White Fang

"Who"s that mug?" he asked.

"Weedon Scott," some one answered.

"And who in h.e.l.l is Weedon Scott?" the faro-dealer demanded.

"Oh, one of them crackerjack minin" experts. He"s in with all the big bugs. If you want to keep out of trouble, you"ll steer clear of him, that"s my talk. He"s all hunky with the officials. The Gold Commissioner"s a special pal of his."

"I thought he must be somebody," was the faro-dealer"s comment. "That"s why I kept my hands offen him at the start."

CHAPTER V.

--THE INDOMITABLE.

"It"s hopeless," Weedon Scott confessed.

He sat on the step of his cabin and stared at the dog-musher, who responded with a shrug that was equally hopeless.

Together they looked at White Fang at the end of his stretched chain, bristling, snarling, ferocious, straining to get at the sled-dogs. Having received sundry lessons from Matt, said lessons being imparted by means of a club, the sled-dogs had learned to leave White Fang alone; and even then they were lying down at a distance, apparently oblivious of his existence.

"It"s a wolf and there"s no taming it," Weedon Scott announced.

"Oh, I don"t know about that," Matt objected. "Might be a lot of dog in "m, for all you can tell. But there"s one thing I know sure, an" that there"s no gettin" away from."

The dog-musher paused and nodded his head confidentially at Moosehide Mountain.

"Well, don"t be a miser with what you know," Scott said sharply, after waiting a suitable length of time. "Spit it out. What is it?"

The dog-musher indicated White Fang with a backward thrust of his thumb.

"Wolf or dog, it"s all the same--he"s ben tamed "ready."

"No!"

"I tell you yes, an" broke to harness. Look close there. D"ye see them marks across the chest?"

"You"re right, Matt. He was a sled-dog before Beauty Smith got hold of him."

"And there"s not much reason against his bein" a sled-dog again."

"What d"ye think?" Scott queried eagerly. Then the hope died down as he added, shaking his head, "We"ve had him two weeks now, and if anything he"s wilder than ever at the present moment."

"Give "m a chance," Matt counselled. "Turn "m loose for a spell."

The other looked at him incredulously.

"Yes," Matt went on, "I know you"ve tried to, but you didn"t take a club."

"You try it then."

The dog-musher secured a club and went over to the chained animal. White Fang watched the club after the manner of a caged lion watching the whip of its trainer.

"See "m keep his eye on that club," Matt said. "That"s a good sign. He"s no fool. Don"t dast tackle me so long as I got that club handy. He"s not clean crazy, sure."

As the man"s hand approached his neck, White Fang bristled and snarled and crouched down. But while he eyed the approaching hand, he at the same time contrived to keep track of the club in the other hand, suspended threateningly above him. Matt unsnapped the chain from the collar and stepped back.

White Fang could scarcely realise that he was free. Many months had gone by since he pa.s.sed into the possession of Beauty Smith, and in all that period he had never known a moment of freedom except at the times he had been loosed to fight with other dogs. Immediately after such fights he had always been imprisoned again.

He did not know what to make of it. Perhaps some new devilry of the G.o.ds was about to be perpetrated on him. He walked slowly and cautiously, prepared to be a.s.sailed at any moment. He did not know what to do, it was all so unprecedented. He took the precaution to sheer off from the two watching G.o.ds, and walked carefully to the corner of the cabin. Nothing happened. He was plainly perplexed, and he came back again, pausing a dozen feet away and regarding the two men intently.

"Won"t he run away?" his new owner asked.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "Got to take a gamble. Only way to find out is to find out."

"Poor devil," Scott murmured pityingly. "What he needs is some show of human kindness," he added, turning and going into the cabin.

He came out with a piece of meat, which he tossed to White Fang. He sprang away from it, and from a distance studied it suspiciously.

"Hi-yu, Major!" Matt shouted warningly, but too late.

