The Call of the Wild

fore, arrived at Skaguay. They were in awretched state, worn out and worn down. Buck's one hundred andforty pounds had

uccessfully feigned a hurt leg, was now limping in earnest. Sol-le

f a day's travel. There was nothing the matterwith them except that they were dead tired. It was not the dead-tiredness that comes through brief and excessiv

ecuperation left, no rese

dead tired. And there was reason for it. In lessthan five months they had travelled twenty-

Skaguay they were appar

aut, and on the down grades justmanag

e getone long res'. Eh? For sure. One bully long res'."The drivers confidently expected a long stopover. Themselves,they had cov

congested mail was taking on Alpine proportions; also, there wereofficial orders. Fresh batches of Hudson Bay dogs were to take theplaces of

aged, lightish-colored man, with weak and wateryeyes and a mustache that twisted fiercely and vigorously up, giving thelie to the limply drooping lip it concealed. Hal was a youngster ofnineteen or twenty, with a big Colt's revolver and a hunting-knifestrapped about him on a belt that fa

is life on the heels of Perrault andFrancois and the others who had gone before. When driven with hismates to the new owners' camp, Buck saw a slipshod and slovenly affair,

as it should have been. The tindishes were packed away unwashed. Mercedes continually fluttered inthe way of her men and kept up an unbroken chattering of remonstranceand advice. When they put a clothes-sack on the front of the sled, sh

tent came out and looked on, gr

dn't tote that tent along if I was you.""Undreamed of!" cried Mercedes, throwing up her hands in daintydismay. "However

Charles and Hal put the last oddsa

ride?" one of

t?" Charles demand

that's all right," the ma

top-heavy."Charles turned his back and drew the lashings

ong all day with that contraptionbehi

taking hold of the ustn't," as shecaught hold of

recious lot you know about dogs," her brother sneered; "and I wishyou'd leave me alone. They're lazy,

at them imploringly, untold repugnance a

lum tuckered out, that's what's the matter. They need a rest.""Rest be blanked," said

whip fell upon the dogs. They threw themselvesagainst the breast-bands, dug their feet into the packed snow, got downlow to it, and put forth all their strength. The sled held as though it werean anchor.

d?--then you wouldn't be whipped." Buck did not like her, but hewas feeling

th to suppresshot speech, now spoke up:--"It's not tha

roze fast. Throw your weight againstthe gee-pole, right and left, and break it out."A third time the attemp

an. As they swung on the turn the sled went over,spilling half its load through the loose lashings. The dogs neverstopped. The lightened sled bounded on its side behind them. Theywere angry because of the ill treatment they had received and the unjustload. Buck was raging. He broke into a run

gs,if they ever expected to reach Dawson, was what was said. Hal and hissister and brother-in-law listened unwillingly, pitched tent, a

" quoth one of the men

dishes,--who's going to wash them, anyway? Good Lord, doyou think you're travel

about knees,rocking back and forth broken-heartedly. She averred she would not goan inch, not for a dozen Charleses. She appealed to everybody and toeverything, finally wiping her eyes and proceedin

x Outside dogs. These, added to the six of the original team, andTeek and Koona, the huskies obtained at the Rink Rapids on the recor

her. "Mush!"he shouted. "Mush on there!"The dogs sprang against the breast-bands

them," he cried, preparing to

, you mustn't," as shecaught hold of the wh

recious lot you know about dogs," her brother sneered; "and I wishyou'd leave me alone. They're lazy,

at them imploringly, untold repugnance a

lum tuckered out, that's what's the matter. Theyneed a rest.""Rest be blanked," said

whip fell upon the dogs. They threw themselvesagainst the breast-bands, dug their feet into the packed snow, got downlow to it, and put forth all their strength. The sled held as though it werean anchor.

d?--then you wouldn't be whipped." Buck did not like her, but hewas feeling

th to suppresshot speech, now spoke up:--"It's not tha

roze fast. Throw your weight againstthe gee-pole, right and left, and break it out."A third time the attemp

an. As they swung on the turn the sled went over,spilling half its load through the loose lashings. The dogs neverstopped. The lightened sled bounded on its side behind them. Theywere angry because of the ill treatment they had received and the unjustload. Buck was raging. He broke into a run

gs,if they ever expected to reach Dawson, was what was said. Hal and hissister and brother-in-law listened unwillingly, pitched tent, a

