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WEB VP OUTPUT FOR FILE: C:\Documents and Settings\Tom Cobb\Desktop\call_of_the_wild.text

Stoplist (propers etc dropped): yukon ysabel puget perrault newfoundland mayo mcquestion matthewson john joe jim hudson hans dawson diego pete elmo francois buck hal brien thornton manuel seattle san francisco frisco dave chilcoot charlotte charleses charles burton billee cassiar billee bernard alice alaskan alaska none (total 827 tokens)

Note: In the output text, punctuation is eliminated; all figures (1, 20, etc) are replaced by the word number; contractions are replaced by constituent words (won't => will not); type-token ration is calculated using said constituents; and in the 1k sub-analysis content + function words may sum to less than total (depending on user treatment of proper nouns and program decision to class numbers as 1k although not contained in 1k list).

Freq. Level Families Types Tokens Coverage% Cum%
K1 Words :79915762517778.18 78.18%
K2 Words :53087524897.73 85.91%
K3 Words :37457614254.43 90.34%
K4 Words :2403316061.88 92.22%
K5 Words :1872494491.39 93.61%
K6 Words :1461893331.03 94.64%
K7 Words :1061382330.72 95.36%
K8 Words :81941610.50 95.86%
K9 Words :81961790.56 96.42%
K10 Words :66741150.36 96.78%
K11 Words :62691180.37 97.15%
K12 Words :3435450.14 97.29%
K13 Words :5462870.27 97.56%
K14 Words :1616280.09 97.65%
K15 Words :1921280.09 97.74%
K16 Words :88140.04 97.78%
K17 Words :79780.24 98.02%
K18 Words :1012350.11 98.13%
K19 Words :810110.03 98.16%
K20 Words :2220.01 98.17%
Off-List: ? 277 589 1.83100%
Total 2830+? 4719 32202 100%100%
Words in text (tokens): 32202
Different words (types): 4719
Type-token ratio: 0.15
Tokens per type: 6.82

Pertaining to onlist only
Tokens: 31613
Types: 4442
Families: 2830
Tokens per family: 11.17
Types per family: 1.57

For easy editing as MS Word table - Edit/print-friendly table        
 Page Menu: Tokens   Types   Families  
Integral text: the call of the wild by jack london contents i into the primitive ii the law of club and fang iii the dominant primordial beast iv who has won to mastership v the toil of trace and tail vi for the love of a man vii the sounding of the call chapter i into the primitive old longings nomadic leap chafing at custom chain again from its brumal sleep wakens the ferine strain buck did not read the newspapers or he would have known that trouble was brewing not alone for himself but for every tide water dog strong of muscle and with warm long hair from puget sound to san diego because men groping in the arctic darkness had found a yellow metal and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find thousands of men were rushing into the northland these men wanted dogs and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs with strong muscles by which to toil and furry coats to protect them from the frost buck lived at a big house in the sun kissed santa clara valley judge miller place it was called it stood back from the road half hidden among the trees through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides the house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars at the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front there were great stables where a dozen grooms and boys held forth rows of vine clad servants cottages an endless and orderly array of outhouses long grape arbors green pastures orchards and berry patches then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well and the big cement tank where judge miller boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon and over this great demesne buck ruled here he was born and here he had lived the four years of his life it was true there were other dogs there could not but be other dogs on so vast a place but they did not count they came and went resided in the populous kennels or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of toots the japanese pug or ysabel the mexican hairless strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground on the other hand there were the fox terriers a score of them at least who yelped fearful promises at toots and ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops but buck was neither house dog nor kennel dog the whole realm was his he plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the judge sons he escorted mollie and alice the judge daughters on long twilight or early morning rambles on wintry nights he lay at the judge feet before the roaring library fire he carried the judge grandsons on his back or rolled them in the grass and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard and even beyond where the paddocks were and the berry patches among the terriers he stalked imperiously and toots and ysabel he utterly ignored for he was king king over all creeping crawling flying things of judge miller place humans included his father elmo a huge st bernard had been the judge inseparable companion and buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father he was not so large he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds for his mother shep had been a scotch shepherd dog nevertheless one hundred and forty pounds to which was added the dignity that comes of good living and universal respect enabled him to carry himself in right royal fashion during the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat he had a fine pride in himself was even a trifle egotistical as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation but he had saved himself by not becoming a mere pampered house dog hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down the fat and hardened his muscles and to him as to the cold tubbing races the love of water had been a tonic and a health preserver and this was the manner of dog buck was in the fall of number when the klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen north but buck did not read the newspapers and he did not know that manuel one of the gardener helpers was an undesirable acquaintance manuel had one besetting sin he loved to play chinese lottery also in his gambling he had one besetting weakness faith in a system and this made his damnation certain for to play a system requires money while the wages of a gardener helper do not lap over the needs of a wife and numerous progeny the judge was at a meeting of the raisin growers association and the boys were busy organizing an athletic club on the memorable night of manuel treachery no one saw him and buck go off through the orchard on what buck imagined was merely a stroll and with the exception of a solitary man no one saw them arrive at the little flag station known as college park this man talked with manuel and money chinked between them you might wrap up the goods before you deliver m the stranger said gruffly and manuel doubled a piece of stout rope around buck neck under the collar twist it an you will choke m plentee said manuel and the stranger grunted a ready affirmative buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity to be sure it was an unwonted performance but he had learned to trust in men he knew and to give them credit for a wisdom that outreached his own but when the ends of the rope were placed in the stranger hands he growled menacingly he had merely intimated his displeasure in his pride believing that to intimate was to command but to his surprise the rope tightened around his neck shutting off his breath in quick rage he sprang at the man who met him halfway grappled him close by the throat and with a deft twist threw him over on his back then