Chapter 4.
The Strongest Dog.
There was a desire in Buck to be the strongest dog in the group and under the hard conditions of trail life, that part of him grew and grew.
But he kept it a secret.
He had a sense of sneakiness and cunning that was new to him, and it helped him appear calm and in control.
He was too busy adjusting to his new life to feel comfortable.
He never picked fights with any of the dogs and avoided fighting whenever he could.
Even though he and Spitz did not like each other and that dislike grew every day Buck did not let it show.
On the other hand, possibly because he sensed that Buck could take his place as leader of the pack, Spitz never let a chance pass to show his teeth.
He went out of his way to bully Buck and he always tried to start a fight that could only end with one of them running away.
This almost happened early in the trip, but an accident got in the way.
At the end of this day, they had made camp on the shore of Lake Labarge.
It was bleak and miserable.
Driving snow, a wind that was sharp as a knife, and total darkness forced them to search blindly for a camping place.
They could not have chosen worse.
At their backs there was a wall of rock, and Perrault and Francois had to make their fire and spread their sleeping bags on the ice of the lake itself.
They had thrown the tent away so they could travel light.
They used a few sticks of driftwood to make their fire, but it burned through the ice and left them to eat supper in the dark.
Close to the wall of rock, Buck had dug his hole in the snow.
He was so snug and warm in it that he did not want to leave when Francois gave out the fish after thawing it over the fire.
When Buck finished eating and returned to his hole, he found another dog in it.
A warning snarl told him it was Spitz.
Until then, Buck had avoided trouble with his enemy, but this was too much.
The beast in him roared.
He sprang on Spitz with a fury that surprised them both.
Spitz was especially surprised because his whole experience with Buck had told him that Buck was usually a timid and quiet dog who managed to hold his own with the other dogs only because of his great weight and size.
Francois was surprised too when they rolled out in a tangle from the sleeping hole, and he guessed why they were fighting.
He cried to Buck.
Give it to him!
By God, give it to him, the dirty thief!
Spitz was just as willing to fight.
He was crying with anger and eagerness as he circled back and forth, looking for a moment to jump in.
Buck was also eager, but just as careful, as he circled back and forth.
It was then that something unexpected happened that made them wait for another time to fight.
Peril yelled and there was the sound of barking.
The camp was suddenly alive with other animals.
They were starving wild huskies, four or five dozen of them, who had smelled the camp from a nearby village.
They had crept in while Buck and Spitz were fighting, and when the two men jumped in among the wild dogs, they showed their teeth and fought back.
The smell of food made them crazy.
Pirro found one eating from the grub box, where the men stored all the food.
He chased that one away, but the grub box was knocked over and right away more of the wild dogs were scrambling for the bread and bacon.
They yelped and howled as the men tried to scare them away.
In the meantime, the astonished sled dogs had burst out of their sleeping holes, only to be jumped on by the fierce invaders.
Buck had never seen such dogs.
They were so skinny it seemed as though he could see their skeletons through their skin.
Their eyes were blazing, and they showed their teeth.
Their hunger made them very scary, and it was impossible to fight them off.
The sled dogs were pushed back against the cliff during the first attack.
Three huskies tried to fight with Buck.
The sound was very frightening.
Billy was crying.
Dave and Solex were fighting bravely side by side.
Joe was barking like a monster.
Pike was running around from dog to dog.
The fight was making Buck crazy and excited.
It made him fierce.
He chased away one dog, then felt another next to him.
It was Spitz, unfairly attacking him again from the side.
Pierrot and Francois chased away the wild dogs from their part of the camp, then hurried to help their sled dogs.
The starving dogs moved away, and Buck shook himself free.
But it was only for a moment.
The two men had to run back to save the grub where the wild dogs had run.
When the men chased them away, the huskies returned to attack the team.
Billy, terrified into bravery, sprang through the savage circle of wild dogs and ran away over the ice.
Pike and Dub followed with the rest of the team behind them.
As Buck got ready to spring after them, out of the corner of his eye he saw Spitz rush at him to try to knock him over.
He managed to get out of the way and join the other sled dogs running across the frozen lake.
Later, the nine sled dogs gathered together and looked for shelter in the forest.
They were not being chased anymore, but they felt very bad.
They were all tired and hurt from the fight.
At daybreak, they limped back to camp to find the invaders gone and the two men in angry moods.
Half of their food supply was gone.
