull, it appeared
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 2: to Buck that a change was coming over the face
• 3:03:55
  Speaker 2: of things. He could feel a new stir in the land.
• 3:04:00
  Speaker 2: As the moose were coming into the land. Other kinds
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 2: of life were coming in forest and stream, and air
• 3:04:07
  Speaker 2: seemed palpitent with their presence. The news of it was
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 2: borne in upon him, not by sight or sound or smell,
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 2: but by some other and subtler sense. He heard nothing,
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 2: saw nothing, yet knew that the land was somehow different,
• 3:04:26
  Speaker 2: that through it strange things were afoot raging, and he
• 3:04:31
  Speaker 2: resolved to investigate. After he finished the business in hand.
• 3:04:37
  Speaker 2: At last, at the end of the fourth day, he
• 3:04:41
  Speaker 2: pulled the great moose down. For a day and night.
• 3:04:45
  Speaker 2: He remained by the kill, eating and sleeping, turn and
• 3:04:50
  Speaker 2: turn about, then rested refreshed and strong, he turned his
• 3:04:56
  Speaker 2: face toward Camp and John Thornton. He broke into the long,
• 3:05:02
  Speaker 2: easy lope and went on hour after hour, never at
• 3:05:06
  Speaker 2: last for the tangled way, heading straight home through strange
• 3:05:09
  Speaker 2: country with a certitude of direction that put man and
• 3:05:13
  Speaker 2: his magnetic needle to shame. As he held on, he
• 3:05:18
  Speaker 2: became more and more conscious of the new stir in
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 2: the land. There was life abroad in it, different from
• 3:05:26
  Speaker 2: the life which had been there throughout the summer. No
• 3:05:30
  Speaker 2: longer was this fact barn in upon him in some subtle,
• 3:05:34
  Speaker 2: mysterious way. The birds talked of it, the squirrels chattered
• 3:05:40
  Speaker 2: about it, the very breeze whispered of it. Several times
• 3:05:45
  Speaker 2: he stopped and drew in the fresh morning air in
• 3:05:48
  Speaker 2: great sniffs, reading a message which made him leap on
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 2: with greater speed. He was oppressed with a sense of
• 3:05:58
  Speaker 2: calamity happening, if it were not calamity already happened. And
• 3:06:05
  Speaker 2: as he crossed the last watershed and dropped down into
• 3:06:08
  Speaker 2: the valley toward Camp, he proceeded with greater caution. Three
• 3:06:15
  Speaker 2: miles away he came upon a fresh trail that set
• 3:06:18
  Speaker 2: his neck, hair rippling, and bristling, It led straight toward
• 3:06:23
  Speaker 2: Camp and John Thornton. Buck hurried on, swiftly and stealthily,
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 2: every nerve straining and tense, alert to the multitudinous detail
• 3:06:34
  Speaker 2: which told a story. All but the end. His nose
• 3:06:40
  Speaker 2: gave him a varying description of the passage of the
• 3:06:43
  Speaker 2: life of the heels of which he was traveling. He
• 3:06:48
  Speaker 2: remarked the pregnant silence of the forest, the bird life
• 3:06:53
  Speaker 2: had flittered, the squalls were in hiding, when only he
• 3:06:58
  Speaker 2: saw a sleek gray fellow flattened against a gray dead limb,
• 3:07:03
  Speaker 2: so that he seemed a part of it. A woody
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 2: excrescence upon the wood itself. As Buck slid along with
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 2: the obscureness of a gliding shadow, his nose was jerked
• 3:07:17
  Speaker 2: suddenly to the side, as though a positive force had
• 3:07:21
  Speaker 2: gripped and pulled it. He followed the new scent into
• 3:07:24
  Speaker 2: a thicket and found nig He was lying on his side, dead,
• 3:07:32
  Speaker 2: where he had dragged himself an arrow protruding head and
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 2: feathers from either side of his body. A hundred yards
• 3:07:42
  Speaker 2: farther on, Buck came upon one of the sled dogs
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 2: Thornton had bought in Doson this dog was thrashing about
• 3:07:50
  Speaker 2: in a death struggle directly on the trail, and Buck
• 3:07:54
  Speaker 2: passed around him without stopping. From the camp came the
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 2: faint sound of many voices rising and falling in a
• 3:08:02
  Speaker 2: sing song chant. Bellying forward to the edge of the clearing,
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 2: he found hands lying on his face, feathered with arrows
• 3:08:13
  Speaker 2: like a porcupine. At the same instant, Buck peered out
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 2: where the spruce bough lodge had been and saw what
• 3:08:22
  Speaker 2: made his hair leap straight up on his neck and shoulders.