the rope tightened mercilessly while buck struggled in a fury his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest panting futilely never in all his life had he been so vilely treated and never in all his life had he been so angry but his strength ebbed his eyes glazed and he knew nothing when the train was flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car the next he knew he was dimly aware that his tongue was hurting and that he was being jolted along in some kind of a conveyance the hoarse shriek of a locomotive whistling a crossing told him where he was he had travelled too often with the judge not to know the sensation of riding in a baggage car he opened his eyes and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnapped king the man sprang for his throat but buck was too quick for him his jaws closed on the hand nor did they relax till his senses were choked out of him once more yep has fits the man said hiding his mangled hand from the baggageman who had been attracted by the sounds of struggle i am takin m up for the boss to frisco a crack dog doctor there thinks that he can cure m concerning that night ride the man spoke most eloquently for himself in a little shed back of a saloon on the san francisco water front all i get is fifty for it he grumbled an i would not do it over for a thousand cold cash his hand was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief and the right trouser leg was ripped from knee to ankle how much did the other mug get the saloon keeper demanded a hundred was the reply would not take a sou less so help me that makes a hundred and fifty the saloon keeper calculated and he is worth it or i am a squarehead the kidnapper undid the bloody wrappings and looked at his lacerated hand if i do not get the hydrophoby it will be because you was born to hang laughed the saloon keeper here lend me a hand before you pull your freight he added dazed suffering intolerable pain from throat and tongue with the life half throttled out of him buck attempted to face his tormentors but he was thrown down and choked repeatedly till they succeeded in filing the heavy brass collar from off his neck then the rope was removed and he was flung into a cagelike crate there he lay for the remainder of the weary night nursing his wrath and wounded pride he could not understand what it all meant what did they want with him these strange men why were they keeping him pent up in this narrow crate he did not know why but he felt oppressed by the vague sense of impending calamity several times during the night he sprang to his feet when the shed door rattled open expecting to see the judge or the boys at least but each time it was the bulging face of the saloon keeper that peered in at him by the sickly light of a tallow candle and each time the joyful bark that trembled in buck throat was twisted into a savage growl but the saloon keeper let him alone and in the morning four men entered and picked up the crate more tormentors buck decided for they were evil looking creatures ragged and unkempt and he stormed and raged at them through the bars they only laughed and poked sticks at him which he promptly assailed with his teeth till he realized that that was what they wanted whereupon he lay down sullenly and allowed the crate to be lifted into a wagon then he and the crate in which he was imprisoned began a passage through many hands clerks in the express office took charge of him he was carted about in another wagon a truck carried him with an assortment of boxes and parcels upon a ferry steamer he was trucked off the steamer into a great railway depot and finally he was deposited in an express car for two days and nights this express car was dragged along at the tail of shrieking locomotives and for two days and nights buck neither ate nor drank in his anger he had met the first advances of the express messengers with growls and they had retaliated by teasing him when he flung himself against the bars quivering and frothing they laughed at him and taunted him they growled and barked like detestable dogs mewed and flapped their arms and crowed it was all very silly he knew but therefore the more outrage to his dignity and his anger waxed and waxed he did not mind the hunger so much but the lack of water caused him severe suffering and fanned his wrath to fever pitch for that matter high strung and finely sensitive the ill treatment had flung him into a fever which was fed by the inflammation of his parched and swollen throat and tongue he was glad for one thing the rope was off his neck that had given them an unfair advantage but now that it was off he would show them they would never get another rope around his neck upon that he was resolved for two days and nights he neither ate nor drank and during those two days and nights of torment he accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever first fell foul of him his eyes turned blood shot and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend so changed was he that the judge himself would not have recognized him and the express messengers breathed with relief when they bundled him off the train at seattle four men gingerly carried the crate from the wagon into a small high walled back yard a stout man with a red sweater that sagged generously at the neck came out and signed the book for the driver that was the man buck divined the next tormentor and he hurled himself savagely against the bars the man smiled grimly and brought a hatchet and a club you ai not going to take him out now the driver asked sure the man replied driving the hatchet into the crate for a pry there was an instantaneous scattering of the four men who had carried it in and from safe perches on top the wall they prepared to watch the performance buck rushed at the splintering wood sinking his teeth into it surging and wrestling with it wherever the hatchet fell on the outside he was there on the inside snarling and growling as furiously anxious to get out as the man in the red sweater was calmly intent on getting him out now you red eyed devil he said when he had made an opening sufficient for the passage of buck body at the same time he dropped the hatchet and shifted the club to his right hand and buck was truly a red eyed devil as he drew himself together for the spring hair bristling mouth foaming a mad glitter in his blood shot eyes straight at the man he launched his one hundred and forty pounds of fury surcharged with the pent passion of two days and nights in mid air just as his jaws were about to close on the man he received a shock that checked his body and brought his teeth together with an agonizing clip he whirled over fetching the ground on his back and side he had never been struck by a club in his life and did not understand with a snarl that was part bark and more scream he was again on his feet and launched into the air and again the shock came and he was brought crushingly to the ground this time he was aware that it was the club but his madness knew no caution a dozen times he charged and as often the club broke the charge and smashed him down after a particularly fierce blow he crawled to his feet too dazed to rush he staggered limply about the blood flowing from nose and mouth and ears his beautiful coat sprayed and flecked with bloody slaver then the man advanced and deliberately dealt him a frightful blow on the nose all the pain he had endured was as nothing compared with the exquisite agony of this with a roar that was almost lionlike in its ferocity he again hurled himself at the man but