By evening Perrault secured another dog, an old husky, long and lean and gaunt

But it was Dave who suffered most of all.

he loved to lie near the fire, hind legs crouched under him, fore legs stretched out in front, head raised, and eyes blinking dreamily at the flames.

A Scotch half-breed took charge of him and his mates, and in company with a dozen other dog-teams he started back over the weary trail to Dawson.

“Nevaire such a dog as dat Buck!” he cried. “No, nevaire! Heem worth one t’ousan’ dollair, by Gar! Eh? Wot you say, Perrault?”

Pike, who pulled at Buck’s heels,

François sat down and scratched his head. Perrault looked at his watch and swore. Time was flying, and they should have been on the trail an hour gone. François scratched his head again.

“Eh? Wot I say? I spik true w’en I say dat Buck two devils.”

They threw clubs at him. He dodged. They cursed him, and his fathers and mothers before him, and all his seed to come after him down to the remotest generation, and every hair on his body and drop of blood in his veins; and he answered curse with snarl and kept out of their reach. He did not try to run away, but retreated around and around the camp, advertising plainly that when his desire was met, he would come in and be good.

He took Buck by the scruff of the neck, and though the dog growled threateningly, dragged him to one side and replaced Sol-leks.

No more Spitz, no more trouble, sure.”

Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard.

In vain Buck strove to sink his teeth in the neck of the big white dog

but drove in upon Spitz, shoulder to shoulder, so hard that he missed the throat. They rolled over and over in the powdery snow. Spitz gained his feet almost as though he had not been overthrown, slashing Buck down the shoulder and leaping clear. Twice his teeth clipped together, like the steel jaws of a trap, as he backed away for better footing, with lean and lifting lips that writhed and snarled.

But Spitz, cold and calculating even in his supreme moods, left the pack and cut across a narrow neck of land where the creek made a long bend around.

The breaking down of discipline likewise affected the dogs in their relations with one another.

Buck still continued to interfere between Spitz and the culprits

He openly threatened the other’s leadership.

He was preeminently cunning, and could bide his time with a patience that was nothing less than primitive.

This was Spitz’s opportunity. He sprang upon Buck, and twice his teeth sank into his unresisting foe and ripped and tore the flesh to the bone

Finally an idea came to him. He would return and see how his own team-mates were making out. To his astonishment, they had disappeared.

That night Buck faced the great problem of sleeping.

in desperation started to cross it

Buck’s feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of the huskies. His had softened during the many generations since the day his last wild ancestor was tamed by a cave-dweller or river man.

Buck was played out.

At another time Spitz went through, dragging the whole team after him up to Buck, who strained backward with all his strength, his fore paws on the slippery edge and the ice quivering and snapping all around

thrusting his little weazened face into the frost

“Ah, my frien’s,” he said softly, “mebbe it mek you mad dog, dose many bites. Mebbe all mad dog, sacredam! Wot you t’ink, eh, Perrault?”

Later, the nine team-dogs gathered together and sought shelter in the forest.

Perrault and François, having cleaned out their part of the camp, hurried to save their sled-dogs.

the astonished team-dogs had burst out of their nests only to be set upon by the fierce invaders.

The camp was suddenly discovered to be alive with skulking furry forms,—starving huskies, four or five score of them,

François was surprised, too, when they shot out in a tangle from the disrupted nest and he divined the cause of the trouble. “A-a-ah!” he cried to Buck. “Gif it to heem, by Gar! Gif it to heem, the dirty t’eef!”

Close in under the sheltering rock Buck made his nest. So snug and warm was it,

On the other hand, possibly because he divined in Buck a dangerous rival, Spitz never lost an opportunity of showing his teeth

The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck