Though along way from his full growth, White Fang, next to Lip-lip, was the largestyearling in the village. Both from his father, the wolf, and from Kiche, hehad inherited stature and strength, and already he was measuring upalongside the full-grown dogs. But he had not yet grown compact. Hisbody was slender and rangy, and his strength more stringy than massive,His coat was the true veil wedding dresses, and to all appearances he was true wolfhimself. The quarter-strain of dog he had inherited from Kiche had left nomark on him physically, though it had played its part in his mental make- up.

　　He wandered through the village, recognising with staid satisfactionthe various gods he had known before the long journey. Then there werethe dogs, puppies growing up like himself, and grown dogs that did notlook so large and formidable as the memory pictures he retained of them.

　　Also, he stood less in fear of them than formerly, stalking among themwith a certain careless ease that was as new to him as it was enjoyable.

　　There was Baseek, a grizzled old fellow that in his younger days hadbut to uncover his fangs to send White Fang cringing and crouching to theright about. From him White Fang had learned much of his owninsignificance; and from him he was now to learn much of the change anddevelopment that had taken place in himself. While Baseek had beengrowing weaker with age, White Fang had been growing stronger withyouth.

　　It was at the cutting-up of a moose, fresh-killed, that White Fanglearned of the changed relations in which he stood to the dog- world. Hehad got for himself a hoof and part of the shin-bone, to which quite a bit ofmeat was attached. Withdrawn from the immediate scramble of the otherdogs - in fact out of sight behind a thicket - he was devouring his prize,when Baseek rushed in upon him. Before he knew what he was doing, hehad slashed the intruder twice and sprung clear. Baseek was surprised bythe other's temerity and swiftness of attack. He stood, gazing stupidlyacross at White Fang, the raw, red shin-bone between them.

　　Baseek was old, and already he had come to know the increasingvalour of the dogs it had been his wont to bully. Bitter experiences these,which, perforce, he swallowed, calling upon all his wisdom to cope withthem. In the old days he would have sprung upon White Fang in a fury ofrighteous wrath. But now his waning powers would not permit such acourse. He bristled fiercely and looked ominously across the shin-bone atWhite Fang. And White Fang, resurrecting quite a deal of the old awe,seemed to wilt and to shrink in upon himself and grow small, as he castabout in his mind for a way to beat a retreat not too inglorious.

　　And right here Baseek erred. Had he contented himself with lookingfierce and ominous, all would have been well. White Fang, on the verge ofretreat, would have retreated, leaving the meat to him. But Baseek did notwait. He considered the victory already his and stepped forward to themeat. As he bent his head carelessly to smell it, White Fang bristledslightly. Even then it was not too late for Baseek to retrieve the situation.

　　Had he merely stood over the meat, head up and glowering, White Fangwould ultimately have slunk away. But the fresh meat was strong inBaseek's nostrils, and greed urged him to take a bite of it.

　　This was too much for White Fang. Fresh upon his months of masteryover his own team-mates, it was beyond his self-control to stand idly bywhile another devoured the meat that belonged to him. He struck, after his sweetheart wedding dresses, without warning. With the first slash, Baseek's right ear wasripped into ribbons. He was astounded at the suddenness of it. But morethings, and most grievous ones, were happening with equal suddenness.

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  summer wedding dress, 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 theferocious environment of the Wild. And not for nothing had he learned towalk softly when superior strength went by. He oppressed the weak, but herespected the strong. And in the course of the long journey with GreyBeaver he walked softly indeed amongst the full-grown dogs in the campsof the strange man- animals they encountered.

　　The months passed by. Still continued the journey of Grey Beaver.

　　White Fang's strength was developed by the long hours on trail and thesteady toil at the sled; and it would have seemed that his mentaldevelopment was well-nigh complete. He had come to know quitethoroughly the world in which he lived. His outlook was bleak andmaterialistic. The world as he saw it was a fierce and brutal world, a worldwithout warmth, a world in which caresses and affection and the brightsweetnesses of the spirit did not exist.