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 2: A gust of overpowering rage swept over him. He did
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 2: not know that he growled, but he growled aloud with
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 2: a terrible ferocity. For the last time in his life,
• 3:08:40
  Speaker 2: he allowed passion to usurp cunning and reason, and it
• 3:08:45
  Speaker 2: was because of his great love for John Thornton that
• 3:08:48
  Speaker 2: he lost his head. The yeehats were dancing about the
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 2: wreckage of the spruce bough lodge when they heard a
• 3:08:56
  Speaker 2: fearful roaring and saw rushing upon them an animal the
• 3:08:59
  Speaker 2: like which they had never seen before. It was Buck,
• 3:09:05
  Speaker 2: a live hurricane of fury, hurling himself upon them in
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 2: a frenzy to destroy. He sprang at the foremost man.
• 3:09:15
  Speaker 2: It was the chief of the Haats, ripping the throat
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 2: wide open till the rented jugglers spouted a fountain of blood.
• 3:09:25
  Speaker 2: He did not pause to worry the victim, but ripped
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 2: in passing with the next bound, tearing wide the throat
• 3:09:31
  Speaker 2: of a second man. There was nowithstanding him. He plunged
• 3:09:36
  Speaker 2: about in their very midst tearing, rending, destroying, inconstant and
• 3:09:43
  Speaker 2: terrific motion, which defied the arrows they discharged at him.
• 3:09:49
  Speaker 2: In fact, so inconceivably rapid were his movements, and so
• 3:09:53
  Speaker 2: closely were the Indians tangled together that they shot one
• 3:09:56
  Speaker 2: another with the arrows, and one young her, hurling a
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 2: spiritt buck in mid air, drove it through the chest
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 2: of another hunter with such force that the point broke
• 3:10:07
  Speaker 2: through the skin of the back and stood out behind.
• 3:10:12
  Speaker 2: Then a panic seized the Yehats, and they fled in
• 3:10:16
  Speaker 2: terror to the woods, proclaiming as they fled, the advent
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 2: of the evil spirit, and truly buck was the fiend incarnate,
• 3:10:28
  Speaker 2: raging at their heels and dragging them down like deer
• 3:10:31
  Speaker 2: as they raced through the streets. It was a fateful
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 2: day for the Yehats. They scattered far and wide over
• 3:10:39
  Speaker 2: the country, and it was not till a week later
• 3:10:42
  Speaker 2: that the last of the survivors gathered together in a
• 3:10:45
  Speaker 2: lower valley and counted their losses. As for Buck, wearying
• 3:10:50
  Speaker 2: of the pursuit, he returned to the desolated camp. He
• 3:10:56
  Speaker 2: found pete where he had been killed in his blankets
• 3:10:59
  Speaker 2: in the first moment of surprise. Thornton's desperate struggle was
• 3:11:05
  Speaker 2: fresh written on the earth, and Buck sent at every
• 3:11:08
  Speaker 2: detail of it down to the edge of a deep pool.
• 3:11:13
  Speaker 2: By the edge haid and four feet in the water
• 3:11:17
  Speaker 2: lay skeet, faithful to the last. The pool itself, muddy
• 3:11:23
  Speaker 2: and discolored from the sluice boxes, effectually hid what it contained,
• 3:11:29
  Speaker 2: and it contained John Thornton. For Buck followed his trace
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 2: into the water, from which no trace led away. All day,
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 2: Buck brooded by the pool, or roamed restlessly about the camp.
• 3:11:43
  Speaker 2: Death as a cessation of movement, as a passing out
• 3:11:48
  Speaker 2: and away from the lives of the living. He knew,
• 3:11:53
  Speaker 2: and he knew John Thornton was dead. It left a
• 3:11:57
  Speaker 2: great void in him, something akin to hunger, but a
• 3:12:01
  Speaker 2: void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill.
