Part 9 (1/2)
”If you don't mind my expressin' my feelin's, Mr Scott, I'll make free to say you're seventeen kinds of a damn fool an' all of 'em different, an' then soained his feet, and walked over to White Fang He talked soothingly to hi, then slowly put out his hand, rested it on White Fang's head, and resu his eyes fixed suspiciously, not upon the man that patted him, but upon the man that stood in the doorway
”You ht,” the dog-musher delivered himself oracularly, ”but you missed the chance of your life when you was a boy an' didn't run off an' join a circus”
White Fang snarled at the sound of his voice, but this ti his head and the back of his neck with long, soothing strokes
It was the beginning of the end for White Fang--the ending of the old life and the reign of hate A new and inco It requiredand endless patience on the part of Weedon Scott to acco less than a revolution He had to ignore the urges and proive the lie to life itself
Life, as he had known it, not only had had no place in it for one counter to those to which he now abandoned his were considered, he had to achieve an orientation far vaster than the one he had achieved at the time he came voluntarily in from the Wild and accepted Grey Beaver as his lord At that ti, without forin its work upon him But noas different The thumb of circumstance had done its work only too well By it he had been for Wolf, fierce and ie was like a reflux of being, and this when the plasticity of youth was no longer his; when the fibre of hih and knotty; when the warp and the woof of hi; when the face of his spirit had become iron and all his instincts and axioms had crystallised into set rules, cautions, dislikes, and desires
Yet again, in this new orientation, it was the thu that which had beco it into fairer forone to the roots of White Fang's nature, and with kindness touched to life potencies that had languished and well-nigh perished One such potency was love It took the place of like, which latter had been the highest feeling that thrilled him in his intercourse with the Gods
But this love did not coan with like and out of it slowly developed White Fang did not run away, though he was allowed to remain loose, because he liked this new God This was certainly better than the life he had lived in the cage of Beauty Smith, and it was necessary that he should have some God The lordshi+p of man was a need of his nature The seal of his dependence on man had been set upon him in that early day when he turned his back on the Wild and crawled to Grey Beaver's feet to receive the expected beating This seal had been staain, and ineradicably, on his second return fro fae of Grey Beaver
And so, because he needed a God and because he preferred Weedon Scott to Beauty Suardianshi+p of his master's property He prowled about the cabin while the sled-dogs slept, and the first night- visitor to the cabin fought him off with a club until Weedon Scott ca soon learned to differentiate between thieves and honest e The , the direct line to the cabin door, he let alone--though he watched hiilantly until the door opened and he received the endorsement of the master But thewith caution, seeking after secrecy--that was the , and ent away abruptly, hurriedly, and without dignity
Weedon Scott had set hi--or rather, of redee It was a matter of principle and conscience He felt that the ill done White Fang was a debt incurred by man and that it must be paid So he went out of his way to be especially kind to the Fighting Wolf Each day he , and to do it at length
At first suspicious and hostile, White Fang grew to like this petting But there was one thing that he never outgrew--his growling Growl he would, froroith a new note in it A stranger could not hear this note, and to such a stranger the growling of White Fang was an exhibition of pri But White Fang's throat had becoh the er in the lair of his cubhood, and he could not soften the sounds of that throat now to express the gentleness he felt Nevertheless, Weedon Scott's ear and syh to catch the new note all but drowned in the fierceness--the note that was the faintest hint of a croon of content and that none but he could hear
As the days went by, the evolution of like into love was accelerated White Fang hih in his consciousness he knew not what love was It ry, aching, yearning void that clamoured to be filled It was a pain and an unrest; and it received easement only by the touch of the new God's presence At such ti satisfaction But when away from his God, the pain and the unrest returned; the void in hiainst hinawed unceasingly
White Fang was in the process of finding hie rigidity of thean expansion There was a burgeoning within his and unwonted i In the past he had liked comfort and surcease from pain, disliked discoly But noas different Because of this new feeling within him, he ofttimes elected discomfort and pain for the sake of his God Thus, in the earlyin a sheltered nook, he would wait for hours on the cheerless cabin-stoop for a sight of the God's face At night, when the God returned ho-place he had burrowed in the snow in order to receive the friendly snap of fingers and the word of greeting Meat, even o to be with his God, to receive a caress from him or to accompany him down into the town
Like had been replaced by love And love was the pluone And responsive out of his deeps had coiven unto him did he return This was a God indeed, a love-God, a war's nature expanded as a flower expands under the sun
But White Fang was not demonstrative He was too old, too fir hily poised in his own isolation Too long had he cultivated reticence, aloofness, and moroseness He had never barked in his life, and he could not now learn to bark a welcome when his God approached He was never in the way, never extravagant nor foolish in the expression of his love He never ran to meet his God He waited at a distance; but he alaited, was always there His love partook of the nature of worshi+p, duard of his eyes did he express his love, and by the unceasing folloith his eyes of his God's every movement Also, at times, when his God looked at him and spoke to him, he betrayed an aard self-consciousness, caused by the struggle of his love to express itself and his physical inability to express it
