Evening star., 1924-08-17

Smiths keeping. White Fang knew
that 1t was his gods will for him to
go with Beauty Smith. And when
Beauty Smith left him tied outside
the tn ford. he knew new that it it was was BEAUTY
there. Therefore, he had disobeyed
the will Of both gods. and earned the
consequent punishment He had seen
dogs change owners in the past. and
hs was being beaten. He was wise,
and yet in the nature of him there
were forces greater than wisdom
One Of these was fidelity. He did not
love Gray Beaver, yet. even in the
was faithful to him. He could not
help it, The faithfulness was a quail
ity of the clay that composed him It
was the quality that was peculiarly
the possession of his kind; the quail
ity that set apart his species from all
enabled the wolf and the wild dog to
come in from the open and be the
companion of man.
After the beating White Fang was
time Beauty Smith left him tied with
q stick. One does not give up a god
easily, and so with White Fang. Gray
Beaver was his own particular god,
and, in spite Of Gray Beavers will.
White Fang still chung to him and
would not give him up. Gray Beaver
had betrayed and forsaken him, but
that had no effect upon him. Not for
nothing had he surrendered himself
body and soul to Gray Beaver. There
Fang's part, and the bond was not to
be broken easily.
So. in the night, when the men in
the fort were asleep, White Fang
applied his teeth to the stick that
held him. The wood was seasoned
and dry, and it was tied so closely
to his neck that he could scarcely
get his teeth to 1t. It was only by
the severest muscular exertion and
neck arching that he succeeded in
and barely between his teeth at that,
and 1t was only by the exercise of an
immense patience, extending through
many hours that he succeeded in
gpawing through the stick. This was
something that dogs we're not sup
posed to do. 1t was Unprecedented.
But White Fang did it, trotting away
from the fort in the early morning
with the end of the stick hanging to
his neck.
He was wise. But had he been
merely wise he would not have gone
back to Gray. Beaver, who had already
twice betrayed him. But there was
his faithfulness, and he went back to
be betrayed yet a third time. Again
he yielded to the tying Of a thong
~ Aouhu LiAo AiSS1H ~ NAoy oSoS Ci duo
again Beauty Smith came to claim
him. And this time ne was beaten
even more severely than before.
Gray Beaver looked on stolidly
while the white man welded the
whip. He gave no protection. 1t was no
longer his dog. When the beating was
over White Fang was sick. A soft SOUTH
land dog would have died under it,
but not he. His school of lite had
been ,sterner, and he was himself of
sterner stuff. He had too great vital
ity. His clutch. on life was too
strong. But he was very sick. At
first he was unable to drag himself
along, and Beauty Smith had to wait
half an hour on him. And then. blind
and reeling, he followed at Beauty
Smiths heels back to the fort.
But now he was tied with a chain
that defied his teeth. and he strove in
.vain,. by lunging, to draw the staple
from the timber into which 1t was
driven. After a few days, sober and
bankrupt, Gray Beaver departed up
the Porcupine on his long journey to
the Mackenzie. White Fang remained
on the Yukon, the property of a man
more than half mad and all brute.
But what is q dog to know in its
consciousness of madness? To White
Fang, Beauty Smith was a veritable,
IL terrible, god. He was a mad god
at best, but White Fang knew MOTH
ing Of madness; he knew only that he
must submit to the will of this new
master. obey his every whim and
fancy.