Call of the Wild: Chapter 2

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information, please visit LibriVox dot
blogsom dot com. This reading by Gordon Mackenzie The Call
of the Wild by Jack London, Chapter two, The Law

(00:21):
of Club and Fang. Buck's first day on the day
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

(00:46):
do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace,
nor rest, nor a moment's 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,

(01:10):
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 unforgettable lesson. It is true it was a
vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit

(01:31):
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,

(01:51):
a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift,
and Curley's 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

(02:12):
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

(02:33):
her off her feet. She never regained them. This was
what the onlooking huskies had been waiting 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.

(02:56):
He saw spits run out his scarlet tongue in a
way he had 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

(03:18):
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

(03:39):
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

(04:03):
from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curley,
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 sledge to the

(04:25):
forest that fringed the valley, and returning with a load
of firewood. Though his dignity was sorely hurt by thus
being made a draft 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

(04:45):
and demanding instant obedience, and by virtue of his whip,
receiving instant obedience. While Dave, who was an experienced wheeler,
nipped Buck's hind quarters whenever he was in error spits
was the leader, likewise experienced, and while he could not
always get at Buck, he growled sharp, reproof now and again,

(05:08):
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 hoe and to go ahead
at mush, to swing wide on the bends, and to

(05:29):
keep clear of the wheeler when the loaded sledge shot
downhill at their heels. Trevert good dogs Francois told Perout
that Buck him pull lac hell at, teach him quick
as anything. By afternoon, Perot, who was in a hurry

(05:51):
to be on the trail with his dispatches, returned with
two more dogs, Billy and Joe. He called them two
brothers and true huskies, both sons of one mother. Though
they were, they were as different as day and night.
Billy's one fault was his excess of good nature, while
Joe was the very opposite, sour and introspective, with a

(06:13):
perpetual snarl and a malignant eye. Buck received them in
comradleigh fashion. Dave ignored them, while Spitz proceeded to thrash
first one and then the other. Billy wagged his tail appeasingly,
turned to run when he saw that appeasement was of
no avail, and cried still appeasingly when Spitz's sharp teeth

(06:35):
scored his flank. But no matter how Spitz circled, Joe
whirled around on his heels to face him Maine, 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

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Spitz was forced to forego disciplining it. But to cover
his own discomfiture, he turned upon the inoffensive and wailing
Billy 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

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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 Spits left him alone. He had one peculiarity, which
Buck was unlucky enough to discover. He did not like

(07:42):
to be approached on his blind side. Of this offense,
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,

(08:02):
and to the last of their comradeship had no more trouble.
His only apparent ambition, like Dave's 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

(08:25):
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 a special venom into

(08:46):
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,

(09:07):
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 teammates 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

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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,

(09:52):
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 and a snug ball lay Billy.
He whined, placatingly, squirmed and wriggled to show his good

(10:13):
will and intentions, and even ventured, as a bribe for peace,
to lick Buck's 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.

(10:35):
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

(10:56):
had snowed during the night, and he was completely buried.
The no 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

(11:19):
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

(11:40):
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. What I say the
dog driver called to Perat at the Buck for shore

(12:01):
learned quick as anything. 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

(12:23):
were in harness and swinging up the trail toward the
Dai Yee cannon. 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

(12:44):
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

(13:07):
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 so Les. The rest of the
team was strung out ahead, single file to the leader,
which position was filled by spits. Buck had been purposely

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placed between Dave and sol Lex 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

(13:50):
in need of it. As France's 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

(14:12):
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's whip
snapped less frequently, and Perrault even honored Buck by lifting
up his feet and carefully examining them. It was a
hard day's run up the cannon, through Sheep Camp, past

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the scales and the timber line, across glaciers and snow
drifts 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

(14:57):
of extinct volcanoes and lai. That night pulled into the
huge camp at the head of Lake Bennett, where thousands
of gold seekers 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

(15:19):
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, Parau traveled ahead of the team, packing

(15:39):
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. Piaut 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

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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

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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,

(16:43):
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

(17:05):
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's back was turned, He
duplicated the performance the following day, getting away with the

(17:28):
whole chunk. A great uproar was raised, but he was unsuspected,
while Dubb, an awkward blunderer who was always getting caught,
was punished for Buck's 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,

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the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death.
It marked further the decay or going to pieces of
his more 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,

(18:15):
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 a doubt. 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

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had never run from a fight, but the club of
the man and the red sweater had beaten into him
a more fundamental and primitive code civilized. He could have
died for a moral consideration, say, the defense of Judge
Miller's riding whip. But the completeness of his decivilization was
now evidenced by his ability to flee from the defense

(18:59):
of a moral consideration and so save his hide. He
did not steal for the 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

(19:21):
do them. His development or retrogression was rapid. His muscles
became as 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

(19:44):
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

(20:06):
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,

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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

(20:48):
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

(21:12):
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 wolf like, it was his ancestors, dead

(21:35):
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,

(21:58):
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 medal in the north, and because Manuel was a
gardener's helper, whose wages did not lap over the needs
of his wife, and diverse small copies of himself. End

(22:23):
of Chapter two