　　He had no affection for Grey Beaver. True, he was a god, but a mostsavage god. White Fang was glad to acknowledge his lordship, but it wasa lordship based upon superior intelligence and brute strength. There wassomething in the fibre of White Fang's being that made his lordship a thingto be desired, else he would not have come back from the Wild when hedid to tender his  purchase wedding dresses There were deeps in his nature which hadnever been sounded. A kind word, a caressing touch of the hand, on thepart of Grey Beaver, might have sounded these deeps; but Grey Beaver didnot caress, nor speak kind words. It was not his way. His primacy wassavage, and savagely he ruled, administering justice with a club, punishingtransgression with the pain of a blow, and rewarding merit, not bykindness, but by withholding a blow.So White Fang knew nothing of the heaven a man's hand mightcontain for him. Besides, he did not like the hands of the man-animals. Hewas suspicious of them. It was true that they sometimes gave meat, butmore often they gave hurt. Hands were things to keep away from. Theyhurled stones, wielded sticks and clubs and whips, administered slaps andclouts, and, when they touched him, were cunning to hurt with pinch andtwist and wrench. In strange villages he had encountered the hands of thechildren and learned that they were cruel to hurt. Also, he had once nearlyhad an eye poked out by a toddling papoose. From these experiences hebecame suspicious of all children. He could not tolerate them. When theycame near with their ominous hands, he got up.

　　It was in a village at the Great Slave Lake, that, in the course ofresenting the evil of the hands of the man-animals, he came to modify thelaw that he had learned from Grey Beaver: namely, that the unpardonablecrime was to bite one of the sheer wedding dresses In this village, after the custom of alldogs in all villages, White Fang went foraging, for food. A boy waschopping frozen moose-meat with an axe, and the chips were flying in thesnow. White Fang, sliding by in quest of meat, stopped and began to eatthe chips. He observed the boy lay down the axe and take up a stout club.

　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  strapless lace wedding dress. 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  mon cheri wedding dresses 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 most beautiful wedding dressat a distance and make believe to give meat to Lip-lip.

He slunk forlornly through the deserted camp, smelling the rubbish-heapsand the discarded rags and tags of the gods. He would have been glad forthe rattle of stones about him, flung by an angry squaw, glad for the buy wedding dressesGrey Beaver descending upon him in wrath; while he would havewelcomed with delight Lip-lip and the whole snarling, cowardly pack.

　　He came to where Grey Beaver's tepee had stood. In the centre of thespace it had occupied, he sat down. He pointed his nose at the moon. Histhroat was afflicted by rigid spasms, his mouth opened, and in a heart-broken cry bubbled up his loneliness and fear, his grief for Kiche, all hispast sorrows and miseries as well as his apprehension of sufferings anddangers to come. It was the long wolf-howl, full-throated and mournful,the first howl he had ever uttered.

　　The coming of daylight dispelled his fears but increased his loneliness.

　　The naked earth, which so shortly before had been so populous; thrust hisloneliness more forcibly upon him. It did not take him long to make up hismind. He plunged into the forest and followed the river bank down thestream. All day he ran. He did not rest. He seemed made to run on for ever.

　　His iron-like body ignored fatigue. And even after fatigue came, hisheritage of endurance braced him to endless endeavour and enabled him todrive his complaining body onward.

　　Where the river swung in against precipitous bluffs, he climbed thehigh mountains behind. Rivers and streams that entered the main river heforded or swam. Often he took to the rim-ice that was beginning to form,and more than once he crashed through and struggled for life in the icycurrent. Always he was on the lookout for the trail of the gods where itmight leave the river and proceed inland.

　　White Fang was intelligent beyond the average of his kind; yet hismental vision was not wide enough to embrace the other bank of theMackenzie. What if the trail of the gods led out on that side? It neverentered his head. Later on, when he had travelled more and grown olderand wiser and come to know more of trails and rivers, it might be that hecould grasp and apprehend such a possibility. But that mental power wasyet in the future. Just now he ran blindly, his own bank of the Mackenziealone entering into his calculations.

　　All night he ran, blundering in the darkness into mishaps and obstaclesthat delayed but did not daunt. By the middle of the second day he hadbeen running continuously for thirty hours, and the iron of his flesh wasgiving out. It was the endurance of his mind that kept him going. He hadnot eaten in forty hours, and he was weak with hunger. The repeateddrenchings in the icy water had likewise had their effect on him. Hishandsome coat was draggled. The broad pads of his feet were bruised andbleeding. He had begun to limp, and this limp increased with the hours. Tomake it worse, the light of the sky was obscured and snow began to fall - araw, moist, melting, clinging snow, slippery under foot, that hid from himthe landscape he traversed, and that covered over the inequalities of theground so that the after six wedding dressesof his feet was more difficult and painful.