Major had made a spring for the meat. At the instant his jaws closed on it, White Fang struck him. He was overthrown. Matt rushed in, but quicker than he was White Fang. Major staggered to his feet, but the blood spouting from his throat reddened the snow in a widening path.

"It"s too bad, but it served him right," Scott said hastily.

But Matt"s foot had already started on its way to kick White Fang. There was a leap, a flash of teeth, a sharp exclamation. White Fang, snarling fiercely, scrambled backward for several yards, while Matt stooped and investigated his leg.

"He got me all right," he announced, pointing to the torn trousers and undercloths, and the growing stain of red.

"I told you it was hopeless, Matt," Scott said in a discouraged voice. "I"ve thought about it off and on, while not wanting to think of it. But we"ve come to it now. It"s the only thing to do."

As he talked, with reluctant movements he drew his revolver, threw open the cylinder, and a.s.sured himself of its contents.

"Look here, Mr. Scott," Matt objected; "that dog"s ben through h.e.l.l. You can"t expect "m to come out a white an" shinin" angel. Give "m time."

"Look at Major," the other rejoined.

The dog-musher surveyed the stricken dog. He had sunk down on the snow in the circle of his blood and was plainly in the last gasp.

"Served "m right. You said so yourself, Mr. Scott. He tried to take White Fang"s meat, an" he"s dead-O. That was to be expected. I wouldn"t give two whoops in h.e.l.l for a dog that wouldn"t fight for his own meat."

"But look at yourself, Matt. It"s all right about the dogs, but we must draw the line somewhere."

"Served me right," Matt argued stubbornly. "What"d I want to kick "m for? You said yourself that he"d done right. Then I had no right to kick "m."

"It would be a mercy to kill him," Scott insisted. "He"s untamable."

"Now look here, Mr. Scott, give the poor devil a fightin" chance. He ain"t had no chance yet. He"s just come through h.e.l.l, an" this is the first time he"s ben loose. Give "m a fair chance, an" if he don"t deliver the goods, I"ll kill "m myself. There!"

"G.o.d knows I don"t want to kill him or have him killed," Scott answered, putting away the revolver. "We"ll let him run loose and see what kindness can do for him. And here"s a try at it."

He walked over to White Fang and began talking to him gently and soothingly.

"Better have a club handy," Matt warned.

Scott shook his head and went on trying to win White Fang"s confidence.

White Fang was suspicious. Something was impending. He had killed this G.o.d"s dog, bitten his companion G.o.d, and what else was to be expected than some terrible punishment? But in the face of it he was indomitable. He bristled and showed his teeth, his eyes vigilant, his whole body wary and prepared for anything. The G.o.d had no club, so he suffered him to approach quite near. The G.o.d"s hand had come out and was descending upon his head. White Fang shrank together and grew tense as he crouched under it. Here was danger, some treachery or something. He knew the hands of the G.o.ds, their proved mastery, their cunning to hurt. Besides, there was his old antipathy to being touched. He snarled more menacingly, crouched still lower, and still the hand descended. He did not want to bite the hand, and he endured the peril of it until his instinct surged up in him, mastering him with its insatiable yearning for life.

Weedon Scott had believed that he was quick enough to avoid any snap or slash. But he had yet to learn the remarkable quickness of White Fang, who struck with the certainty and swiftness of a coiled snake.

Scott cried out sharply with surprise, catching his torn hand and holding it tightly in his other hand. Matt uttered a great oath and sprang to his side. White Fang crouched down, and backed away, bristling, showing his fangs, his eyes malignant with menace. Now he could expect a beating as fearful as any he had received from Beauty Smith.

"Here! What are you doing?" Scott cried suddenly.

Matt had dashed into the cabin and come out with a rifle.

"Nothin"," he said slowly, with a careless calmness that was a.s.sumed, "only goin" to keep that promise I made. I reckon it"s up to me to kill "m as I said I"d do."

"No you don"t!"

"Yes I do. Watch me."