the man shifting the club from right to left coolly caught him by the under jaw at the same time wrenching downward and backward buck described a complete circle in the air and half of another then crashed to the ground on his head and chest for the last time he rushed the man struck the shrewd blow he had purposely withheld for so long and buck crumpled up and went down knocked utterly senseless he is no slouch at dog breakin that is wot i say one of the men on the wall cried enthusiastically druther break cayuses any day and twice on sundays was the reply of the driver as he climbed on the wagon and started the horses buck senses came back to him but not his strength he lay where he had fallen and from there he watched the man in the red sweater answers to the name of buck the man soliloquized quoting from the saloon keeper letter which had announced the consignment of the crate and contents well buck my boy he went on in a genial voice we have had our little ruction and the best thing we can do is to let it go at that you have learned your place and i know mine be a good dog and all will go well and the goose hang high be a bad dog and i will whale the stuffin outa you understand as he spoke he fearlessly patted the head he had so mercilessly pounded and though buck hair involuntarily bristled at touch of the hand he endured it without protest when the man brought him water he drank eagerly and later bolted a generous meal of raw meat chunk by chunk from the man hand he was beaten he knew that but he was not broken he saw once for all that he stood no chance against a man with a club he had learned the lesson and in all his after life he never forgot it that club was a revelation it was his introduction to the reign of primitive law and he met the introduction halfway the facts of life took on a fiercer aspect and while he faced that aspect uncowed he faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused as the days went by other dogs came in crates and at the ends of ropes some docilely and some raging and roaring as he had come and one and all he watched them pass under the dominion of the man in the red sweater again and again as he looked at each brutal performance the lesson was driven home to buck a man with a club was a lawgiver a master to be obeyed though not necessarily conciliated of this last buck was never guilty though he did see beaten dogs that fawned upon the man and wagged their tails and licked his hand also he saw one dog that would neither conciliate nor obey finally killed in the struggle for mastery now and again men came strangers who talked excitedly wheedlingly and in all kinds of fashions to the man in the red sweater and at such times that money passed between them the strangers took one or more of the dogs away with them buck wondered where they went for they never came back but the fear of the future was strong upon him and he was glad each time when he was not selected yet his time came in the end in the form of a little weazened man who spat broken english and many strange and uncouth exclamations which buck could not understand sacredam he cried when his eyes lit upon buck dat one dam bully dog eh how moch three hundred and a present at that was the prompt reply of the man in the red sweater and seem it is government money you ai not got no kick coming eh perrault perrault grinned considering that the price of dogs had been boomed skyward by the unwonted demand it was not an unfair sum for so fine an animal the canadian government would be no loser nor would its despatches travel the slower perrault knew dogs and when he looked at buck he knew that he was one in a thousand one in ten t ousand he commented mentally buck saw money pass between them and was not surprised when curly a good natured newfoundland and he were led away by the little weazened man that was the last he saw of the man in the red sweater and as curly and he looked at receding seattle from the deck of the narwhal it was the last he saw of the warm southland curly and he were taken below by perrault and turned over to a black faced giant called francois perrault was a french canadian and swarthy but francois was a french canadian half breed and twice as swarthy they were a new kind of men to buck of which he was destined to see many more and while he developed no affection for them he none the less grew honestly to respect them he speedily learned that perrault and francois were fair men calm and impartial in administering justice and too wise in the way of dogs to be fooled by dogs in the tween decks of the narwhal buck and curly joined two other dogs one of them was a big snow white fellow from spitzbergen who had been brought away by a whaling captain and who had later accompanied a geological survey into the barrens he was friendly in a treacherous sort of way smiling into one face the while he meditated some underhand trick as for instance when he stole from buck food at the first meal as buck sprang to punish him the lash of francois whip sang through the air reaching the culprit first and nothing remained to buck but to recover the bone that was fair of francois he decided and the half breed began his rise in buck estimation the other dog made no advances nor received any also he did not attempt to steal from the newcomers he was a gloomy morose fellow and he showed curly plainly that all he desired was to be left alone and further that there would be trouble if he were not left alone dave he was called and he ate and slept or yawned between times and took interest in nothing not even when the narwhal crossed queen charlotte sound and rolled and pitched and bucked like a thing possessed when buck and curly grew excited half wild with fear he raised his head as though annoyed favored them with an incurious glance yawned and went to sleep again day and night the ship throbbed to the tireless pulse of the propeller and though one day was very like another it was apparent to buck that the weather was steadily growing colder at last one morning the propeller was quiet and the narwhal was pervaded with an atmosphere of excitement he felt it as did the other dogs and knew that a change was at hand francois leashed them and brought them on deck at the first step upon the cold surface buck feet sank into a white mushy something very like mud he sprang back with a snort more of this white stuff was falling through the air he shook himself but more of it fell upon him he sniffed it curiously then licked some up on his tongue it bit like fire and the next instant was gone this puzzled him he tried it again with the same result the onlookers laughed uproariously and he felt ashamed he knew not why for it was his first snow chapter ii the law of club and fang buck first day on the dyea beach was like a nightmare every hour was filled with shock and surprise he had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial no lazy sun kissed life was this with nothing to do but loaf and be bored here was neither peace nor rest nor a moment safety all was confusion and action and every moment life and limb were in peril there was imperative need to be constantly alert for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men they were savages all of them who knew no law but the law of club and fang he had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought and his first experience taught him an unforgetable lesson it is true it was a vicarious experience else he would not have lived to profit by it curly was the victim they were camped near the log store where she in her