14 The Call of the Wild.docx

1、14 The Call of the WildTHE CALL OF THE WILD(Serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, June 20-July 18, 1903) Chapter 1: Into the Primitive Chapter 2: The Law of Club and Fang Chapter 3: The Dominant Primordial Beast Chapter 4: Who Has Won To Mastership Chapter 5: The Toil of Trace and Trail Chapter 6

2、: For the Love of a Man Chapter 7: The Sounding of the Call CHAPTER 1INTO THE PRIMITIVEOld longings nomadic leap,Chafing at customs chain;Again from its brumal sleepWakens the ferine strain. Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but

3、 for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These

4、 men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Millers place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half-hidden among the tree

5、s, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by graveled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale tha

6、n at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big ceme

7、nt tank where Judge Milers boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they

8、did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless, strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were

9、the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.But Buck was neither house dog nor kennel dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank

10、or went hunting with the Judges sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judges daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judges feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judges grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their

11、 footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king-king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Mi

12、llers place, humans included.His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judges inseparable companion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father. He was not so large-he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds-for his mother, She, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Nevertheless, one

13、hundred and forty pounds, to which was added the dignity that comes of good living and universal respect, enabled him to carry himself in right royal fashion. During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egot

14、istical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation. But he had saved himself by not becoming a mere pampered house dog. Hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down the fat and hardened his muscles; and to him, as to the cold-tubbing races, the love of water had

15、been a tonic and a health preserver.And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North. But Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel, one of the gardeners helpers, was an undesirable acqu

16、aintance. Manuel had one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also, in his gambling, he had one besetting weakness-faith in a system; and this made his damnation certain. For to play a system requires money, while the wages of a gardeners helper do not lap over the needs of a wife and nu

17、merous progeny.The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers Association, and the boys were busy organizing an athletic club, on the memorable night of Manuels treachery. No one saw him and Buck go off through the orchard on what Buck imagined was merely a stroll. And with the exception of a soli

18、tary man, no one saw them arrive at the little flag station known as College Park. This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.You might wrap up the goods before you deliver them, the stranger said gruffly, and Manuel doubled a piece of stout rope around Bucks neck under the collar.T

19、wist it, and youll choke him plenty, said Manuel, and the stranger grunted a ready affirmative.Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity. To be sure, it was an unwonted performance but he had learned to trust in men he knew, and to give them credit for a wisdom that outreached his own. But when

20、the ends of the rope were placed in the strangers hands, he growled menacingly. He had merely intimated his displeasure, in his pride believing that to intimate was to command. But to his surprise the rope tightened around his neck, shutting off his breath. In a quick rage he sprang at the man, who

21、met him halfway, grappled him close by the throat, and with a deft twist threw him over on his back. Then the rope tightened mercilessly, while Buck struggled in a fury, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest panting futilely. Never in all his life had he been so vilely treated, and

22、 never in all his life had he been so angry. But his strength ebbed, his eyes glazed, and he knew nothing when the train was flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car.The next he knew, he was dimly aware that his tongue was hurting and that he was being jolted along in some kind of a co

23、nveyance. The hoarse shriek of a locomotive whistling a crossing told him where he was. He had traveled too often with the Judge not to know the sensation of riding in a baggage car. He opened his eyes, and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnaped king. The man sprang for his throat, but Buc

24、k was too quick for him. His jaws closed on the hand, nor did they relax till his senses were choked out of him once more.Yep, has fits, the man said, hiding his mangled hand from the baggage man, who had been attracted by the sounds of struggle. Im taking him up for the boss to Frisco. A crack dog

25、doctor there thinks that he can cure him.Concerning that nights ride, the man spoke most eloquently for himself, in a little shed back of a saloon on the San Francisco water front.All I get is fifty for it, he grumbled, and I wouldnt do it over for a thousand, cold cash.His hand was wrapped in a blo

26、ody handkerchief, and the right trouser leg was ripped from knee to ankle.How much did the other mug get? the saloon-keeper demanded.A hundred, was the reply. Wouldnt take a sou less, so help me.That makes a hundred and fifty, the saloon-keeper calculated, and hes worth it, or Im a squarehead.The ki

27、dnaper undid the bloody wrappings and looked at his lacerated hand. If I dont get hydrophobia-Itll be because you was born to hang, laughed the saloon-keeper. Here, lend me a hand before you pull your freight, he added.Dazed, suffering intolerable pain from throat and tongue, with the life half thro

28、ttled out of him, Buck attempted to face his tormentors. But he was thrown down and choked repeatedly, till they succeeded in filing the heavy brass collar from off his neck. Then the rope was removed, and he was flung into a cage-like crate.There he lay for the remainder of the weary night, nursing

29、 his wrath and wounded pride. He could not understand what it all meant. What did they want with him, these strange men? Why were they keeping him pent up in this narrow crate? He did not know why, but he felt oppressed by the vague sense of impending calamity. Several times during the night he spra

30、ng to his feet when the shed door rattled open, expecting to see the Judge, or the boys at least. But each time it was the bulging face of the saloon-keeper that peered in at him by the sickly light of a tallow candle. And each time the joyful bark that trembled in Bucks throat was twisted into a sa

31、vage growl.But the saloon-keeper let him alone, and in the morning four men entered and picked up the crate. More tormentors, Buck decided, for they were evil-looking creatures, ragged and unkempt; and he stormed and raged at them through the bars. They only laughed and poked sticks at him, which he

32、 promptly assailed with his teeth till he realized that was what they wanted. Whereupon he lay down sullenly and allowed the crate to be lifted into a wagon. Then he, and the crate in which he was imprisoned, began a passage through many hands. Clerks in the express office took charge of him; he was carted about in another wagon; a truck carried him, with an assortment of boxes and parcels, upon a ferry steamer; he was trucked off the steamer into a great railway depot, and finally he was deposited in an express car.For two days and nights