Part 1 (1/2)

White Fang

by Jack London

PART I

CHAPTER I

--THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT

Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen ay The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and oned over the land The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter hter that was hter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility It was theat the futility of life and the effort of life It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild

But there was life, abroad in the land and defiant Down the frozen ay toiled a string of wolfish dogs Their bristly fur was rimed with frost Their breath froze in the air as it left theirforth in spumes of vapour that settled upon the hair of their bodies and fors, and leather traces attached the behind The sled ithout runners It was made of stout birch-bark, and its full surface rested on the snow The front end of the sled was turned up, like a scroll, in order to force down and under the bore of soft snow that surged like a wave before it On the sled, securely lashed, was a long and narrow oblong box There were other things on the sled--blankets, an axe, and a coffee-pot and frying-pan; but pro and narrow oblong box

In advance of the dogs, on wide snowshoes, toiled a man At the rear of the sled toiled a second man On the sled, in the box, lay a third man whose toil was over,--a man whom the Wild had conquered and beaten down until he would never ain It is not the way of the Wild to like movement Life is an offence to it, for life is movement; and the Wild aims always to destroyto the sea; it drives the sap out of the trees till they are frozen to their hty hearts; and most ferociously and terribly of all does the Wild harry and crush into submission ainst the dictum that all movement must in the end come to the cessation of movement

But at front and rear, unawed and indomitable, toiled the two men ere not yet dead Their bodies were covered with fur and soft-tanned leather Eyelashes and cheeks and lips were so coated with the crystals from their frozen breath that their faces were not discernible This gave thehostly masques, undertakers in a spectral world at the funeral of so the land of desolation and mockery and silence, puny adventurers bent on colossal adventure, pitting theht of a world as remote and alien and pulseless as the abysses of space

They travelled on without speech, saving their breath for the work of their bodies On every side was the silence, pressing upon theible presence It affected their minds as the many atmospheres of deep water affect the body of the diver It crushed the vastness and unalterable decree It crushed the out of therape, all the false ardours and exaltations and undue self-values of the human soul, until they perceived the eak cunning and little wisdoreat blind elements and forces

An hour went by, and a second hour The pale light of the short sunless day was beginning to fade, when a faint far cry arose on the still air It soared upith a swift rush, till it reached its topmost note, where it persisted, palpitant and tense, and then slowly died away It , had it not been invested with a certain sad fierceness and hungry eagerness The front man turned his head until his eyes met the eyes of thebox, each nodded to the other

A second cry arose, piercing the silence with needle-like shrillness Both men located the sound It was to the rear, somewhere in the snow expanse they had just traversed A third and answering cry arose, also to the rear and to the left of the second cry

”They're after us, Bill,” said the man at the front

His voice sounded hoarse and unreal, and he had spoken with apparent effort

”Meat is scarce,” answered his con for days”

Thereafter they spoke no -cries that continued to rise behind thes into a cluster of spruce trees on the edge of the ay and made a camp The coffin, at the side of the fire, served for seat and table The wolf-dogs, clustered on the far side of the fire, snarled and bickered a themselves, but evinced no inclination to stray off into the darkness

”Seems to me, Henry, they're stayin' remarkable close to ca over the fire and settling the pot of coffee with a piece of ice, nodded Nor did he speak till he had taken his seat on the coffin and begun to eat

”They knohere their hides is safe,” he said ”They'd sooner eat grub than be grub They're pretty wise, thes”

Bill shook his head ”Oh, I don't know”

His comrade looked at hi about their not bein' wise”

”Henry,” said the other, , ”did you happen to notice the way thes kicked up when I was a-feedin' 'eed

”How ot, Henry?”

”Six”

”Well, Henry” Bill stopped for a nificance ”As I was sayin', Henry, we've got six dogs I took six fish out of the bag I gave one fish to each dog, an', Henry, I was one fish short”

”You counted wrong”

”We've got six dogs,” the other reiterated dispassionately ”I took out six fish One Ear didn't get no fish I caot 's,” Henry said

”Henry,” Bill went on ”I won't say they was all dogs, but there was seven of 'lance across the fire and count the dogs

”There's only six now,” he said

”I saw the other one run off across the snow,” Bill announced with cool positiveness ”I saw seven”

Henry looked at hilad when this trip's over”

”What d'ye mean by that?” Bill deettin' on your nerves, an' that you're beginnin' to see things”

”I thought of that,” Bill answered gravely ”An' so, when I saw it run off across the snow, I looked in the snow an' saw its tracks Then I counted the dogs an' there was still six of 'em The tracks is there in the sno D'ye want to look at 'em? I'll show 'em to you”

Henry did not reply, but munched on in silence, until, the meal finished, he topped it with a final cup of coffee He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said: ”Then you're thinkin' as it was--”

A long wailing cry, fiercely sad, from somewhere in the darkness, had interrupted him He stopped to listen to it, then he finished his sentence with a wave of his hand toward the sound of the cry, ”--one of theht sooner think that than anything else You noticed yourself the row the dogsthe silence into a bedlas betrayed their fear by huddling together and so close to the fire that their hair was scorched by the heat Bill threw onyou're down in the mouth some,” Henry said

”Henry” He sucked meditatively at his pipe for some time before he went on ”Henry, I was a-thinkin' what a blaht luckier he is than you an' me'll ever be”

He indicated the third person by a doard thrust of the thumb to the box on which they sat