" quoth one of the men

dishes,--who's going to wash them, anyway? Good Lord, doyou think you're travel

about knees,rocking back and forth broken-heartedly. She averred she would not goan inch, not for a dozen Charleses. She appealed to everybody and toeverything, finally wiping her eyes and proceedin

x Outside dogs. These, added to the six of the original team, andTeek and Koona, the huskies obtained at the Rink Rapids on the recor

rades looked uponthem with disgust, and though he speedily taught them their places andwhat not to do, he could not teach them what to do. They did not takekindly to trace and trail.

spirit at all; bones were the

endogs. They had seen other sleds depart over the Pass for Dawson, orcome in from Dawson, but never had they seen a sled with so many asfourteen dogs. In the nature of Arctic travel there was a reason whyfourteen dogs should not drag one sled, and that was that one sle

y. Four times he had covered the distance betweenSalt Water and Dawson, and the knowledge that, jaded and tired, he wasfacing the same trail once more, made

er or discipline. It took them half thenight to pitch a slovenly camp, and half the morning to break that campand get the sled loaded in fashion so slovenly that for the rest of the daythey were occupied in stopping and rearrangi

ad voraciousappetites. And when, in addition to this, the worn- out huskies pulledweakly, Hal decided that the orthodox ration was too small. Hedoubled it. And to cap it all, when Mercedes, with tears in her prettyeyes and a quaver in her throat, could n

ox ration and tried toincrease the day's travel. His sister and brother-in-law seconded him;but they were frustrated by their heavy outfit and their ownincompetence. It was a simple matter to give the dogs less food; but itwas imposs

f that he was, alwaysgetting caught and punishe

country that an Outside dog starves to death on the rationof the husky, so the six Outside dogs under Buck could do no less thandie on half the ration of

s ceased weeping over the dogs, being toooccupied with weeping over herself and with quarrelling with herhusband and brother. To quarrel was the one thing they were never tooweary to do. Their irritability arose out of their m

ched, their bones ached, their very hearts ached; andbecause of this they became shar

ngled whenever Merced

d more than his share ofthe work, and neither fo

d, sometimes with herbrother. The result w

ociety plays his mother's brother wrote, should haveanything to do with the chopping of a few sticks of firewood, passescomprehension; nevertheless the quarrel was as likely to tend in thatdirection as in the direction of Charles's political prejudices. And thatCharles's sister's tale-bearing tongue shoul

had been chivalrously treated all her days. But thepresent treatment by her husband and

ed inriding on the sled. She was pretty and soft, but she weighed onehundred and twenty pounds--a lusty last straw to the load dragged by theweak and starving animals. She rode for days, till the

ever did it again. She let her legs go limp like a spoiled child, an

y unloaded the sled, came backfor her, and

theory, which he practised on others, was thatone must get hardened. He had started out preach

ompany at Hal's hip. A poorsubstitute for food was this hide, just as it had been stripped from thestarved horses of the cattlemen six months back. In its frozen state itwas more lik

stiffness and gloss had gone out of hisbeautiful furry coat. The hair hung down, limp and draggled, or mattedwith dried blood where Hal's club had bruised him. His muscles hadwasted away to knotty strings, and the flesh pads had disap

mates. They wereperambulating skeletons. T

the beating was dull anddistant, just as the things their eyes saw and their ears heard seemed dulland distant. They w

ark dimmed and paled and seemed to go out. And when theclub or whip fell upon the

them. On the next dayKoona went, and but five of them remained: Joe, too far gone to bemalignant; Pike, crippled and limping, only half conscious and notconscious enough longer to malinger; Sol-leks, the one-eyed, stillfaithful to the toil of trace and trail, and mournful in that he had so littlestrength with which to pu

blaze of sunshine. The ghostly winter silencehad given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life. Thismurmur arose from all the land, fraught with the joy of living. It camefrom the things that lived and moved again, t

he sun. Partridges and woodpeckerswere booming and knocking in the forest. Squirrels were chattering,birds

nd it down. It ateaway from beneath; the sun ate from above. Air-holes formed, fissuressprang and spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell through bodilyinto the river. And amid all

wearinginnocuously, and Charles's eyes wistfully watering,