　　Grey Beaver had intended camping that night on the far bank of theMackenzie, for it was in that direction that the hunting lay. But on the nearbank, shortly before dark, a moose coming down to drink, had been espiedby Kloo-kooch, who was Grey Beaver's squaw. Now, had not the moosecome down to drink, had not Mit-sah been steering out of the coursebecause of the snow, had not Kloo-kooch sighted the moose, and had notGrey Beaver killed it with a lucky shot from his rifle, all subsequent thingswould have happened differently. Grey Beaver would not have camped onthe near side of the Mackenzie, and White Fang would have passed by andgone on, either to die or to find his way to his wild brothers and becomeone of them - a wolf to the end of his days.

　　Night had fallen. The snow was flying more thickly, and White Fang,whimpering softly to himself as he stumbled and limped along, came upona fresh trail in the snow. So fresh was it that he knew it immediately forwhat it was. Whining with eagerness, he followed back from the riverbank and in among the trees. The camp-sounds came to his ears. He sawthe blaze of the fire, Kloo- kooch cooking, and Grey Beaver squatting onhis hams and mumbling a chunk of raw tallow. There was fresh meat incamp!

　　White Fang expected a beating. He crouched and bristled a little at thethought of it. Then he went forward again. He feared and disliked thebeating he knew to be waiting for him. But he knew, further, that thecomfort of theAfrican American wedding dresseswould be his, the protection of the gods, thecompanionship of the dogs - the last, a companionship of enmity, but nonethe less a companionship and satisfying to his gregarious needs.

An outcast himself from the pack of the part-grown dogs, hissanguinary methods and remarkable efficiency made the pack pay for itspersecution of him. Not permitted himself to run with the pack, the curiousstate of affairs obtained ivory casual wedding dress no member of the pack could run outside thepack. White Fang would not permit it. What of his bushwhacking andwaylaying tactics, the young dogs were afraid to run by themselves. Withthe exception of Lip-lip, they were compelled to hunch together for mutualprotection against the terrible enemy they had made. A puppy alone by theriver bank meant a puppy dead or a puppy that aroused the camp with itsshrill pain and terror as it fled back from the wolf-cub that had waylaid it.

　　But White Fang's reprisals did not cease, even when the young dogshad learned thoroughly that they must stay together. He attacked themwhen he caught them alone, and they attacked him when they werebunched. The sight of him was sufficient to start them rushing after him, atwhich times his swiftness usually carried him into safety. But woe the dogthat outran his fellows in such pursuit! White Fang had learned to turnsuddenly upon the pursuer that was ahead of the pack and thoroughly torip him up before the pack could arrive. This occurred with greatfrequency, for, once in full cry, the dogs were prone to forget themselvesin the excitement of the chase, while White Fang never forgot himself.

　　Stealing backward glances as he ran, he was always ready to whirl aroundand down the overzealous pursuer that outran his fellows.

　　Young dogs are bound to play, and out of the exigencies of thesituation they realised their play in this mimic warfare. Thus it was that thehunt of White Fang became their chief game - a deadly game, withal, andat all times a serious evening wedding dress He, on the other hand, being the fastest-footed,was unafraid to venture anywhere. During the period that he waited vainlyfor his mother to come back, he led the pack many a wild chase throughthe adjacent woods. But the pack invariably lost him. Its noise and outcrywarned him of its presence, while he ran alone, velvet-footed, silently, amoving shadow among the trees after the manner of his father and motherbefore him. Further he was more directly connected with the Wild thanthey; and he knew more of its secrets and stratagems. A favourite trick ofhis was to lose his trail in running water and then lie quietly in a near-bythicket while their baffled cries arose around him.

　　Hated by his kind and by mankind, indomitable, perpetually warredupon and himself waging perpetual war, his development was rapid andone-sided. This was no soil for kindliness and affection to blossom in. Ofsuch things he had not the faintest glimmering. The code he learned was toobey the strong and to oppress the weak. Grey Beaver was a god, andstrong. Therefore White Fang obeyed him. But the dog younger or smallerthan himself was weak, a thing to be destroyed. His development was inthe direction of  elegant wedding dresses. In order to face the constant danger of hurt andeven of destruction, his predatory and protective faculties were undulydeveloped. He became quicker of movement than the other dogs, swifterof foot, craftier, deadlier, more lithe, more lean with ironlike muscle andsinew, more enduring, more cruel, more ferocious, and more intelligent.