friendly way made advances to a husky dog the size of a full grown wolf though not half so large as she there was no warning only a leap in like a flash a metallic clip of teeth a leap out equally swift and curly face was ripped open from eye to jaw it was the wolf manner of fighting to strike and leap away but there was more to it than this thirty or forty huskies ran to the spot and surrounded the combatants in an intent and silent circle buck did not comprehend that silent intentness nor the eager way with which they were licking their chops curly rushed her antagonist who struck again and leaped aside he met her next rush with his chest in a peculiar fashion that tumbled her off her feet she never regained them this was what the onlooking huskies had waited for they closed in upon her snarling and yelping and she was buried screaming with agony beneath the bristling mass of bodies so sudden was it and so unexpected that buck was taken aback he saw spitz run out his scarlet tongue in a way he had of laughing and he saw francois swinging an axe spring into the mess of dogs three men with clubs were helping him to scatter them it did not take long two minutes from the time curly went down the last of her assailants were clubbed off but she lay there limp and lifeless in the bloody trampled snow almost literally torn to pieces the swart half breed standing over her and cursing horribly the scene often came back to buck to trouble him in his sleep so that was the way no fair play once down that was the end of you well he would see to it that he never went down spitz ran out his tongue and laughed again and from that moment buck hated him with a bitter and deathless hatred before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of curly he received another shock francois fastened upon him an arrangement of straps and buckles it was a harness such as he had seen the grooms put on the horses at home and as he had seen horses work so he was set to work hauling francois on a sled to the forest that fringed the valley and returning with a load of firewood though his dignity was sorely hurt by thus being made a draught animal he was too wise to rebel he buckled down with a will and did his best though it was all new and strange francois was stern demanding instant obedience and by virtue of his whip receiving instant obedience while dave who was an experienced wheeler nipped buck hind quarters whenever he was in error spitz was the leader likewise experienced and while he could not always get at buck he growled sharp reproof now and again or cunningly threw his weight in the traces to jerk buck into the way he should go buck learned easily and under the combined tuition of his two mates and francois made remarkable progress ere they returned to camp he knew enough to stop at ho to go ahead at mush to swing wide on the bends and to keep clear of the wheeler when the loaded sled shot downhill at their heels t aree vair good dogs francois told perrault dat buck heem pool lak hell i tich heem queek as anyt ing by afternoon perrault who was in a hurry to be on the trail with his despatches returned with two more dogs billee and joe he called them two brothers and true huskies both sons of the one mother though they were they were as different as day and night billee one fault was his excessive good nature while joe was the very opposite sour and introspective with a perpetual snarl and a malignant eye buck received them in comradely fashion dave ignored them while spitz proceeded to thrash first one and then the other billee wagged his tail appeasingly turned to run when he saw that appeasement was of no avail and cried still appeasingly when spitz sharp teeth scored his flank but no matter how spitz circled joe whirled around on his heels to face him mane bristling ears laid back lips writhing and snarling jaws clipping together as fast as he could snap and eyes diabolically gleaming the incarnation of belligerent fear so terrible was his appearance that spitz was forced to forego disciplining him but to cover his own discomfiture he turned upon the inoffensive and wailing billee and drove him to the confines of the camp by evening perrault secured another dog an old husky long and lean and gaunt with a battle scarred face and a single eye which flashed a warning of prowess that commanded respect he was called sol leks which means the angry one like dave he asked nothing gave nothing expected nothing and when he marched slowly and deliberately into their midst even spitz left him alone he had one peculiarity which buck was unlucky enough to discover he did not like to be approached on his blind side of this offence buck was unwittingly guilty and the first knowledge he had of his indiscretion was when sol leks whirled upon him and slashed his shoulder to the bone for three inches up and down forever after buck avoided his blind side and to the last of their comradeship had no more trouble his only apparent ambition like dave was to be left alone though as buck was afterward to learn each of them possessed one other and even more vital ambition that night buck faced the great problem of sleeping the tent illumined by a candle glowed warmly in the midst of the white plain and when he as a matter of course entered it both perrault and francois bombarded him with curses and cooking utensils till he recovered from his consternation and fled ignominiously into the outer cold a chill wind was blowing that nipped him sharply and bit with especial venom into his wounded shoulder he lay down on the snow and attempted to sleep but the frost soon drove him shivering to his feet miserable and disconsolate he wandered about among the many tents only to find that one place was as cold as another here and there savage dogs rushed upon him but he bristled his neck hair and snarled for he was learning fast and they let him go his way unmolested finally an idea came to him he would return and see how his own team mates were making out to his astonishment they had disappeared again he wandered about through the great camp looking for them and again he returned were they in the tent no that could not be else he would not have been driven out then where could they possibly be with drooping tail and shivering body very forlorn indeed he aimlessly circled the tent suddenly the snow gave way beneath his fore legs and he sank down something wriggled under his feet he sprang back bristling and snarling fearful of the unseen and unknown but a friendly little yelp reassured him and he went back to investigate a whiff of warm air ascended to his nostrils and there curled up under the snow in a snug ball lay billee he whined placatingly squirmed and wriggled to show his good will and intentions and even ventured as a bribe for peace to lick buck face with his warm wet tongue another lesson so that was the way they did it eh buck confidently selected a spot and with much fuss and waste effort proceeded to dig a hole for himself in a trice the heat from his body filled the confined space and he was asleep the day had been long and arduous and he slept soundly and comfortably though he growled and barked and wrestled with bad dreams nor did he open his eyes till roused by the noises of the waking camp at first he did not know where he was it had snowed during the night and he was completely buried the snow walls pressed him on every side and a great surge of fear swept through him the fear of the wild thing for the trap it was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears for he was a civilized dog an unduly