As Matt had pleaded for White Fang when he had been bitten, it was now Weedon Scott"s turn to plead.

"You said to give him a chance. Well, give it to him. We"ve only just started, and we can"t quit at the beginning. It served me right, this time. And--look at him!"

White Fang, near the corner of the cabin and forty feet away, was snarling with blood-curdling viciousness, not at Scott, but at the dog- musher.

"Well, I"ll be everlastingly gosh-swoggled!" was the dog-musher"s expression of astonishment.

"Look at the intelligence of him," Scott went on hastily. "He knows the meaning of firearms as well as you do. He"s got intelligence and we"ve got to give that intelligence a chance. Put up the gun."

"All right, I"m willin"," Matt agreed, leaning the rifle against the woodpile.

"But will you look at that!" he exclaimed the next moment.

White Fang had quieted down and ceased snarling. "This is worth investigatin". Watch."

Matt, reached for the rifle, and at the same moment White Fang snarled. He stepped away from the rifle, and White Fang"s lifted lips descended, covering his teeth.

"Now, just for fun."

Matt took the rifle and began slowly to raise it to his shoulder. White Fang"s snarling began with the movement, and increased as the movement approached its culmination. But the moment before the rifle came to a level on him, he leaped sidewise behind the corner of the cabin. Matt stood staring along the sights at the empty s.p.a.ce of snow which had been occupied by White Fang.

The dog-musher put the rifle down solemnly, then turned and looked at his employer.

"I agree with you, Mr. Scott. That dog"s too intelligent to kill."

CHAPTER VI.

--THE LOVE-MASTER.

As White Fang watched Weedon Scott approach, he bristled and snarled to advertise that he would not submit to punishment. Twenty-four hours had pa.s.sed since he had slashed open the hand that was now bandaged and held up by a sling to keep the blood out of it. In the past White Fang had experienced delayed punishments, and he apprehended that such a one was about to befall him. How could it be otherwise? He had committed what was to him sacrilege, sunk his fangs into the holy flesh of a G.o.d, and of a white-skinned superior G.o.d at that. In the nature of things, and of intercourse with G.o.ds, something terrible awaited him.

The G.o.d sat down several feet away. White Fang could see nothing dangerous in that. When the G.o.ds administered punishment they stood on their legs. Besides, this G.o.d had no club, no whip, no firearm. And furthermore, he himself was free. No chain nor stick bound him. He could escape into safety while the G.o.d was scrambling to his feet. In the meantime he would wait and see.

The G.o.d remained quiet, made no movement; and White Fang"s snarl slowly dwindled to a growl that ebbed down in his throat and ceased. Then the G.o.d spoke, and at the first sound of his voice, the hair rose on White Fang"s neck and the growl rushed up in his throat. But the G.o.d made no hostile movement, and went on calmly talking. For a time White Fang growled in unison with him, a correspondence of rhythm being established between growl and voice. But the G.o.d talked on interminably. He talked to White Fang as White Fang had never been talked to before. He talked softly and soothingly, with a gentleness that somehow, somewhere, touched White Fang. In spite of himself and all the p.r.i.c.king warnings of his instinct, White Fang began to have confidence in this G.o.d. He had a feeling of security that was belied by all his experience with men.

After a long time, the G.o.d got up and went into the cabin. White Fang scanned him apprehensively when he came out. He had neither whip nor club nor weapon. Nor was his uninjured hand behind his back hiding something. He sat down as before, in the same spot, several feet away. He held out a small piece of meat. White Fang p.r.i.c.ked his ears and investigated it suspiciously, managing to look at the same time both at the meat and the G.o.d, alert for any overt act, his body tense and ready to spring away at the first sign of hostility.

Still the punishment delayed. The G.o.d merely held near to his nose a piece of meat. And about the meat there seemed nothing wrong. Still White Fang suspected; and though the meat was proffered to him with short inviting thrusts of the hand, he refused to touch it. The G.o.ds were all- wise, and there was no telling what masterful treachery lurked behind that apparently harmless piece of meat. In past experience, especially in dealing with squaws, meat and punishment had often been disastrously related.

