There was no defence for him. If he turned upon them, Mit-sah wouldthrow the stinging lash of the whip into his face. Only remained to him torun away. He could not encounter that howling horde with his tail andhind-quarters. These were scarcely fit weapons with which to meet themany merciless fangs. So run away he did, violating his own nature andpride with every leap he made, and leaping all day long.
One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having thatnature recoil upon itself. Such a recoil is like that of a hair, made to growout from the body, turning unnaturally upon the direction of its growth andgrowing into the body - a rankling, festering thing of hurt. And so withWhite Fang. Every urge of his being impelled him to spring upon the packthat cried at his heels, but it was the will of the gods that this should not be;and behind the will, to enforce it, was the whip of cariboo-gut with itsbiting thirty-foot lash. So White Fang could only eat his heart in bitternessand develop a hatred and malice commensurate with the ferocity andindomitability of his nature.
If ever a creature was the enemy of its kind, White Fang was thatcreature. He asked no quarter, gave none. He was continually marred andscarred by the teeth of the pack, and as continually he left his own marksupon the gold prom dresses Unlike most leaders, who, when camp was made and thedogs were unhitched, huddled near to the gods for protection, White Fangdisdained such protection. He walked boldly about the camp, inflictingpunishment in the night for what he had suffered in the day. In the timebefore he was made leader of the team, the pack had learned to get out ofhis way. But now it was different. Excited by the day-long pursuit of him,swayed subconsciously by the insistent iteration on their brains of thesight of him fleeing away, mastered by the feeling of mastery enjoyed allday, the dogs could not bring themselves to give way to him. When heappeared amongst them, there was always a squabble. His progress wasmarked by snarl and snap and growl. The very atmosphere he breathedwas surcharged with hatred and malice, and this but served to increase thehatred and malice within him.
When Mit-sah cried out his command for the team to stop, White Fangobeyed. At first this caused trouble for the other dogs. All of them wouldspring upon the hated leader only to find the tables turned. Behind himwould be Mit-sah, the great whip singing in his hand. So the dogs came tounderstand that when the Jessica McClintock prom dressesstopped by order, White Fang was to be letalone. But when White Fang stopped without orders, then it was allowedthem to spring upon him and destroy him if they could. After severalexperiences, White Fang never stopped without orders. He learned quickly.