civilized dog and of his own experience knew no trap and so could not of himself fear it the muscles of his whole body contracted spasmodically and instinctively the hair on his neck and shoulders stood on end and with a ferocious snarl he bounded straight up into the blinding day the snow flying about him in a flashing cloud ere he landed on his feet he saw the white camp spread out before him and knew where he was and remembered all that had passed from the time he went for a stroll with manuel to the hole he had dug for himself the night before a shout from francois hailed his appearance wot i say the dog driver cried to perrault dat buck for sure learn queek as anyt ing perrault nodded gravely as courier for the canadian government bearing important despatches he was anxious to secure the best dogs and he was particularly gladdened by the possession of buck three more huskies were added to the team inside an hour making a total of nine and before another quarter of an hour had passed they were in harness and swinging up the trail toward the dyea canon buck was glad to be gone and though the work was hard he found he did not particularly despise it he was surprised at the eagerness which animated the whole team and which was communicated to him but still more surprising was the change wrought in dave and sol leks they were new dogs utterly transformed by the harness all passiveness and unconcern had dropped from them they were alert and active anxious that the work should go well and fiercely irritable with whatever by delay or confusion retarded that work the toil of the traces seemed the supreme expression of their being and all that they lived for and the only thing in which they took delight dave was wheeler or sled dog pulling in front of him was buck then came sol leks the rest of the team was strung out ahead single file to the leader which position was filled by spitz buck had been purposely placed between dave and sol leks so that he might receive instruction apt scholar that he was they were equally apt teachers never allowing him to linger long in error and enforcing their teaching with their sharp teeth dave was fair and very wise he never nipped buck without cause and he never failed to nip him when he stood in need of it as francois whip backed him up buck found it to be cheaper to mend his ways than to retaliate once during a brief halt when he got tangled in the traces and delayed the start both dave and sol leks flew at him and administered a sound trouncing the resulting tangle was even worse but buck took good care to keep the traces clear thereafter and ere the day was done so well had he mastered his work his mates about ceased nagging him francois whip snapped less frequently and perrault even honored buck by lifting up his feet and carefully examining them it was a hard day run up the canon through sheep camp past the scales and the timber line across glaciers and snowdrifts hundreds of feet deep and over the great chilcoot divide which stands between the salt water and the fresh and guards forbiddingly the sad and lonely north they made good time down the chain of lakes which fills the craters of extinct volcanoes and late that night pulled into the huge camp at the head of lake bennett where thousands of goldseekers were building boats against the break up of the ice in the spring buck made his hole in the snow and slept the sleep of the exhausted just but all too early was routed out in the cold darkness and harnessed with his mates to the sled that day they made forty miles the trail being packed but the next day and for many days to follow they broke their own trail worked harder and made poorer time as a rule perrault travelled ahead of the team packing the snow with webbed shoes to make it easier for them francois guiding the sled at the gee pole sometimes exchanged places with him but not often perrault was in a hurry and he prided himself on his knowledge of ice which knowledge was indispensable for the fall ice was very thin and where there was swift water there was no ice at all day after day for days unending buck toiled in the traces always they broke camp in the dark and the first gray of dawn found them hitting the trail with fresh miles reeled off behind them and always they pitched camp after dark eating their bit of fish and crawling to sleep into the snow buck was ravenous the pound and a half of sun dried salmon which was his ration for each day seemed to go nowhere he never had enough and suffered from perpetual hunger pangs yet the other dogs because they weighed less and were born to the life received a pound only of the fish and managed to keep in good condition he swiftly lost the fastidiousness which had characterized his old life a dainty eater he found that his mates finishing first robbed him of his unfinished ration there was no defending it while he was fighting off two or three it was disappearing down the throats of the others to remedy this he ate as fast as they and so greatly did hunger compel him he was not above taking what did not belong to him he watched and learned when he saw pike one of the new dogs a clever malingerer and thief slyly steal a slice of bacon when perrault back was turned he duplicated the performance the following day getting away with the whole chunk a great uproar was raised but he was unsuspected while dub an awkward blunderer who was always getting caught was punished for buck misdeed this first theft marked buck as fit to survive in the hostile northland environment it marked his adaptability his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death it marked further the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence it was all well enough in the southland under the law of love and fellowship to respect private property and personal feelings but in the northland under the law of club and fang whoso took such things into account was a fool and in so far as he observed them he would fail to prosper not that buck reasoned it out he was fit that was all and unconsciously he accommodated himself to the new mode of life all his days no matter what the odds he had never run from a fight but the club of the man in the red sweater had beaten into him a more fundamental and primitive code civilized he could have died for a moral consideration say the defence of judge miller riding whip but the completeness of his decivilization was now evidenced by his ability to flee from the defence of a moral consideration and so save his hide he did not steal for joy of it but because of the clamor of his stomach he did not rob openly but stole secretly and cunningly out of respect for club and fang in short the things he did were done because it was easier to do them than not to do them his development or retrogression was rapid his muscles became hard as iron and he grew callous to all ordinary pain he achieved an internal as well as external economy he could eat anything no matter how loathsome or indigestible and once eaten the juices of his stomach extracted the last least particle of nutriment and his blood carried it to the farthest reaches of his body building it into the toughest and stoutest of tissues sight and scent became remarkably keen while his hearing developed such acuteness that in his sleep he heard the faintest sound and knew whether it heralded peace or peril he learned to bite the ice out with his teeth when it collected between his toes and when he was thirsty and there was a thick scum of ice over the water hole he would break it by rearing and striking it with stiff fore