登陆注册
15297300000037

第37章 THE TRAIL OF THE GODS(2)

His iron-like body ignored fatigue.And even after fatigue came, his heritage of endurance braced him to endless endeavor and enabled him to drive his complaining body onward.

Where the river swung in against precipitous bluffs, he climbed the high mountains behind.Rivers and streams that entered the main river he forded or swam.Often he took to the rim-ice that was beginning to form, and more than once he crashed through and struggled for life in the icy current.Always he was on the lookout for the trail of the gods where it might leave the river and proceed inland.

White Fang was intelligent beyond the average of his kind; yet his mental vision was not wide enough to embrace the other bank of the Mackenzie.

What if the trail of the gods led out on that side? It never entered his head.Later on, when he had travelled more and grown older and wiser and come to know more of trails and rivers, it might be that he could grasp and apprehend such a possibility.But that mental power was yet in the future.Just now he ran blindly, his own bank of the Mackenzie alone entering into his calculations.

All night he ran, blundering in the darkness into mishaps and obstacles that delayed but did not daunt.By the middle of the second day he had been running continuously for thirty hours, and the iron of his flesh was giving out.It was the endurance of his mind that kept him going.He had not eaten in forty hours, and he was weak with hunger.The repeated drenchings in the icy water had likewise had their effect on him.His handsome coat was draggled.The broad pads of his feet were bruised and bleeding.He had begun to limp, and this limp increased with the hours.To make it worse, the light of the sky was obscured and snow began to fall -- a raw, moist, melting, clinging snow, slippery under foot, that hid from him the landscape he traversed, and that covered over the inequalities of the ground so that the way of his feet was more difficult and painful.

Gray Beaver had intended camping that night on the far bank of the Mackenzie, for it was in that direction that the hunting lay.But on the near bank, shortly before dark, a moose, coming down to drink, had been espied by Kloo-kooch, who was Gray Beaver's squaw.Now, had not the moose come down to drink, had not Mit-sah been steering out of the course because of the snow, had not Kloo-kooch sighted the moose, and had not Gray Beaver killed it with a lucky shot from his rifle, all subsequent things would have happened differently.Gray Beaver would not have camped on the near side of the Mackenzie, and White Fang would have passed by and gone on, either to die or to find his way to his wild brothers and become one of them, -- a wolf to the end of his days.

Night had fallen.The snow was flying more thickly, and White Fang, whimpering softly to himself as he stumbled and limped along, came upon a fresh trail in the snow.So fresh was it that he knew it immediately for what it was.Whining with eagerness, he followed back from the river bank and in among the trees.The camp-sounds came to his ears.He saw the blaze of the fire, Kloo-kooch cooking, and Gray Beaver squatting on his hams and mumbling a chunk of raw tallow.There was fresh meat in camp!

White Fang expected a beating.He crouched and bristled a little at the thought of it.Then he went forward again.He feared and disliked the beating he knew to be waiting for him.But he knew, further, that the comfort of the fire would be his, the protection of the gods, the companionship of the dogs -- the last, a companionship of enmity, but none the less a companionship and satisfying to his gregarious needs.

He came cringing and crawling into the firelight.Gray Beaver saw him, and stopped munching the tallow.White Fang crawled slowly, cringing and grovelling in the abjectness of his abasement and submission.He crawled straight toward Gray Beaver, every inch of his progress becoming slower and more painful.At last he lay at the master's feet, into whose possession he now surrendered himself, voluntarily, body and soul.Of his own choice, he came in to sit by man's fire and to be ruled by him.White Fang trembled, waiting for the punishment to fall upon him.There was a movement of the hand above him.He cringed involuntarily under the expected blow.It did not fall.He stole a glance upward.Gray Beaver was breaking the lump of tallow in half! Gray Beaver was offering him one piece of the tallow! Very gently and somewhat suspiciously, he first smelled the tallow and then proceeded to eat it.Gray Beaver ordered meat to be brought to him, and guarded him from the other dogs while he ate.After that, grateful and content, White Fang lay at Gray Beaver's feet, gazing at the fire that warmed him, blinking and dozing, secure in the knowledge that the morrow would find him, not wandering forlorn through bleak forest-stretches, but in the camp of the man-animals, with the gods to whom he had given himself and upon whom he was now dependent.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 九天宝身决

    九天宝身决

    极限爱好者苏源,因一次意外身亡,穿越到同名废材少爷身上...侮辱,漫骂...看少年崛起,快意恩仇!
  • 网游三国之争锋天下

    网游三国之争锋天下

    一个玩家带上虚拟头盔,来到不一样的三国世界。从黄巾之乱,到董卓霸权,再到群雄逐鹿,主角征管亥、降徐荣,破吕布,名动天下。
  • 废土列传片轮之龙

    废土列传片轮之龙

    那个以龙作为半身的少女,在这片土地上那第一次的末日降临前的小小故事。
  • 爱醒的太迟

    爱醒的太迟

    风儿是一个孤儿,但是凭借自身的努力,考取了香港大学的入学通知书,但是因为自己的长相酷似黑帮老大的亡妻,因为爱所以捆绑,因为爱所以占有,是一个代替品还是替换品,那种钻心虐恋因此拉开帷幕...............
  • 世界第一的恶魔男仆

    世界第一的恶魔男仆

    初见,他是快死的恶魔;她是被逼着找男朋友的人类。后来他成了她的男仆,再后来,她成了他的女票......
  • 神幻主宰

    神幻主宰

    一技碎苍穹,一念主沉浮。这是一个从蔚蓝星球穿越而来的少年的神幻主宰之路。。。
  • 花样校草爱上我

    花样校草爱上我

    校草:不论你遭遇过什么,你只要知道,此刻我在你身边!竹马:你答应过要娶我的,你不能食言!青梅:许旭是我的,季旦你真不要脸,都解除婚约了还纠缠不休前男友:季旦原谅我好吗?我还是爱你的啊!那是一场误会,我知道你还爱我的啊旦旦面对种种选择,季旦会如何应对?是花样校草海柯,还是阳光海龟美男许浮白,亦或者是曾经相爱不已的前男友许旭?
  • 时光划过指尖

    时光划过指尖

    温柠是一个从小就自卑的女孩,但司沉,她心中的那个天使,却一直守护她
  • 系统,别走

    系统,别走

    一个灵魂穿越重重宇宙,重生为家族天才的少年…《盘龙之成哈德利》先更完再码,大纲已经OK
  • 风起苍岚:一世燃尽朱颜泪

    风起苍岚:一世燃尽朱颜泪

    九岁萌娃修真奋斗曲,这不是一个前世文,这只是一个故事。修真坎坷路,萌娃怎么攀上九重仙境?当昔日萌娃从懵懂逐渐变成嚣张孤傲的大神,世人该如何传诵他的修真事迹?“踏上这片土地,吾便守得此处一片安宁。”