The huskies had chewed through the sled harness and the canvas that covered the sled.
Nothing, no matter how difficult it would be to eat, had escaped them.
They had eaten a pair of Perrault's moccasins and even two feet from the end of Francois' whip.
He was looking at it sadly when the sled dogs arrived.
Oh, my friends, he said softly.
Are you hurt?
Maybe they've been too hurt to continue so soon.
Hey, Perot?
The courier shook his head.
With four hundred miles of trail still between them and Dawson, he could not afford to wait.
Two hours of angry words and hard work got the harness into shape and the wounded team was underway, struggling painfully over the hardest part of the trail.
They had never been on such a difficult trail, the hardest part of the trip to Dawson.
The Thirty Mile River was wide open.
Its wild water would not freeze, and it was only in the shallow parts, at the edges and in the quiet places where the ice held it all.
The team needed six days of exhausting work to cover those terrible thirty miles.
Every step was dangerous to the dogs and men.
A dozen times Perrault, leading the way on foot, broke through the ice.
He was saved each time by the long pole he carried, which he held, so it would fall across the hole made by his body.
But the weather was getting colder and colder, and each time he broke through the ice he had to build a fire to dry himself, or else he would freeze to death.
Nothing scared Perrault off.
That was why he had been chosen to be a government courier.
He took all kinds of risks, always pushing forward in the frost and struggling on from dawn to dark.
He hurried the team over the thin parts of the ice.
Once the sled broke through the ice and Dave and Buck fell in the water.
They were freezing when the men dragged them out of the water. the men built a fire to warn them.
The dogs were covered with ice and the two men made them run around the fire, sweating and thawing, so close to the fire that their fur was singed by the flames.
Another time Spitz went through the ice, dragging the whole team after him up to Buck.
Buck strained backward with all his strength, his forepaws on the slippery edge and the ice shaking and snapping all around.
But behind him was Dave, also straining backward, and behind the sled was Francois pulling with all his might.
Perrault managed to climb a rock cliff and, using every bit of the harness and rope woven together, the men managed to pull the dogs from the water.
At the end of the day, they had only managed to travel a quarter of a mile.
By the time they made it to a river called the Houdalinqua, where there was good ice, Buck was exhausted.
The rest of the dogs felt the same, but Perrault, to make up for lost time, made the team start earlier and run later than they had before.
The first day they covered thirty-five miles to the Big Salmon River.
The next day they ran thirty-five more to the Little Salmon River.
The third day they made forty miles, which brought them close to a place called the Five Fingers.
Buck's feet were not as hard as the other dog's feet.
His were soft from his easy life at Judge Miller's place.
All day now he limped, and once camp was made, he lay down like he was asleep.
Hungry as he was, he could not move to get his ration of fish, which Francois had to bring to him.
Francois also rubbed Buck's feet for half an hour each night after supper and cut off the tops of his own moccasins to make four small moccasins for Buck.
These were a great relief.
Buck even managed to make Perrault smile one morning when Francois forgot the moccasins and Buck lay on his back, his four feet waving in the air, refusing to move without them.
Later in the journey his feet became hard from running on the trail and the worn-out footgear was thrown away.
One morning, as they were harnessing up Dolly, who had never done anything like this before, suddenly lost her temper.
First, she let out a long, sad howl that made every dog bristle with fear.
And then she sprang straight at Buck.
He had never seen a dog do this, but he knew something was wrong and ran away in panic.
Straight away he raced with Dolly one leap behind.
He was so scared and ran so fast that she could not catch him.
But she was so angry for no reason at all, other than that she was tired that he could not get away.
He ran past the trees on the island, crossed a small river filled with ice to another island, then to a third island and back to the main river which, in desperation, he tried to cross.
Francois called to him from far away, and Buck ran toward him, still one leap ahead of Dolly.
Buck was grasping for air and putting all his faith in the man.
Francois held a rope ready, and as Buck ran past him he caught Dolly in the rope and carried her away.
Buck staggered over against the sled, exhausted, sobbing for breath, helpless.
This was Spitz's chance.
He sprang upon Buck, trying to knock him over and bite him.
Then Francois had to pull Spitz away.
One mean dog, that Spitz, Perrault said.
Someday he's going to get...
Bok, he's twice as mean, Francois said.
I've been watching him.
I know for sure.
Someday he's going to get mad and then he'll chew up that spit and spit him out all over the snow.