He learned to adjust himself in many ways to his new mode of life It was borne in upon his alone Yet his dominant nature asserted itself, and he had first to thrash thement of his superiority and leadershi+p This accoave trail to hi them, and when he asserted his will they obeyed
In the same way, he came to tolerate Matt--as a possession of his master His master rarely fed hi divined that it was his master's food he ate and that it was his master who thus fed him vicariously Matt it ho tried to put his But Matt failed It was not until Weedon Scott put the harness on White Fang and worked him, that he understood He took it as his master's will that Matt should drive him and work his
Different froans were the Klondike sleds with runners under thes There was no fan-forle file, one behind another, hauling on double traces And here, in the Klondike, the leader was indeed the leader The wisest as well as strongest dog was the leader, and the teaain this post was inevitable He could not be satisfied with less, as Matt learned afterpicked out the post for hie after the experih he worked in the sled in the day, White Fang did not forego the guarding of his ht Thus he was on duty all the tiilant and faithful, the s
”Makin' free to spit out what's in uy all right when you paid the price you did for that dog You clean swindled Beauty Smith on top of pushi+n' his face in with your fist”
A recrudescence of anger glinted in Weedon Scott's grey eyes, and he reat trouble ca, the love- was unversed in such things and did not understand the packing of a grip He re had preceded theThat night he waited for the ht the chill wind that blew drove him to shelter at the rear of the cabin There he drowsed, only half asleep, his ears keyed for the first sound of the fa, his anxiety drove him out to the cold front stoop, where he crouched, and waited
But nothe door opened and Matt stepped outside White Fang gazed at hiht learn what he wanted to know The days ca, who had never known sickness in his life, became sick He beca hi to his e
Weedon Scott reading the letter down in Circle City, ca: ”That daot no spunk left All the dogs is licking him Wants to knohat has beco to die”
It was as Matt had said White Fang had ceased eating, lost heart, and allowed every dog of the team to thrash him In the cabin he lay on the floor near the stove, without interest in food, in Matt, nor in life Matt ently to him or swear at him, it was all the same; he never did more than turn his dull eyes upon the man, then drop his head back to its custoht, Matt, reading to hi lips andHe had got upon his feet, his ears cocked towards the door, and he was listening intently A moment later, Matt heard a footstep The door opened, and Weedon Scott stepped in The two men shook hands Then Scott looked around the room
”Where's the wolf?” he asked
Then he discovered hi, near to the stove He had not rushed forward after the
”Holy s his tail!”
Weedon Scott strode half across the roo careat bound, yet quickly He akened from self-consciousness, but as he drew near, his eyes took on a strange expression So, rose up into his eyes as a light and shone forth
”He never looked at one!” Matt co down on his heels, face to face with White Fang and petting hi strokes down the neck to the shoulders, tapping the spine gently with the balls of his fingers And White Fang was growling responsively, the crooning note of the growl more pronounced than ever
But that was not all What of his joy, the great love in hi in finding a new mode of expression He suddenly thrust his head forward and nudged his way in between the master's arm and body And here, confined, hidden fro, he continued to nudge and snuggle
The two
”Gosh!+” said Matt in an awe-stricken voice
A moment later, when he had recovered hi Look at ''s recovery was rapid Two nights and a day he spent in the cabin Then he sallied forth The sled- dogs had forgotten his prowess They remembered only the latest, which was his weakness and sickness At the sight of hi upon hileefully, standing in the doorway and looking on
”Give 'm hell, you wolf! Give ' did not need the encourageh Life was flowing through hiht fro in it an expression of much that he felt and that otherithout speech There could be but one ending The teanos canifying their fealty to White Fang
Having learned to snuggle, White Fang was guilty of it often It was the final word He could not go beyond it The one thing of which he had always been particularly jealous was his head He had always disliked to have it touched It was the Wild in hiiven rise to the panicky impulses to avoid contacts It was the mandate of his instinct that that headwas the deliberate act of putting himself into a position of hopeless helplessness It was an expression of perfect confidence, of absolute self-surrender, as though he said: ”I put myself into thy hands Work thou thy ithafter the return, Scott and Matt sat at a ga to bed ”Fifteen-two, fifteen-four an' a pairup, when there was an outcry and sound of snarling without They looked at each other as they started to rise to their feet
”The wolf's nailed souish hastened the outside
Matt folloith the la on his back in the snow His arms were folded, one above the other, across his face and throat Thus he was trying to shi+eld hi's teeth And there was need for it White Fang was in a rage, wickedlyhis attack on the most vulnerable spot From shoulder to wrist of the crossed arms, the coat-sleeve, blue flannel shi+rt and undershi+rt were ripped in rags, while the ar blood
All this the two men saw in the first instant The next instant Weedon Scott had White Fang by the throat and was dragging hiled and snarled, but made no attempt to bite, while he quickly quieted down at a sharp word from the master
Matt helped the man to his feet As he arose he lowered his crossed ar-o of him precipitately, with action similar to that of a man who has picked up live fire Beauty Sht sight of White Fang and terror rushed into his face
At the sa in the snow He held the la the-chain and a stout club