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 2: At times when he paused to contemplate the carcasses of
• 3:12:10
  Speaker 2: the yeehats, he forgot the pain of it, and at
• 3:12:13
  Speaker 2: such times he was aware of a great pride in himself,
• 3:12:17
  Speaker 2: a pride greater than any he had yet experienced. He
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 2: had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he
• 3:12:26
  Speaker 2: had killed in the face of the law of club
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 2: and fang. He sniffed the bodies curiously. They had died
• 3:12:36
  Speaker 2: so easily. It was harder to kill a husky dog
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 2: than them. They were no match at all, were it
• 3:12:42
  Speaker 2: not for their arrows and spears and clubs. Thenceforward he
• 3:12:49
  Speaker 2: would be unafraid of them, except when they bore in
• 3:12:52
  Speaker 2: their hands their arrows, spears, and clubs. Night came on,
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 2: and a full moon rose higher the trees into the sky,
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 2: lighting the land till it lay bathed in ghostly light.
• 3:13:07
  Speaker 2: And with the coming of the night, brooding and mourning
• 3:13:11
  Speaker 2: by the pool, buck became alive to a stirring of
• 3:13:15
  Speaker 2: the new life in the forest other than that which
• 3:13:18
  Speaker 2: the yehats had made. He stood up, listening and scenting
• 3:13:25
  Speaker 2: from far away drifted a faint, sharp yelp, followed by
• 3:13:31
  Speaker 2: a chorus of similar sharp yelps. After the moments passed,
• 3:13:36
  Speaker 2: the yelps grew closer and louder. Again, Buck knew them
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 2: as things heard in that other world which persisted in
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 2: his memory. He walked to the center of the open
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 2: space and listened. It was the call, the many noted call,
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 2: sounding more luringly and compellingly than ever before, and as
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 2: never before, he was ready to obey. John Thornton was dead.
• 3:14:07
  Speaker 2: The last tie was broken man, and the claims of
• 3:14:13
  Speaker 2: man no longer bound him hunting their living meat as
• 3:14:23
  Speaker 2: the ye huts were hunting it on the flanks of
• 3:14:25
  Speaker 2: the migrating moose. The wolf pack had at last crossed
• 3:14:30
  Speaker 2: over from the land of streams and timber and invaded
• 3:14:33
  Speaker 2: Buck's valley into the clearing where the moonlight streamed. They
• 3:14:39
  Speaker 2: poured in a silvery flood, and in the center of
• 3:14:44
  Speaker 2: the clearing stood Buck, motionless as a statue, waiting their coming.
• 3:14:51
  Speaker 2: They were awed so still and large. He stood, and
• 3:14:55
  Speaker 2: a moment's pause fell till the boldest one leaped st
• 3:15:00
  Speaker 2: right for him like a flash. Buck struck, breaking the neck.
• 3:15:09
  Speaker 2: Then he stood with that movement as before, the stricken
• 3:15:12
  Speaker 2: wolf rolling in agony behind him. Three others tried it
• 3:15:18
  Speaker 2: in sharp succession, and one after the other. They drew back,
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 2: streaming blood from slashed throats or shoulders. This was sufficient
• 3:15:31
  Speaker 2: to fling the whole pack forward. Pell Mell crowded together,
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 2: blocked and confused by its eagerness to pull down the prey.
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 2: Buck's marvelous quickness and agility stood him in good stead.
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 2: Pivoting on his hind legs and snapping and gashing, he
• 3:15:51
  Speaker 2: was everywhere at once, presenting a front which was apparently unbroken.
• 3:15:56
  Speaker 2: So swiftly did he whirl and guard from side to side.
