Evening star., 1924-08-22
tcontinued from Yesterdays Star,


All, he had thought SO! There 1t
came now, the gods hand, cunning
to hurt, thrusting out at him, de-
scending upon his head. But the god
went on talking. His voice was soft
and soothing. In spite of the men,
acing hand, the voice inspired conf
dence. And in spite of the assuring
voice. the hand inspired distrust.
White Fang was torn by conflicting
feelings, impulses. 1t seemed he
would fly to pieces, SO terrible was
the control he was exerting, holding
the counter forces that struggled
within him for mastery.
He compromised. He snarled and
bristled and fattened his ears. But
he neither snapped nor sprang away.
The hand descended. Nearer and
nearer it came. 1t touched the ends
of the outstanding hair. He shrank
down under it. 1t followed down after
him, pressing more closely against
him. Shrinking, almost shivering, he
still managed to hold himself to-
gether. 1t was a torment, this hand
that touched him and violated his
day all the evil that had been
wrought him at the hands of men.
But it was the will of the god, and
he strove to submit.
The hand lifted and descended
again in a patting, caressing move
ment. This continued, but every
time the hand lifted the hair lifted
under 1t. And every time the hand
descended the ears fiattened down and
a cavernous growl surged in his
throat. White Fang growled and
growled with insistent warning. By
this means he announced that he was
prepared to retaliate for any hurt he
might receive. There was no telling
when the gods ulterior motive might
be disclosed. At any moment that
soft. confidence ce-inspiring voice might
break forth into roar of wrath,
that gentle and caressing hand
transform itself into a viselike grip
to hold him helpless and administer r
punishment.
But the god talked on softly, and
ever the hand rose and fell with nom
hostile pats. White Fang expert
| enced dual feelings. 1t was distaste-
full to his instinct. 1t restrained him,
sonal liberty. And yet it was not
physically painful. On the contrary,
it was even pleasant in a physical
way. The patting movement slowly
and carefully changed to a rub
bing of the ears about their bases.
and the physical pleasure even in
creased a little. Yet he conti1ued to
fear, and he stood on guard, expect
ant of unguessed evil, alternately
suffering and enjoying as one feeling
or the other came uppermost and
swayed him.
We'll. I'll be gosh-swoggled."
so smoke Matt coming nuf nf the
cabin, his sleeves rolled up. a pan of
dirty dishwater in his hands, arrest
ed in the act of emptying the pan by
the sight of Weldon Scott patting
White Fang.
At the instant his voice broke the
silence. White Fang leaped back,
snarling savagely at him.
Matt regarded his employer with
grieved disapproval.
"If you don't mind my expressing
my feelin's. Mr.. Scott Til make free
to say you're seventeen kinds of a
damn fool, an all of 'em different and
then some.'
Weldon Scott smiled with a su-
perior air. gained his feet and
walked over to White Fang. He
talked soothingly to him. but not for
long, then slowly put out his hand,
rested it on White Fang's head and
White Fang endured it, keeping his
eyes fixed suspiciously, not upon the
man that petted him, but upon the
man that stood in the doorway.
You may be a number one, tip
top minin' expert, all right, all right,
the dog-musher delivered himself
oracularly, but you missed the
chance Of your life when you was a
boy an didn't run of an join q cir
Gus"
White Fang snarled at the sound
of his voice, but this time did not
leap away from under the hand that
was caressing his head and the back
of his neck with long, soothing
strokes.
1t was the beginning of the end for
White Fang-the ending of the old
life and the reign of hate. A new
and incomprehensibly fairer life was
dawning. 1t required much thinking
and endless patience on the part OF
Weldon Scott to accomplish this
And on the part of White Fang i,
required nothing less than a revolu-
tion. He had to ignore the urges end
promptings of instinct and reason
defy experience, give the lie to life
itself.
Life as he had known it not only
had no place in it for much that he
Aow 0ids ouI OH lHc currents udC
gone counter to those to which he
now abandoned himself. In short
when all things were considered, he
had to achieve an orientation faI
vaster than the one he had achieved
at the time he came voluntarily in
from the wild and accepted Gray
Beaver as his lord. At that time he
was mere puppy, soft from the
making, without form, ready for the
hy,r,o of rsr to- - -
work upon him. But now it was diff.
ferent. The thumb of circumstance
had done it's work only too we'll. BY
it he had been formed and hardened
into the fighting wolf, fierce and i'm
placable, unloving and unlovable. To
accomplish the change was like a
reflux of being, and this when the
Elasticity of youth was no longer his
when the fiber of him had become
tough and knotty; when the warp and
the woof of him had made him an
adamantine texture, hard and unyield-
ing; when the face of his spirit had
become iron and all his instincts and
axioms had crystallized into set rules,
cautions, dislikes and desires.
Yet again in this new orientation
it was the thumb of circumstance
that pressed and prodded him, soften
ing that which had become hard and
remolding 1t into fairer form. Wee
don Scott was in truth this thumb.
He had gone to the roots of White
Fangs nature and with kindness
touched the life potencies that had
languished and wellnigh perished.
One such potency was love. 1t took
the place of like, which latter had
been the highest feeling that thrilled
him in his intercourse with the gods
But this love i'd not come in a day.
IA a
slowly developed. White Fang did
not run away, though he was allowed
to remain loose, because he liked this
new god. This was certainly better
than the life he had lived in the
cage of Beauty Smith and it was