White Fang - London Jack - Страница 36

«Stand by to receive your dog,» was Scott's peremptory order to Cherokee's owner.

The faro-dealer stooped down obediently and got a firm hold on Cherokee.

«Now!» Scott warned, giving the final pry.

The dogs were drawn apart, the bull-dog struggling vigorously.

«Take him away,» Scott commanded, and Tim Keenan dragged Cherokee back into the crowd.

White Fang made several ineffectual efforts to get up. Once he gained his feet, but his legs were too weak to sustain him, and he slowly wilted and sank back into the snow. His eyes were half closed, and the surface of them was glassy. His jaws were apart, and through them the tongue protruded, draggled and limp. To all appearances he looked like a dog that had been strangled to death. Matt examined him.

«Just about all in,» he announced; «but he's breathin' all right.»

Beauty Smith had regained his feet and come over to look at White Fang.

«Matt, how much is a good sled-dog worth?» Scott asked.

The dog-musher, still on his knees and stooped over White Fang, calculated for a moment.

«Three hundred dollars,» he answered.

«And how much for one that's all chewed up like this one?» Scott asked, nudging White Fang with his foot.

«Half of that,» was the dog-musher's judgment. Scott turned upon Beauty Smith.

«Did you hear, Mr. Beast? I'm going to take your dog from you, and I'm going to give you a hundred and fifty for him.»

He opened his pocket-book and counted out the bills.

Beauty Smith put his hands behind his back, refusing to touch the proffered money.

«I ain't a-sellin',» he said.

«Oh, yes you are,» the other assured him. «Because I'm buying. Here's your money. The dog's mine.»

Beauty Smith, his hands still behind him, began to back away.

Scott sprang toward him, drawing his fist back to strike. Beauty Smith cowered down in anticipation of the blow.

«I've got my rights,» he whimpered.

«You've forfeited your rights to own that dog,» was the rejoinder. «Are you going to take the money? or do I have to hit you again?»

«All right,» Beauty Smith spoke up with the alacrity of fear. «But I take the money under protest,» he added. «The dog's a mint. I ain't a-goin' to be robbed. A man's got his rights.»

«Correct,» Scott answered, passing the money over to him. «A man's got his rights. But you're not a man. You're a beast.»

«Wait till I get back to Dawson,» Beauty Smith threatened. «I'll have the law on you.»

«If you open your mouth when you get back to Dawson, I'll have you run out of town. Understand?»

Beauty Smith replied with a grunt.

«Understand?» the other thundered with abrupt fierceness.

«Yes,» Beauty Smith grunted, shrinking away.

«Yes what?»

«Yes, sir,» Beauty Smith snarled.

«Look out! He'll bite!» some one shouted, and a guffaw of laughter went up.

Scott turned his back on him, and returned to help the dog-musher, who was working over White Fang.

Some of the men were already departing; others stood in groups, looking on and talking. Tim Keenan joined one of the groups.

«Who's that mug?» he asked.

«Weedon Scott,» some one answered.

«And who in hell is Weedon Scott?» the faro-dealer demanded.

«Oh, one of them crackerjack minin' experts. He's in with all the big bugs. If you want to keep out of trouble, you'll steer clear of him, that's my talk. He's all hunky with the officials. The Gold Commissioner's a special pal of his.»

«I thought he must be somebody,» was the faro-dealer's comment. «That's why I kept my hands offen him at the start.»

CHAPTER V-THE INDOMITABLE

«It's hopeless,» Weedon Scott confessed.

He sat on the step of his cabin and stared at the dog-musher, who responded with a shrug that was equally hopeless.

Together they looked at White Fang at the end of his stretched chain, bristling, snarling, ferocious, straining to get at the sled-dogs. Having received sundry lessons from Matt, said lessons being imparted by means of a club, the sled-dogs had learned to leave White Fang alone; and even then they were lying down at a distance, apparently oblivious of his existence.

«It's a wolf and there's no taming it,» Weedon Scott announced.

«Oh, I don't know about that,» Matt objected. «Might be a lot of dog in 'm, for all you can tell. But there's one thing I know sure, an' that there's no gettin' away from.»

The dog-musher paused and nodded his head confidentially at Moosehide Mountain.

«Well, don't be a miser with what you know,» Scott said sharply, after waiting a suitable length of time. «Spit it out. What is it?»

The dog-musher indicated White Fang with a backward thrust of his thumb.

«Wolf or dog, it's all the same-he's ben tamed 'ready.»

«No!»

«I tell you yes, an' broke to harness. Look close there. D'ye see them marks across the chest?»

«You're right, Matt. He was a sled-dog before Beauty Smith got hold of him.»

«And there's not much reason against his bein' a sled-dog again.»

«What d'ye think?» Scott queried eagerly. Then the hope died down as he added, shaking his head, «We've had him two weeks now, and if anything he's wilder than ever at the present moment.»

«Give 'm a chance,» Matt counselled. «Turn 'm loose for a spell.»

The other looked at him incredulously.

«Yes,» Matt went on, «I know you've tried to, but you didn't take a club.»

«You try it then.»

The dog-musher secured a club and went over to the chained animal. White Fang watched the club after the manner of a caged lion watching the whip of its trainer.

«See 'm keep his eye on that club,» Matt said. «That's a good sign. He's no fool. Don't dast tackle me so long as I got that club handy. He's not clean crazy, sure.»

As the man's hand approached his neck, White Fang bristled and snarled and crouched down. But while he eyed the approaching hand, he at the same time contrived to keep track of the club in the other hand, suspended threateningly above him. Matt unsnapped the chain from the collar and stepped back.

White Fang could scarcely realise that he was free. Many months had gone by since he passed into the possession of Beauty Smith, and in all that period he had never known a moment of freedom except at the times he had been loosed to fight with other dogs. Immediately after such fights he had always been imprisoned again.

He did not know what to make of it. Perhaps some new devilry of the gods was about to be perpetrated on him. He walked slowly and cautiously, prepared to be assailed at any moment. He did not know what to do, it was all so unprecedented. He took the precaution to sheer off from the two watching gods, and walked carefully to the corner of the cabin. Nothing happened. He was plainly perplexed, and he came back again, pausing a dozen feet away and regarding the two men intently.

«Won't he run away?» his new owner asked.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. «Got to take a gamble. Only way to find out is to find out.»

«Poor devil,» Scott murmured pityingly. «What he needs is some show of human kindness,» he added, turning and going into the cabin.

He came out with a piece of meat, which he tossed to White Fang. He sprang away from it, and from a distance studied it suspiciously.

«Hi-yu, Major!» Matt shouted warningly, but too late.

Major had made a spring for the meat. At the instant his jaws closed on it, White Fang struck him. He was overthrown. Matt rushed in, but quicker than he was White Fang. Major staggered to his feet, but the blood spouting from his throat reddened the snow in a widening path.

«It's too bad, but it served him right,» Scott said hastily.

But Matt's foot had already started on its way to kick White Fang. There was a leap, a flash of teeth, a sharp exclamation. White Fang, snarling fiercely, scrambled backward for several yards, while Matt stooped and investigated his leg.