The call of the wild

Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for...

Buck lived at a big house in the sun kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Millers place, it was called....

And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of...

But Buck was neither house dog nor kennel dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the...

His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judges inseparable companion, and Buck bid fair...

And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the Klondike strike dragged men...

The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers Association, and the boys were busy organizing an...

Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity. To be sure, it was an unwonted performance. but he...

The next he knew, he was dimly aware that his tongue was hurting and that he was being jolted along...

Yep, has fits, the man said, hiding his mangled hand from the baggageman, who had been attracted by...

Dazed, suffering intolerable pain from throat and tongue, with the life half throttled out of him,...

There he lay for the remainder of the weary night, nursing his wrath and wounded pride. He could...

But the saloon keeper let him alone, and in the morning four men entered and picked up the crate....

For two days and nights this express car was dragged along at the tail of shrieking locomotives;...

He was glad for one thing. the rope was off his neck. That had given them an unfair advantage; but...

Four men gingerly carried the crate from the wagon into a small, high walled back yard. A stout...

Buck rushed at the splintering wood, sinking his teeth into it, surging and wrestling with it....

And Buck was truly a red eyed devil, as he drew himself together for the spring, hair bristling,...

After a particularly fierce blow, he crawled to his feet, too dazed to rush. He staggered limply...

Answers to the name of Buck, the man soliloquized, quoting from the saloon keepers letter which had...

As he spoke he fearlessly patted the head he had so mercilessly pounded, and though Bucks hair...

He was beaten he knew that; but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance...

Now and again men came, strangers, who talked excitedly, wheedlingly, and in all kinds of fashions...

Perrault grinned. Considering that the price of dogs had been boomed skyward by the unwonted...

Buck saw money pass between them, and was not surprised when Curly, a good natured Newfoundland,...

In the tween decks of the Narwhal, Buck and Curly joined two other dogs. One of them was a big,...

The other dog made no advances, nor received any; also, he did not attempt to steal from the...

Day and night the ship throbbed to the tireless pulse of the propeller, and though one day was very...

Bucks first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and...

He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him...

It was the wolf manner of fighting, to strike and leap away; but there was more to it than this....

So sudden was it, and so unexpected, that Buck was taken aback. He saw Spitz run out his scarlet...

Before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he received another...

By afternoon, Perrault, who was in a hurry to be on the trail with his despatches, returned with...

By evening Perrault secured another dog, an old husky, long and lean and gaunt, with a battle...

That night Buck faced the great problem of sleeping. The tent, illumined by a candle, glowed warmly...

Finally an idea came to him. He would return and see how his own team mates were making out. To his...

Another lesson. So that was the way they did it, eh. Buck confidently selected a spot, and with...

Nor did he open his eyes till roused by the noises of the waking camp. At first he did not know...

Three more huskies were added to the team inside an hour, making a total of nine, and before...

Buck had been purposely placed between Dave and Sol leks so that he might receive instruction. Apt...

It was a hard days run, up the Caon, through Sheep Camp, past the Scales and the timber line,...

That day they made forty miles, the trail being packed; but the next day, and for many days to...

Day after day, for days unending, Buck toiled in the traces. Always, they broke camp in the dark,...

He swiftly lost the fastidiousness which had characterized his old life. A dainty eater, he found...

This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his...

Not that Buck reasoned it out. He was fit, that was all, and unconsciously he accommodated himself...

His development or retrogression was rapid. His muscles became hard as iron, and he grew callous to...

And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again. The...

Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is, the ancient song surged through him and he came into...

The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of trail life it...

On the other hand, possibly because he divined in Buck a dangerous rival, Spitz never lost an...

Close in under the sheltering rock Buck made his nest. So snug and warm was it, that he was loath...

Franois was surprised, too, when they shot out in a tangle from the disrupted nest and he divined...

Spitz was equally willing. He was crying with sheer rage and eagerness as he circled back and forth...

An oath from Perrault, the resounding impact of a club upon a bony frame, and a shrill yelp of...

In the meantime the astonished team dogs had burst out of their nests only to be set upon by the...

Perrault and Franois, having cleaned out their part of the camp, hurried to save their sled dogs....

Later, the nine team dogs gathered together and sought shelter in the forest. Though unpursued,...

The courier shook his head dubiously. With four hundred miles of trail still between him and...

The Thirty Mile River was wide open. Its wild water defied the frost, and it was in the eddies only...

Nothing daunted him. It was because nothing daunted him that he had been chosen for government...

At another time Spitz went through, dragging the whole team after him up to Buck, who strained...

Again, the rim ice broke away before and behind, and there was no escape except up the cliff....

By the time they made the Hootalinqua and good ice, Buck was played out. The rest of the dogs were...

Bucks feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of the huskies. His had softened during the...

At the Pelly one morning, as they were harnessing up, Dolly, who had never been conspicuous for...

Buck staggered over against the sled, exhausted, sobbing for breath, helpless. This was Spitzs...

Dat Buck two devils, was Franoiss rejoinder. All de tam I watch dat Buck I know for sure. Lissen....

From then on it was war between them. Spitz, as lead dog and acknowledged master of the team, felt...

It was inevitable that the clash for leadership should come. Buck wanted it. He wanted it because...

He openly threatened the others leadership. He came between him and the shirks he should have...

But when he was at last unearthed, and Spitz flew at him to punish him, Buck flew, with equal rage,...

In the days that followed, as Dawson grew closer and closer, Buck still continued to interfere...

But the opportunity did not present itself, and they pulled into Dawson one dreary afternoon with...

With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the...

Seven days from the time they pulled into Dawson, they dropped down the steep bank by the Barracks...

They made Sixty Mile, which is a fifty mile run, on the first day; and the second day saw them...

The breaking down of discipline likewise affected the dogs in their relations with one another....