legs his most conspicuous trait was an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a night in advance no matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank the wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward sheltered and snug and not only did he learn by experience but instincts long dead became alive again the domesticated generations fell from him in vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down it was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap in this manner had fought forgotten ancestors they quickened the old life within him and the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks they came to him without effort or discovery as though they had been his always and when on the still cold nights he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike it was his ancestors dead and dust pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him and his cadences were their cadences the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stiffness and the cold and dark thus as token of what a puppet thing life is the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again and he came because men had found a yellow metal in the north and because manuel was a gardener helper whose wages did not lap over the needs of his wife and divers small copies of himself chapter iii the dominant primordial beast the dominant primordial beast was strong in buck and under the fierce conditions of trail life it grew and grew yet it was a secret growth his newborn cunning gave him poise and control he was too busy adjusting himself to the new life to feel at ease and not only did he not pick fights but he avoided them whenever possible a certain deliberateness characterized his attitude he was not prone to rashness and precipitate action and in the bitter hatred between him and spitz he betrayed no impatience shunned all offensive acts on the other hand possibly because he divined in buck a dangerous rival spitz never lost an opportunity of showing his teeth he even went out of his way to bully buck striving constantly to start the fight which could end only in the death of one or the other early in the trip this might have taken place had it not been for an unwonted accident at the end of this day they made a bleak and miserable camp on the shore of lake le barge driving snow a wind that cut like a white hot knife and darkness had forced them to grope for a camping place they could hardly have fared worse at their backs rose a perpendicular wall of rock and perrault and francois were compelled to make their fire and spread their sleeping robes on the ice of the lake itself the tent they had discarded at dyea in order to travel light a few sticks of driftwood furnished them with a fire that thawed down through the ice and left them to eat supper in the dark close in under the sheltering rock buck made his nest so snug and warm was it that he was loath to leave it when francois distributed the fish which he had first thawed over the fire but when buck finished his ration and returned he found his nest occupied a warning snarl told him that the trespasser was spitz till now buck had avoided trouble with his enemy but this was too much the beast in him roared he sprang upon spitz with a fury which surprised them both and spitz particularly for his whole experience with buck had gone to teach him that his rival was an unusually timid dog who managed to hold his own only because of his great weight and size francois was surprised too when they shot out in a tangle from the disrupted nest and he divined the cause of the trouble a a ah he cried to buck gif it to heem by gar gif it to heem the dirty t eef spitz was equally willing he was crying with sheer rage and eagerness as he circled back and forth for a chance to spring in buck was no less eager and no less cautious as he likewise circled back and forth for the advantage but it was then that the unexpected happened the thing which projected their struggle for supremacy far into the future past many a weary mile of trail and toil an oath from perrault the resounding impact of a club upon a bony frame and a shrill yelp of pain heralded the breaking forth of pandemonium the camp was suddenly discovered to be alive with skulking furry forms starving huskies four or five score of them who had scented the camp from some indian village they had crept in while buck and spitz were fighting and when the two men sprang among them with stout clubs they showed their teeth and fought back they were crazed by the smell of the food perrault found one with head buried in the grub box his club landed heavily on the gaunt ribs and the grub box was capsized on the ground on the instant a score of the famished brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon the clubs fell upon them unheeded they yelped and howled under the rain of blows but struggled none the less madly till the last crumb had been devoured in the meantime the astonished team dogs had burst out of their nests only to be set upon by the fierce invaders never had buck seen such dogs it seemed as though their bones would burst through their skins they were mere skeletons draped loosely in draggled hides with blazing eyes and slavered fangs but the hunger madness made them terrifying irresistible there was no opposing them the team dogs were swept back against the cliff at the first onset buck was beset by three huskies and in a trice his head and shoulders were ripped and slashed the din was frightful billee was crying as usual dave and sol leks dripping blood from a score of wounds were fighting bravely side by side joe was snapping like a demon once his teeth closed on the fore leg of a husky and he crunched down through the bone pike the malingerer leaped upon the crippled animal breaking its neck with a quick flash of teeth and a jerk buck got a frothing adversary by the throat and was sprayed with blood when his teeth sank through the jugular the warm taste of it in his mouth goaded him to greater fierceness he flung himself upon another and at the same time felt teeth sink into his own throat it was spitz treacherously attacking from the side perrault and francois having cleaned out their part of the camp hurried to save their sled dogs the wild wave of famished beasts rolled back before them and buck shook himself free but it was only for a moment the two men were compelled to run back to save the grub upon which the huskies returned to the attack on the team billee terrified into bravery sprang through the savage circle and fled away over the ice pike and dub followed on his heels with the rest of the team behind as buck drew himself together to spring after them out of the tail of his eye he saw spitz rush upon him with the evident intention of overthrowing him once off his feet and under that mass of huskies there was no hope for him but he braced himself to the shock of spitz charge then joined the flight out on the lake later the nine team dogs gathered together and sought shelter in the forest though unpursued they were in a sorry plight there was not one who was not wounded in four or five places while some were wounded grievously dub was badly injured in a hind leg dolly the last husky added to the team at dyea had a badly torn throat joe had lost an eye while billee the good natured with an ear chewed and rent to ribbons cried and whimpered throughout the night at daybreak they limped warily back to camp to find the marauders gone and the two men in bad tempers fully half their grub supply was gone the huskies had chewed