But there was one particular nightmare from which he suffered--the clanking, clanging monsters of electric cars that were to him colossal screaming lynxes. He would lie in a screen of bushes, watching for a squirrel to venture far enough out on the ground from its tree-refuge. Then, when he sprang out upon it, it would transform itself into an electric car, menacing and terrible, towering over him like a mountain, screaming and clanging and spitting fire at him. It was the same when he challenged the hawk down out of the sky. Down out of the blue it would rush, as it dropped upon him changing itself into the ubiquitous electric car. Or again, he would be in the pen of Beauty Smith. Outside the pen, men would be gathering, and he knew that a fight was on. He watched the door for his antagonist to enter. The door would open, and thrust in upon him would come the awful electric car. A thousand times this occurred, and each time the terror it inspired was as vivid and great as ever.
Then came the day when the last bandage and the last plaster cast were taken off. It was a gala day. All Sierra Vista was gathered around. The master rubbed his ears, and he crooned his love-growl. The master"s wife called him the "Blessed Wolf," which name was taken up with acclaim and all the women called him the Blessed Wolf.
He tried to rise to his feet, and after several attempts fell down from weakness. He had lain so long that his muscles had lost their cunning, and all the strength had gone out of them. He felt a little shame because of his weakness, as though, forsooth, he were failing the G.o.ds in the service he owed them. Because of this he made heroic efforts to arise and at last he stood on his four legs, tottering and swaying back and forth.
"The Blessed Wolf!" chorused the women.
Judge Scott surveyed them triumphantly.
"Out of your own mouths be it," he said. "Just as I contended right along. No mere dog could have done what he did. He"s a wolf."
"A Blessed Wolf," amended the Judge"s wife.
"Yes, Blessed Wolf," agreed the Judge. "And henceforth that shall be my name for him."
"He"ll have to learn to walk again," said the surgeon; "so he might as well start in right now. It won"t hurt him. Take him outside."
And outside he went, like a king, with all Sierra Vista about him and tending on him. He was very weak, and when he reached the lawn he lay down and rested for a while.
Then the procession started on, little spurts of strength coming into White Fang"s muscles as he used them and the blood began to surge through them. The stables were reached, and there in the doorway, lay Collie, a half-dozen pudgy puppies playing about her in the sun.
White Fang looked on with a wondering eye. Collie snarled warningly at him, and he was careful to keep his distance. The master with his toe helped one sprawling puppy toward him. He bristled suspiciously, but the master warned him that all was well. Collie, clasped in the arms of one of the women, watched him jealously and with a snarl warned him that all was not well.
The puppy sprawled in front of him. He c.o.c.ked his ears and watched it curiously. Then their noses touched, and he felt the warm little tongue of the puppy on his jowl. White Fang"s tongue went out, he knew not why, and he licked the puppy"s face.
Hand-clapping and pleased cries from the G.o.ds greeted the performance. He was surprised, and looked at them in a puzzled way. Then his weakness a.s.serted itself, and he lay down, his ears c.o.c.ked, his head on one side, as he watched the puppy. The other puppies came sprawling toward him, to Collie"s great disgust; and he gravely permitted them to clamber and tumble over him. At first, amid the applause of the G.o.ds, he betrayed a trifle of his old self-consciousness and awkwardness. This pa.s.sed away as the puppies" antics and mauling continued, and he lay with half-shut patient eyes, drowsing in the sun.