White Fang

of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land

the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wi

rystals of frost. Leather harness was on the dogs, and leather traces attached them to a sled which dragged along behind. The sled was without runners. It was made of stout birch-bark, and its full surface rested on the snow. The front end of the sled was turned up, like a scroll, in order to force do

gain. It is not the way of the Wild to like movement. Life is an offence to it, for life is movement; and the Wild aims always to destroy movement. It freezes the water to prevent it running to the sea; it drives the sap out of the trees till they are frozen

als from their frozen breath that their faces were not discernible. This gave them the seeming of ghostly masques, undertakers in a spectral world at the funeral of some ghost. But under it all they were men, p

body of the diver. It crushed them with the weight of unending vastness and unalterable decree. It crushed them into the remotest recesses of their own minds, pressing out of them, like juices from the grape, all the false ardours an

till it reached its topmost note, where it persisted, palpitant and tense, and then slowly died away. It might have been a lost soul wailing, had it not been invested with a certai

iercing the silence wit

the snow expanse they had just traversed. A third and answering

the front. His voice sounded hoarse and un

sign for days."Thereafter they spoke no more, though their ears w

e a camp. The coffin, at the side of the fire, served for seat and table. The wolf-dogs, clustered on the far si

're stayin' remarkable clos

coffee with a piece of ice, nodded. Nor did he speak ti

."His comrade looked at him curiously. "First time I ever heard you say anything about their not bein' wise.""Henry," said the other, munching with deliberati

y, we've got six dogs. I took six fish out of the bag. I gave one fish to each dog, an', Henry, I was one fish short.""You counted wrong.""We've got six dogs," the other

s, but there was seven of 'm that got fish."Henry stop

only six no

tiveness. "I saw seven."Henry looked at him commiseratingly, and said, "I'll b

ght of that," Bill answered gravely. "An' so, when I saw it run off across the snow, I looked in the snow an

t munched on in silence, until, the meal finished, he topped it with a fi

interrupted him. He stopped to listen to it, then he finished his sentence with a wave of his hand toward t

nto a bedlam. From every side the cries arose, and the dogs betrayed their fear by huddling together and so

're down in the mou

nry, I was a-thinkin' what a blame sight luckier he is than you an' me'll ever be."He in

. "Long-distance funerals is somethin' you an' me can't exactly afford.""What gets me, Henry, is what a chap like this, that's a lord or something in his own country, and that's never had to bother

was no suggestion of form in the utter blackness; only could be seen a pair of eyes gleaming like live coals. Henry indicated with his heada second pair

e men. In the scramble one of the dogs had been overturned on the edge of the fire, and it had yelped with pain and fright as the smell of its singed coat possess

was helping his companion to spread the bed of fur and blanket upon the spruce boughs whic

ges did you say you

I'dshow 'em what for, damn 'em!"He shook his fist angrily at the gl

the looks of it. I don't feel right, somehow. An' while I'm wishin', Iwisht the trip was over an' done with, an' you an' me a-sittin' by the fire inFort

rin' me.""You're botherin' too much, Bill," came the sleepy response. "You wasnever like this before. You jes' sh

thing heavily, side by sid

s drew close. Once their uproarbecame so loud that Bill woke up. He got out of bed carefully, so as not todisturb the sleep of his comrade, and threw more wood on the fire. As itbegan

s wrong now?""Nothin'," came the answer; "only there's seven of 'em again. I justcounted."Henry ackn

was yet three hours away, though it was already six o'clock; and in the darkness Henry went

w many dogs did you say we had?""Six."

gain?" Hen

" Henry cried in wrath, leaving the

tarted. Couldn't 'veseen 'm for smoke.""No chance at all," Henry concluded. "They jes' swallowed 'm al

tly the salient traits of each animal. "I bet noneof the others would do it.""Couldn't drive 'em away from the fire with a club," Bill agreed. "Ialways did think ther