White Fang - Jack London (most inspirational books of all time .TXT) 📗

not repeat his attack on the foot.  He had learned another lesson of his bondage.  Never, no matter what the circumstance, must he dare to bite the god who was lord and master over him; the body of the lord and master was sacred, not to be defiled by the teeth of such as he.  That was evidently the crime of crimes, the one offence there was no condoning nor overlooking.

When the canoe touched the shore, White Fang lay whimpering and motionless, waiting the will of Grey Beaver.  It was Grey Beaver’s will that he should go ashore, for ashore he was flung, striking heavily on his side and hurting his bruises afresh.  He crawled tremblingly to his feet and stood whimpering.  Lip-lip, who had watched the whole proceeding from the bank, now rushed upon him, knocking him over and sinking his teeth into him.  White Fang was too helpless to defend himself, and it would have gone hard with him had not Grey Beaver’s foot shot out, lifting Lip-lip into the air with its violence so that he smashed down to earth a dozen feet away.  This was the man-animal’s justice; and even then, in his own pitiable plight, White Fang experienced a little grateful thrill.  At Grey Beaver’s heels he limped obediently through the village to the tepee.  And so it came that White Fang learned that the right to punish was something the gods reserved for themselves and denied to the lesser creatures under them.

That night, when all was still, White Fang remembered his mother and sorrowed for her.  He sorrowed too loudly and woke up Grey Beaver, who beat him.  After that he mourned gently when the gods were around.  But sometimes, straying off to the edge of the woods by himself, he gave vent to his grief, and cried it out with loud whimperings and wailings.

It was during this period that he might have harkened to the memories of the lair and the stream and run back to the Wild.  But the memory of his mother held him.  As the hunting man-animals went out and came back, so she would come back to the village some time.  So he remained in his bondage waiting for her.

But it was not altogether an unhappy bondage.  There was much to interest him.  Something was always happening.  There was no end to the strange things these gods did, and he was always curious to see.  Besides, he was learning how to get along with Grey Beaver.  Obedience, rigid, undeviating obedience, was what was exacted of him; and in return he escaped beatings and his existence was tolerated.

Nay, Grey Beaver himself sometimes tossed him a piece of meat, and defended him against the other dogs in the eating of it.  And such a piece of meat was of value.  It was worth more, in some strange way, then a dozen pieces of meat from the hand of a squaw.  Grey Beaver never petted nor caressed.  Perhaps it was the weight of his hand, perhaps his justice, perhaps the sheer power of him, and perhaps it was all these things that influenced White Fang; for a certain tie of attachment was forming between him and his surly lord.

Insidiously, and by remote ways, as well as by the power of stick and stone and clout of hand, were the shackles of White Fang’s bondage being riveted upon him.  The qualities in his kind that in the beginning made it possible for them to come in to the fires of men, were qualities capable of development.  They were developing in him, and the camp-life, replete with misery as it was, was secretly endearing itself to him all the time.  But White Fang was unaware of it.  He knew only grief for the loss of Kiche, hope for her return, and a hungry yearning for the free life that had been his.

CHAPTER III—THE OUTCAST

Lip-lip continued so to darken his days that White Fang became wickeder and more ferocious than it was his natural right to be.  Savageness was a part of his make-up, but the savageness thus developed exceeded his make-up.  He acquired a reputation for wickedness amongst the man-animals themselves.  Wherever there was trouble and uproar in camp, fighting and squabbling or the outcry of a squaw over a bit of stolen meat, they were sure to find White Fang mixed up in it and usually at the bottom of it.  They did not bother to look after the causes of his conduct.  They saw only the effects, and the effects were bad.  He was a sneak and a thief, a mischief-maker, a fomenter of trouble; and irate squaws told him to his face, the while he eyed them alert and ready to dodge any quick-flung missile, that he was a wolf and worthless and bound to come to an evil end.

He found himself an outcast in the midst of the populous camp.  All the young dogs followed Lip-lip’s lead.  There was a difference between White Fang and them.  Perhaps they sensed his wild-wood breed, and instinctively felt for him the enmity that the domestic dog feels for the wolf.  But be that as it may, they joined with Lip-lip in the persecution.  And, once declared against him, they found good reason to continue declared against him.  One and all, from time to time, they felt his teeth; and to his credit, he gave more than he received.  Many of them he could whip in single fight; but single fight was denied him.  The beginning of such a fight was a signal for all the young dogs in camp to come running and pitch upon him.

Out of this pack-persecution he learned two important things: how to take care of himself in a mass-fight against him—and how, on a single dog, to inflict the greatest amount of damage in the briefest space of time.  To keep one’s feet in the midst of the hostile mass meant life, and this he learnt well.  He became cat-like in his ability to stay on his feet.  Even grown dogs might hurtle him backward or sideways with the impact of their heavy bodies; and backward or sideways he would go, in the air or sliding on the ground, but always with his legs under him and his feet downward to the mother earth.