• 3:16:01
  Speaker 2: But to prevent them from getting behind him, he was
• 3:16:04
  Speaker 2: forced back down past the pool and into the creek bed,
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 2: till he brought up against a high gravel bank. He
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 2: worked along to a right angle in the bank which
• 3:16:17
  Speaker 2: men had made in the course of mining. And in
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 2: this angle he came to bay, protecting on three sides,
• 3:16:24
  Speaker 2: and with nothing to do but face the front. And
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 2: so well did he face it that at the end
• 3:16:32
  Speaker 2: of half an hour the wolves drew back, discomfited. The
• 3:16:36
  Speaker 2: tongues of all were out and lulling, the white fangs
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 2: showing cruelly white in the moonlight. Some were lying down
• 3:16:46
  Speaker 2: with heads raised and ears pricked forward. Others stood on
• 3:16:50
  Speaker 2: their feet watching him, and still others were lapping water
• 3:16:54
  Speaker 2: from the pool. When wolf, long and lean and gray,
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 2: advanced cautiously in a friendly manner, and Buck recognized the
• 3:17:05
  Speaker 2: wild brother with whom he had run for a night
• 3:17:07
  Speaker 2: and a day. He was whining softly, and as Buck whined,
• 3:17:14
  Speaker 2: they touched noses. Then an old wolf, gaunt and battle scarred,
• 3:17:22
  Speaker 2: came forward. Buck writhed his lips into the preliminary of
• 3:17:27
  Speaker 2: a snarl, but sniffed noses with him, whereupon the old
• 3:17:31
  Speaker 2: wolf sat down, pointed nose at the moon, and broke
• 3:17:35
  Speaker 2: out the long wolf howl. The others sat down and howled,
• 3:17:42
  Speaker 2: and now the cool came to Buck in unmistakable accents.
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 2: He too sat down and howled. This over, he came
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 2: out of his angle, and the pack crowded around him,
• 3:17:58
  Speaker 2: sniffing in half friendly, half savage manner. The leaders lifted
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 2: the yelp of the pack and sprang away into the woods.
• 3:18:08
  Speaker 2: The wolves swung in behind, yupping in chorus, and Book
• 3:18:14
  Speaker 2: ran with them, side by side with a wild brother,
• 3:18:18
  Speaker 2: yupping as he ran, And here may well end the
• 3:18:23
  Speaker 2: story of Buck. The years were not many when the
• 3:18:27
  Speaker 2: yehats noted a change in the breed of timber wolves,
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 2: for some were seen with splashes of brown on head
• 3:18:33
  Speaker 2: and muzzle, and with a rift of white centering down
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 2: the chest. But more remarkable than this, the yehats tell
• 3:18:42
  Speaker 2: of a ghost dog that runs at the head of
• 3:18:44
  Speaker 2: the pack. They are afraid of this ghost dog, for
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 2: it has cunning greater than they, stealing from their camps,
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 2: and fierce winters, rubbing their traps, slaying their dogs, and
• 3:18:58
  Speaker 2: defying their bravest hunter. Nay, the tale grows worse. Hunters
• 3:19:06
  Speaker 2: there are who fail to return to the camp, and
• 3:19:10
  Speaker 2: hunters there have been whom their tribesmen found with throats
• 3:19:14
  Speaker 2: slashed cruelly open, and with wolf's prints about them in
• 3:19:17
  Speaker 2: the snow, greater than the prince of any wolf. Each fall,
• 3:19:23
  Speaker 2: when the yehats follow the movement of the moose, there
• 3:19:27
  Speaker 2: is a certain valley which they never enter. And women
• 3:19:32
  Speaker 2: there are who become sad when the word goes over
• 3:19:35
  Speaker 2: the fire of how the evil spirit came to select
• 3:19:38
  Speaker 2: that valley for an abiding place in the summers. There
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 2: is one visitor, however, to that valley, of which thee
• 3:19:48
  Speaker 2: hurts do not know. It is a great, gloriously coated
• 3:19:54
  Speaker 2: wolf like and yet unlike all the other wolves, he
• 3:20:00
  Speaker 2: crosses alone from the smiling timber land and comes down
• 3:20:04
  Speaker 2: into an open space among the trees. Here a yellow
• 3:20:10
  Speaker 2: stream flows from rotted moose hide sacks and sinks into
• 3:20:15
  Speaker 2: the ground, with long grasses growing through it, and vegetable
• 3:20:18
  Speaker 2: mold over running it and hiding its yellow from the sun.
• 3:20:23
  Speaker 2: And here he muses for a time, howling once long
• 3:20:29
  Speaker 2: and mournfully. Ere he departs, but he is not always alone.
• 3:20:39
  Speaker 2: When the long winter nights come on and the wolves
• 3:20:42
  Speaker 2: follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be
• 3:20:46
  Speaker 2: seen running at the head of the pack through the
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 2: pale moonlight, or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows,
• 3:20:56
  Speaker 2: his great throat a bellow as he sings a song
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 2: of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.
• 3:21:06
  Speaker 2: End of chapter seven, end of Jack London, The Gaul
• 3:21:11
  Speaker 2: of the Wild