All day Buck brooded by the pool or roamed restlessly about thecamp. Death, as a cessation of movement, as a passing out and awayfrom the lives of the living, he knew, and he knew John Thornton wasdead. It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a voidwhich ached and ached, and which food could not fill, At times, when hepaused to contemplate the carcasses of the Yeehats, he forgot the pain ofit; and at such times he was aware of a great pride in himself,--a pridegreater than any he had yet experienced. He had killed man, thenoblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club andfang. He sniffed the bodies curiously. They had died so easily. Itwas harder to kill a husky dog than them. They were no match at all,were it not for their arrows and spears and clubs. Thenceforward hewould be unafraid of them except when they bore in their hands theirarrows, spears, and clubs.

　　Night came on, and a full moon rose high over the trees into the sky,lighting the land till it lay bathed in ghostly day. And with the coming ofthe night, brooding and mourning by the pool, Buck became alive to astirring of the new life in the forest other than that which the Yeehats hadmade, He stood up, listening and scenting. From far away drifted afaint, sharp yelp, followed by a chorus of similar sharp yelps. As themoments passed the yelps grew closer and louder. Again Buck knewthem as things heard in that other world which persisted in his memory.

　　He walked to the centre of the open space and listened. It was the call,the many- noted call, sounding more luringly and compellingly than everbefore. And as never before, he was ready to obey. John Thorntonwas dead. The last tie was broken. Man and the claims of man no longer bound him.

　　Hunting their living meat, as the Yeehats were hunting it, on theflanks of the migrating moose, the wolf pack had at last crossed overfrom the land of streams and timber and invaded Buck's valley. Intothe clearing where the moonlight streamed, they poured in a silveryflood; and in the centre of the clearing stood Buck, motionless as astatue, waiting their coming. They were awed, so still and large hestood, and a moment's pause fell, till the boldest one leaped straight forhim. Like a flash Buck struck, breaking the neck. Then he stood,without movement, as before, the stricken wolf rolling in agony behindhim. Three others tried it in sharp succession; and one after the otherthey drew back, streaming blood from slashed throats or shoulders.

　　This was sufficient to fling the whole pack forward, pell-mell,crowded together, blocked and confused by its eagerness to pull downthe prey. Buck's marvellous quickness and agility stood him in goodstead. Pivoting on his hind legs, and snapping and gashing, he waseverywhere at once, presenting a front which was apparently unbrokenso swiftly did he whirl and guard from side to side. But to preventthem from getting behind him, he was forced back, down past the pooland into the creek bed, till he brought up against a high gravel bank.

　　He worked along to a right angle in the bank which the men had made inthe course of mining, and in this angle he came to bay, protected onthree sides and with nothing to ............