When December was well along, Grey Beaver went on a journey upthe Mackenzie. Mit-sah and Kloo-kooch went with him. One sled he drovehimself, drawn by dogs he had traded for or borrowed. A second andsmaller sled was driven by Mit-sah, and to this was harnessed a team ofpuppies. It was more of a toy affair than anything else, yet it was thedelight of Mit-sah, who felt that he was beginning to do a man's work inthe world. Also, he was learning to drive dogs and to train dogs; while thepuppies themselves were being broken in to the harness. Furthermore, thesled was of some service, for it carried nearly two hundred pounds ofoutfit and food.
White Fang had seen the camp-dogs toiling in the harness, so that hedid not resent overmuch the first placing of the harness upon himself.
About his neck was put a moss-stuffed collar, which was connected bytwo pulling-traces to a strap that passed around his chest and over his back.
It was to this that was fastened the long rope by which he pulled at thesled.
There were seven puppies in the team. The others had been bornearlier in the year and were nine and ten months old, while White Fangwas only eight months old. Each dog was fastened to the sled by a singlerope. No two ropes were of the same length, while the difference in lengthbetween any two ropes was at least that of a dog's body. Every rope wasbrought to a ring at the front end of the sled. The sled itself was withoutrunners, being a birch-bark toboggan, with upturned forward end to keep itfrom ploughing under the snow. This construction enabled the weight ofthe sled and load to be distributed over the largest snow-surface; for thesnow was crystal-powder and very soft. Observing the same principle ofwidest distribution of weight, the dogs at the ends of their ropes radiatedfan-fashion from the nose of the sled, so that no dog trod in another'sfootsteps.
There was, furthermore, another virtue in the fan-formation. The ropesof varying length prevented the dogs attacking from the rear those that ranin front of them. For a dog to attack another, it would have to turn uponone at a shorter rope. In which case it would find itself face to face withthe dog attacked, and also it would find itself facing the whip of the driver.
But the most peculiar virtue of all lay in the fact that the dog that strove toattack one in front of him must pull the sled faster, and that the faster thesled travelled, the faster could the dog attacked run away. Thus, the dogbehind could never catch up with the one in front. The faster he ran, thefaster ran the one he was after, and the faster ran all the dogs. Incidentally,the sled went faster, and thus, by cunning indirection, did man increase hismastery over the beasts.
Mit-sah resembled his father, much of whose grey wisdom hepossessed. In the past he had observed Lip-lip's persecution of White Fang;but at that time Lip-lip was another man's dog, and Mit-sah had neverdared more than to shy an occasional stone at him. But now Lip-lip washis dog, and he proceeded to wreak his vengeance on him by putting himat the end of the longest rope. This made Lip-lip the leader, and wasapparently an honour! but in reality it took away from him all honour, andinstead of being bully and master of the pack, he now found himself hatedand persecuted by the pack.
Because he ran at the end of the longest rope, the dogs had always theview of him running away before them. All that they saw of him was hisbushy tail and fleeing hind legs - a view far less ferocious and intimidatingthan his bristling mane and gleaming fangs. Also, dogs being soconstituted in their mental ways, the sight of him running away gavedesire to run after him and a feeling that he ran away from them.
The moment the sled started, the team took after Lip-lip in a chase thatextended throughout the day. At first he had been prone to turn upon hispursuers, jealous of his dignity and wrathful; but at such times Mit-sahwould throw the stinging lash of the thirty-foot cariboo-gut whip into hisface and compel him to turn tail and run on. Lip-lip might face the pack,but he could not face that whip, and all that was left him to do was to keephis long rope taut and his flanks ahead of the teeth of his mates.
But a still greater cunning lurked in the recesses of the Indian mind. Togive point to unending pursuit of the leader, Mit-sah favoured him over theother dogs. These favours aroused in them jealousy and hatred. In theirpresence Mit-sah would give him meat and would give it to him only. Thiswas maddening to them. They would rage around just outside thethrowing-distance of the whip, while Lip-lip devoured the meat and Mit-sah protected him. And when there was no meat to give, Mit-sah wouldkeep the team at a distance and make believe to give meat to Lip-lip.
White Fang took kindly to the work. He had travelled a greaterdistance than the other dogs in the yielding of himself to the rule of thegods, and he had learned more thoroughly the futility of opposing theirwill. In addition, the persecution he had suffered from the pack had madethe pack less to him in the scheme of things, and man more. He had notlearned to be dependent on his kind for companionship. Besides, Kichewas well-nigh forgotten; and the chief outlet of expression that remainedto him was in the allegiance he tendered the gods he had accepted asmasters. So he worked hard, learned discipline, and was obedient.
Faithfulness and willingness characterised his toil. These are essentialtraits of the wolf and the wild-dog when they have become domesticated,and these traits White Fang possessed in unusual measure.
A companionship did exist between White Fang and the other dogs,but it was one of warfare and enmity. He had never learned to play withthem. He knew only how to fight, and fight with them he did, returning tothem a hundred-fold the snaps and slashes they had given him in the dayswhen Lip-lip was leader of the pack. But Lip-lip was no longer leader -except when he fled away before his mates at the end of his rope, the sledbounding along behind. In camp he kept close to Mit-sah or Grey Beaveror Kloo-kooch. He did not dare venture away from the gods, for now thefangs of all dogs were against him, and he tasted to the dregs thepersecution that had been White Fang's.
With the overthrow of Lip-lip, White Fang could have become leaderof the pack. But he was too morose and solitary for that. He merelythrashed his team-mates.
Otherwise he ignored them. They got out of hisway when he came along; nor did the boldest of them ever dare to rob himof his meat. On the contrary, they devoured their own meat hurriedly, forfear that he would take it away from them. White Fang knew the law well:
TO OPPRESS THE WEAK AND OBEY THE STRONG. He ate his shareof meat as rapidly as he could. And then woe the dog that had not yetfinished! A snarl and a flash of fangs, and that dog would wail hisindignation to the uncomforting stars while White Fang finished hisportion for him.
Every little while, however, one dog or another would flame up inrevolt and be promptly subdued. Thus White Fang was kept in training. Hewas jealous of the isolation in which he kept himself in the midst of thepack, and he fought often to maintain it. But such fights were of briefduration. He was too quick for the others. They were slashed open andbleeding before they knew what had happened, were whipped almostbefore they had begun to fight.
As rigid as the sled-discipline of the gods, was the disciplinemaintained by White Fang amongst his fellows. He never allowed themany latitude. He compelled them to an unremitting respect for him. Theymight do as they pleased amongst themselves. That was no concern of his.
But it WAS his concern that they leave him alone in his isolation, get outof his way when he elected to walk among them, and at all timesacknowledge his mastery over them. A hint of stiff-leggedness on theirpart, a lifted lip or a bristle of hair, and he would be upon them, mercilessand cruel, swiftly convincing them of the error of their way.
He was a monstrous tyrant. His mastery was rigid as steel. Heoppressed the weak with a vengeance. Not for nothing had he beenexposed to the pitiless struggles for life in the day of his cubhood, whenhis mother and he, alone and unaided, held their own and survived in thefe............