In the end, the G.o.d tossed the meat on the snow at White Fang"s feet. He smelled the meat carefully; but he did not look at it. While he smelled it he kept his eyes on the G.o.d. Nothing happened. He took the meat into his mouth and swallowed it. Still nothing happened. The G.o.d was actually offering him another piece of meat. Again he refused to take it from the hand, and again it was tossed to him. This was repeated a number of times. But there came a time when the G.o.d refused to toss it. He kept it in his hand and steadfastly proffered it.

The meat was good meat, and White Fang was hungry. Bit by bit, infinitely cautious, he approached the hand. At last the time came that he decided to eat the meat from the hand. He never took his eyes from the G.o.d, thrusting his head forward with ears flattened back and hair involuntarily rising and cresting on his neck. Also a low growl rumbled in his throat as warning that he was not to be trifled with. He ate the meat, and nothing happened. Piece by piece, he ate all the meat, and nothing happened. Still the punishment delayed.

He licked his chops and waited. The G.o.d went on talking. In his voice was kindness--something of which White Fang had no experience whatever. And within him it aroused feelings which he had likewise never experienced before. He was aware of a certain strange satisfaction, as though some need were being gratified, as though some void in his being were being filled. Then again came the prod of his instinct and the warning of past experience. The G.o.ds were ever crafty, and they had unguessed ways of attaining their ends.

Ah, he had thought so! There it came now, the G.o.d"s hand, cunning to hurt, thrusting out at him, descending upon his head. But the G.o.d went on talking. His voice was soft and soothing. In spite of the menacing hand, the voice inspired confidence. And in spite of the a.s.suring voice, the hand inspired distrust. White Fang was torn by conflicting feelings, impulses. It seemed he would fly to pieces, so terrible was the control he was exerting, holding together by an unwonted indecision the counter- forces that struggled within him for mastery.

He compromised. He snarled and bristled and flattened his ears. But he neither snapped nor sprang away. The hand descended. Nearer and nearer it came. It touched the ends of his upstanding hair. He shrank down under it. It followed down after him, pressing more closely against him. Shrinking, almost shivering, he still managed to hold himself together. It was a torment, this hand that touched him and violated his instinct. He could not forget in a day all the evil that had been wrought him at the hands of men. But it was the will of the G.o.d, and he strove to submit.

The hand lifted and descended again in a patting, caressing movement. This continued, but every time the hand lifted, the hair lifted under it. And every time the hand descended, the ears flattened down and a cavernous growl surged in his throat. White Fang growled and growled with insistent warning. By this means he announced that he was prepared to retaliate for any hurt he might receive. There was no telling when the G.o.d"s ulterior motive might be disclosed. At any moment that soft, confidence-inspiring voice might break forth in a roar of wrath, that gentle and caressing hand transform itself into a vice-like grip to hold him helpless and administer punishment.

But the G.o.d talked on softly, and ever the hand rose and fell with non- hostile pats. White Fang experienced dual feelings. It was distasteful to his instinct. It restrained him, opposed the will of him toward personal liberty. And yet it was not physically painful. On the contrary, it was even pleasant, in a physical way. The patting movement slowly and carefully changed to a rubbing of the ears about their bases, and the physical pleasure even increased a little. Yet he continued to fear, and he stood on guard, expectant of unguessed evil, alternately suffering and enjoying as one feeling or the other came uppermost and swayed him.

"Well, I"ll be gosh-swoggled!"

So spoke Matt, coming out of the cabin, his sleeves rolled up, a pan of dirty dish-water in his hands, arrested in the act of emptying the pan by the sight of Weedon Scott patting White Fang.

At the instant his voice broke the silence, White Fang leaped back, snarling savagely at him.

Matt regarded his employer with grieved disapproval.