When dogs fight, there are usually preliminaries to the actual combat—snarlings and bristlings and stiff-legged struttings.  But White Fang learned to omit these preliminaries.  Delay meant the coming against him of all the young dogs.  He must do his work quickly and get away.  So he learnt to give no warning of his intention.  He rushed in and snapped and slashed on the instant, without notice, before his foe could prepare to meet him.  Thus he learned how to inflict quick and severe damage.  Also he learned the value of surprise.  A dog, taken off its guard, its shoulder slashed open or its ear ripped in ribbons before it knew what was happening, was a dog half whipped.

Furthermore, it was remarkably easy to overthrow a dog taken by surprise; while a dog, thus overthrown, invariably exposed for a moment the soft underside of its neck—the vulnerable point at which to strike for its life.  White Fang knew this point.  It was a knowledge bequeathed to him directly from the hunting generation of wolves.  So it was that White Fang’s method when he took the offensive, was: first to find a young dog alone; second, to surprise it and knock it off its feet; and third, to drive in with his teeth at the soft throat.

Being but partly grown his jaws had not yet become large enough nor strong enough to make his throat-attack deadly; but many a young dog went around camp with a lacerated throat in token of White Fang’s intention.  And one day, catching one of his enemies alone on the edge of the woods, he managed, by repeatedly overthrowing him and attacking the throat, to cut the great vein and let out the life.  There was a great row that night.  He had been observed, the news had been carried to the dead dog’s master, the squaws remembered all the instances of stolen meat, and Grey Beaver was beset by many angry voices.  But he resolutely held the door of his tepee, inside which he had placed the culprit, and refused to permit the vengeance for which his tribespeople clamoured.

White Fang became hated by man and dog.  During this period of his development he never knew a moment’s security.  The tooth of every dog was against him, the hand of every man.  He was greeted with snarls by his kind, with curses and stones by his gods.  He lived tensely.  He was always keyed up, alert for attack, wary of being attacked, with an eye for sudden and unexpected missiles, prepared to act precipitately and coolly, to leap in with a flash of teeth, or to leap away with a menacing snarl.

As for snarling he could snarl more terribly than any dog, young or old, in camp.  The intent of the snarl is to warn or frighten, and judgment is required to know when it should be used.  White Fang knew how to make it and when to make it.  Into his snarl he incorporated all that was vicious, malignant, and horrible.  With nose serrulated by continuous spasms, hair bristling in recurrent waves, tongue whipping out like a red snake and whipping back again, ears flattened down, eyes gleaming hatred, lips wrinkled back, and fangs exposed and dripping, he could compel a pause on the part of almost any assailant.  A temporary pause, when taken off his guard, gave him the vital moment in which to think and determine his action.  But often a pause so gained lengthened out until it evolved into a complete cessation from the attack.  And before more than one of the grown dogs White Fang’s snarl enabled him to beat an honourable retreat.

An outcast himself from the pack of the part-grown dogs, his sanguinary methods and remarkable efficiency made the pack pay for its persecution of him.  Not permitted himself to run with the pack, the curious state of affairs obtained that no member of the pack could run outside the pack.  White Fang would not permit it.  What of his bushwhacking and waylaying tactics, the young dogs were afraid to run by themselves.  With the exception of Lip-lip, they were compelled to hunch together for mutual protection against the terrible enemy they had made.  A puppy alone by the river bank meant a puppy dead or a puppy that aroused the camp with its shrill pain and terror as it fled back from the wolf-cub that had waylaid it.

But White Fang’s reprisals did not cease, even when the young dogs had learned thoroughly that they must stay together.  He attacked them when he caught them alone, and they attacked him when they were bunched.  The sight of him was sufficient to start them rushing after him, at which times his swiftness usually carried him into safety.  But woe the dog that outran his fellows in such pursuit!  White Fang had learned to turn suddenly upon the pursuer that was ahead of the pack and thoroughly to rip him up before the pack could arrive.  This occurred with great frequency, for, once in full cry, the dogs were prone to forget themselves in the excitement of the chase, while White Fang never forgot himself.  Stealing backward glances as he ran, he was always ready to whirl around and down the overzealous pursuer that outran his fellows.

Young dogs are bound to play, and out of the exigencies of the situation they realised their play in this mimic warfare.  Thus it was that the hunt of White Fang became their chief game—a deadly game, withal, and at all times a serious game.  He, on the other hand, being the fastest-footed, was unafraid to venture anywhere.  During the period that