At the mouth of the Tahkeena, one night after supper, Dub turned up a snowshoe rabbit, blundered...

All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities...

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is...

But Spitz, cold and calculating even in his supreme moods, left the pack and cut across a narrow...

Buck did not cry out. He did not check himself, but drove in upon Spitz, shoulder to shoulder, so...

In a flash Buck knew it. The time had come. It was to the death. As they circled about, snarling,...

Spitz was a practised fighter. From Spitzbergen through the Arctic, and across Canada and the...

In vain Buck strove to sink his teeth in the neck of the big white dog. Wherever his fangs struck...

Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard. The fight was growing...

But Buck possessed a quality that made for greatness imagination. He fought by instinct, but he...

There was no hope for him. Buck was inexorable. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes. He...

Eh. Wot I say. I spik true wen I say dat Buck two devils. This was Franoiss speech next morning...

While Perrault packed the camp outfit and loaded the sled, the dog driver proceeded to harness the...

He took Buck by the scruff of the neck, and though the dog growled threateningly, dragged him to...

Buck remembered the man in the red sweater, and retreated slowly; nor did he attempt to charge in...

Perrault took a hand. Between them they ran him about for the better part of an hour. They threw...

Franois sat down and scratched his head. Perrault looked at his watch and swore. Time was flying,...

Franois complied, whereupon Buck trotted in, laughing triumphantly, and swung around into position...

Highly as the dog driver had forevalued Buck, with his two devils, he found, while the day was yet...

But it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it, that Buck excelled. Dave and Sol...

Pike, who pulled at Bucks heels, and who never put an ounce more of his weight against the breast...

The general tone of the team picked up immediately. It recovered its old time solidarity, and once...

And Perrault nodded. He was ahead of the record then, and gaining day by day. The trail was in...

The Thirty Mile River was comparatively coated with ice, and they covered in one day going out what...

It was a record run. Each day for fourteen days they had averaged forty miles. For three days...

A Scotch half breed took charge of him and his mates, and in company with a dozen other dog teams...

Buck did not like it, but he bore up well to the work, taking pride in it after the manner of Dave...

Best of all, perhaps, he loved to lie near the fire, hind legs crouched under him, fore legs...

Sometimes as he crouched there, blinking dreamily at the flames, it seemed that the flames were of...

At other times this hairy man squatted by the fire with head between his legs and slept. On such...

It was a hard trip, with the mail behind them, and the heavy work wore them down. They were short...

Each night the dogs were attended to first. They ate before the drivers ate, and no man sought his...

But it was Dave who suffered most of all. Something had gone wrong with him. He became more morose...

By the time Cassiar Bar was reached, he was so weak that he was falling repeatedly in the traces....

When the sled started, he floundered in the soft snow alongside the beaten trail, attacking Sol...

With the last remnant of his strength he managed to stagger along behind till the train made...

He pleaded with his eyes to remain there. The driver was perplexed. His comrades talked of how a...

But he held out till camp was reached, when his driver made a place for him by the fire. Morning...

Here the train was halted. The Scotch half breed slowly retraced his steps to the camp they had...

Thirty days from the time it left Dawson, the Salt Water Mail, with Buck and his mates at the fore,...

They were all terribly footsore. No spring or rebound was left in them. Their feet fell heavily on...

The drivers confidently expected a long stopover. Themselves, they had covered twelve hundred miles...

Three days passed, by which time Buck and his mates found how really tired and weak they were....

Buck heard the chaffering, saw the money pass between the man and the Government agent, and knew...

Buck watched them apprehensively as they proceeded to take down the tent and load the sled. There...

But Mercedes interfered, crying, Oh, Hal, you mustnt, as she caught hold of the whip and wrenched...

Precious lot you know about dogs, her brother sneered; and I wish youd leave me alone. Theyre lazy,...

Again Hals whip fell upon the dogs. They threw themselves against the breast bands, dug their feet...

You poor, poor dears, she cried sympathetically, why dont you pull hard. then you wouldnt be...

Its not that I care a whoop what becomes of you, but for the dogs sakes I just want to tell you,...

A third time the attempt was made, but this time, following the advice, Hal broke out the runners...

Kind hearted citizens caught the dogs and gathered up the scattered belongings. Also, they gave...

And so it went, the inexorable elimination of the superfluous. Mercedes cried when her clothes bags...

This accomplished, the outfit, though cut in half, was still a formidable bulk. Charles and Hal...

With the newcomers hopeless and forlorn, and the old team worn out by twenty five hundred miles of...

Late next morning Buck led the long team up the street. There was nothing lively about it, no snap...

Buck felt vaguely that there was no depending upon these two men and the woman. They did not know...

It was inevitable that they should go short on dog food. But they hastened it by overfeeding,...

Then came the underfeeding. Hal awoke one day to the fact that his dog food was half gone and the...

The first to go was Dub. Poor blundering thief that he was, always getting caught and punished, he...

By this time all the amenities and gentlenesses of the Southland had fallen away from the three...

Charles and Hal wrangled whenever Mercedes gave them a chance. It was the cherished belief of each...

Mercedes nursed a special grievance the grievance of sex. She was pretty and soft, and had been...

On one occasion they took her off the sled by main strength. They never did it again. She let her...

In the excess of their own misery they were callous to the suffering of their animals. Hals theory,...

And through it all Buck staggered along at the head of the team as in a nightmare. He pulled when...

As it was with Buck, so was it with his mates. They were perambulating skeletons. There were seven...

There came a day when Billee, the good natured, fell and could not rise. Hal had traded off his...

It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it. Each day the sun...

From every hill slope came the trickle of running water, the music of unseen fountains. All things...

With the dogs falling, Mercedes weeping and riding, Hal swearing innocuously, and Charless eyes...