through the sled lashings and canvas coverings in fact nothing no matter how remotely eatable had escaped them they had eaten a pair of perrault moose hide moccasins chunks out of the leather traces and even two feet of lash from the end of francois whip he broke from a mournful contemplation of it to look over his wounded dogs ah my frien he said softly mebbe it mek you mad dog dose many bites mebbe all mad dog sacredam wot you t ink eh perrault the courier shook his head dubiously with four hundred miles of trail still between him and dawson he could ill afford to have madness break out among his dogs two hours of cursing and exertion got the harnesses into shape and the wound stiffened team was under way struggling painfully over the hardest part of the trail they had yet encountered and for that matter the hardest between them and dawson the thirty mile river was wide open its wild water defied the frost and it was in the eddies only and in the quiet places that the ice held at all six days of exhausting toil were required to cover those thirty terrible miles and terrible they were for every foot of them was accomplished at the risk of life to dog and man a dozen times perrault nosing the way broke through the ice bridges being saved by the long pole he carried which he so held that it fell each time across the hole made by his body but a cold snap was on the thermometer registering fifty below zero and each time he broke through he was compelled for very life to build a fire and dry his garments nothing daunted him it was because nothing daunted him that he had been chosen for government courier he took all manner of risks resolutely thrusting his little weazened face into the frost and struggling on from dim dawn to dark he skirted the frowning shores on rim ice that bent and crackled under foot and upon which they dared not halt once the sled broke through with dave and buck and they were half frozen and all but drowned by the time they were dragged out the usual fire was necessary to save them they were coated solidly with ice and the two men kept them on the run around the fire sweating and thawing so close that they were singed by the flames at another time spitz went through dragging the whole team after him up to buck who strained backward with all his strength his fore paws on the slippery edge and the ice quivering and snapping all around but behind him was dave likewise straining backward and behind the sled was francois pulling till his tendons cracked again the rim ice broke away before and behind and there was no escape except up the cliff perrault scaled it by a miracle while francois prayed for just that miracle and with every thong and sled lashing and the last bit of harness rove into a long rope the dogs were hoisted one by one to the cliff crest francois came up last after the sled and load then came the search for a place to descend which descent was ultimately made by the aid of the rope and night found them back on the river with a quarter of a mile to the day credit by the time they made the hootalinqua and good ice buck was played out the rest of the dogs were in like condition but perrault to make up lost time pushed them late and early the first day they covered thirty five miles to the big salmon the next day thirty five more to the little salmon the third day forty miles which brought them well up toward the five fingers buck feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of the huskies his had softened during the many generations since the day his last wild ancestor was tamed by a cave dweller or river man all day long he limped in agony and camp once made lay down like a dead dog hungry as he was he would not move to receive his ration of fish which francois had to bring to him also the dog driver rubbed buck feet for half an hour each night after supper and sacrificed the tops of his own moccasins to make four moccasins for buck this was a great relief and buck caused even the weazened face of perrault to twist itself into a grin one morning when francois forgot the moccasins and buck lay on his back his four feet waving appealingly in the air and refused to budge without them later his feet grew hard to the trail and the worn out foot gear was thrown away at the pelly one morning as they were harnessing up dolly who had never been conspicuous for anything went suddenly mad she announced her condition by a long heartbreaking wolf howl that sent every dog bristling with fear then sprang straight for buck he had never seen a dog go mad nor did he have any reason to fear madness yet he knew that here was horror and fled away from it in a panic straight away he raced with dolly panting and frothing one leap behind nor could she gain on him so great was his terror nor could he leave her so great was her madness he plunged through the wooded breast of the island flew down to the lower end crossed a back channel filled with rough ice to another island gained a third island curved back to the main river and in desperation started to cross it and all the time though he did not look he could hear her snarling just one leap behind francois called to him a quarter of a mile away and he doubled back still one leap ahead gasping painfully for air and putting all his faith in that francois would save him the dog driver held the axe poised in his hand and as buck shot past him the axe crashed down upon mad dolly head buck staggered over against the sled exhausted sobbing for breath helpless this was spitz opportunity he sprang upon buck and twice his teeth sank into his unresisting foe and ripped and tore the flesh to the bone then francois lash descended and buck had the satisfaction of watching spitz receive the worst whipping as yet administered to any of the teams one devil dat spitz remarked perrault some dam day heem keel dat buck dat buck two devils was francois rejoinder all de tam i watch dat buck i know for sure lissen some dam fine day heem get mad lak hell an den heem chew dat spitz all up an spit heem out on de snow sure i know from then on it was war between them spitz as lead dog and acknowledged master of the team felt his supremacy threatened by this strange southland dog and strange buck was to him for of the many southland dogs he had known not one had shown up worthily in camp and on trail they were all too soft dying under the toil the frost and starvation buck was the exception he alone endured and prospered matching the husky in strength savagery and cunning then he was a masterful dog and what made him dangerous was the fact that the club of the man in the red sweater had knocked all blind pluck and rashness out of his desire for mastery he was preeminently cunning and could bide his time with a patience that was nothing less than primitive it was inevitable that the clash for leadership should come buck wanted it he wanted it because it was his nature because he had been gripped tight by that nameless incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace that pride which holds dogs in the toil to the last gasp which lures them to die joyfully in the harness and breaks their hearts if they are cut out of the harness this was the pride of dave as wheel dog of sol leks as he pulled with all his strength the pride that laid hold of them at break of camp transforming them from sour and sullen brutes into straining eager ambitious creatures the pride that spurred them on all day and dropped them at pitch of camp at night letting them fall back into gloomy unrest and uncontent this was the pride that bore up spitz and made him thrash the sled dogs who blundered and shirked in the traces or hid away at harness up time in the morning likewise it was this pride that made him fear buck as a possible lead dog and this was buck pride too he openly threatened the other leadership he came between him and the shirks he should have punished and he did it deliberately one night there was a heavy snowfall and in the morning pike the malingerer did not appear he was securely hidden in his nest under a foot of snow francois called him and sought him in vain spitz was wild with wrath he raged through the camp smelling and digging in every likely place snarling so frightfully that pike heard and shivered in his hiding place but when he was at last unearthed and spitz flew at him to punish him buck flew with equal rage in between so unexpected was it and so shrewdly managed that spitz was hurled backward and off his feet pike who had been trembling abjectly took heart at this open mutiny and sprang upon his overthrown leader buck to whom fair play was a forgotten code likewise sprang upon spitz but francois chuckling at the incident while unswerving in the administration of justice brought his lash down upon buck with all his might this failed to drive buck from his prostrate rival and the butt of the whip was brought into play half stunned by the blow buck was knocked backward and the lash laid upon him again and again while spitz soundly punished the many times offending pike in the days that followed as dawson grew closer and closer buck still continued to interfere between spitz and the culprits but he did it craftily when francois was not around with the covert mutiny of buck a general insubordination sprang up and increased dave and sol leks were unaffected but the rest of the team went from bad to worse things no longer went right there was continual bickering and jangling trouble was always afoot and at the bottom of it was buck he kept francois busy for the dog driver was in constant apprehension of the life and death struggle between the two which he knew must take place sooner or later and on more than one night the sounds of quarrelling and strife among the other dogs turned him out of his sleeping robe fearful that buck and spitz were at it but the opportunity did not present itself and they pulled into dawson one dreary afternoon with the great fight still to come here were many men and countless dogs and buck found them all at work it seemed the ordained order of things that dogs should work all day they swung up and down the main street in long teams and in the night their jingling bells still went by they hauled cabin logs and firewood freighted up to the mines and did all manner of work that horses did in the santa clara valley here and there buck met southland dogs but in the main they were the wild wolf husky breed every night regularly at nine at twelve at three they lifted a nocturnal song a weird and eerie chant in which it was buck delight to join with the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead or the stars leaping in the frost dance and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life only it was pitched in minor key with long drawn wailings and half sobs and was more the pleading of life the articulate travail of existence it was an old song old as the breed itself one of the first songs of the younger world in a day when songs were sad it was invested with the woe of unnumbered generations this plaint by which buck was so strangely stirred when he moaned and sobbed it was with the pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery and that he should be stirred by it marked the completeness with which he harked back through the ages of fire and roof to the raw beginnings of life in the howling ages seven days from the time they pulled into dawson they dropped down the steep bank by the barracks to the yukon trail and pulled for dyea and salt water perrault was carrying despatches if anything more urgent than those he had brought in also the travel pride had gripped him and he purposed to make the record trip of the year several things favored him in this the week rest had recuperated the dogs and put them in thorough trim the trail they had broken into the country was packed hard by later journeyers and further the police had arranged in two or three places deposits of grub for dog and man and he was travelling light they made sixty mile which is a fifty mile run on the first day and the second day saw them booming up the yukon well on their way to pelly but such splendid running was achieved not without great trouble and vexation on the part of francois the insidious revolt led by buck had destroyed the solidarity of the team it no longer was as one dog leaping in the traces the encouragement buck gave the rebels led them into all kinds of petty misdemeanors no more was spitz a leader greatly to be feared the old awe departed and they grew equal to challenging his authority pike robbed him of half a fish one night and gulped it down under the protection of buck another night dub and joe fought spitz and made him forego the punishment they deserved and even billee the good natured was less good natured and whined not half so placatingly as in former days buck never came near spitz without snarling and bristling menacingly in fact his conduct approached that of a bully and he was given to swaggering up and down before spitz very nose the breaking down of discipline likewise affected the dogs in their relations with one another they quarrelled and bickered more than ever among themselves till at times the camp was a howling bedlam dave and sol leks alone were unaltered though they were made irritable by the unending squabbling francois swore strange barbarous oaths and stamped the snow in futile rage and tore his hair his lash was always singing among the dogs but it was of small avail directly his back was turned they were at it again he backed up spitz with his whip while buck backed up the remainder of the team francois knew he was behind all the trouble and buck knew he knew but buck was too clever ever again to be caught red handed he worked faithfully in the harness for the toil had become a delight to him yet it was a greater delight slyly to precipitate a fight amongst his mates and tangle the traces at the mouth of the tahkeena one night after supper dub turned up a snowshoe rabbit blundered it and missed in a second the whole team was in full cry a hundred yards away was a camp of the northwest police with fifty dogs huskies all who joined the chase the rabbit sped down the river turned off into a small creek up the frozen bed of which it held steadily it ran lightly on the surface of the snow while the dogs ploughed through by main strength buck led the pack sixty strong around bend after bend but he could not gain he lay down low to the race whining eagerly his splendid body flashing forward leap by leap in the wan white moonlight and leap by leap like some pale frost wraith the snowshoe rabbit flashed on ahead all that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets the blood lust the joy to kill all this was buck only it was infinitely more intimate he was ranging at the head of the pack running the wild thing down the living meat to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood there is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life and beyond which life cannot rise and such is the paradox of living this ecstasy comes when one is most alive and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive this ecstasy this