登陆注册
5400200000030

第30章

For two days and nights Buck never left camp, never let Thornton out of his sight.He followed him about at his work, watched him while he ate, saw him into his blankets at night and out of them in the morning.But after two days the call in the forest began to sound more imperiously than ever.Buck's restlessness came back on him, and he was haunted by recollections of the wild brother, and of the smiling land beyond the divide and the run side by side through the wide forest stretches.Once again he took to wandering in the woods, but the wild brother came no more; and though he listened through long vigils, the mournful howl was never raised.

He began to sleep out at night, staying away from camp for days at a time; and once he crossed the divide at the head of the creek and went down into the land of timber and streams.There he wandered for a week, seeking vainly for fresh sign of the wild brother, killing his meat as he travelled and travelling with the long, easy lope that seems never to tire.He fished for salmon in a broad stream that emptied somewhere into the sea, and by this stream he killed a large black bear, blinded by the mosquitoes while likewise fishing, and raging through the forest helpless and terrible.Even so, it was a hard fight, and it aroused the last latent remnants of Buck's ferocity.And two days later, when he returned to his kill and found a dozen wolverenes quarrelling over the spoil, he scattered them like chaff; and those that fled left two behind who would quarrel no more.

The blood-longing became stronger than ever before.He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived.Because of all this he became possessed of a great pride in himself, which communicated itself like a contagion to his physical being.It advertised itself in all his movements, was apparent in the play of every muscle, spoke plainly as speech in the way he carried himself, and made his glorious furry coat if anything more glorious.But for the stray brown on his muzzle and above his eyes, and for the splash of white hair that ran midmost down his chest, he might well have been mistaken for a gigantic wolf, larger than the largest of the breed.From his St.Bernard father he had inherited size and weight, but it was his shepherd mother who had given shape to that size and weight.His muzzle was the long wolf muzzle, save that was larger than the muzzle of any wolf; and his head, somewhat broader, was the wolf head on a massive scale.His cunning was wolf cunning, and wild cunning; his intelligence, shepherd intelligence and St.Bernard intelligence; and all this, plus an experience gained in the fiercest of schools, made him as formidable a creature as any that intelligence roamed the wild.A carnivorous animal living on a straight meat diet, he was in full flower, at the high tide of his life, overspilling with vigor and virility.When Thornton passed a caressing hand along his back, a snapping and crackling followed the hand, each hair discharing its pent magnetism at the contact.Every part, brain and body, nerve tissue and fibre, was keyed to the most exquisite pitch; and between all the parts there was a perfect equilibrium or adjustment.To sights and sounds and events which required action, he responded with lightning-like rapidity.Quickly as a husky dog could leap to defend from attack or to attack, he could leap twice as quickly.He saw the movement, or heard sound, and responded in less time than another dog required to compass the mere seeing or hearing.He perceived and determined and responded in the same instant.In point of fact the three actions of perceiving, determining, and responding were sequential; but so infinitesimal were the intervals of time between them that they appeared simultaneous.His muscles were surcharged with vitality, and snapped into play sharply, like steel springs.Life streamed through him in splendid flood, glad and rampant, until it seemed that it would burst him asunder in sheer ecstasy and pour forth generously over the world.

"Never was there such a dog," said John Thornton one day, as the partners watched Buck marching out of camp.

"When he was made, the mould was broke," said Pete.

"Py jingo! I t'ink so mineself," Hans affirmed.

They saw him marching out of camp, but they did not see the instant and terrible transformation which took place as soon as he was within the secrecy of the forest.He no longer marched.At once he became a thing of the wild, stealing along softly, cat- footed, a passing shadow that appeared and disappeared among the shadows.He knew how to take advantage of every cover, to crawl on his belly like a snake, and like a snake to leap and strike.He could take a ptarmigan from its nest, kill a rabbit as it slept, and snap in mid air the little chipmunks fleeing a second too late for the trees.Fish, in open pools, were not too quick for him; nor were beaver, mending their dams, too wary.He killed to eat, not from wantonness; but he preferred to eat what he killed himself.So a lurking humor ran through his deeds, and it was his delight to steal upon the squirrels, and, when he all but had them, to let them go, chattering in mortal fear to the treetops.

同类推荐
  • 浮生六记

    浮生六记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说大孔雀王杂神咒经

    佛说大孔雀王杂神咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 知医必辨

    知医必辨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明伦汇编交谊典师友部

    明伦汇编交谊典师友部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 永嘉八面锋

    永嘉八面锋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 重生之大少奶奶不好惹

    重生之大少奶奶不好惹

    新书《花间叹烙红颜》,希望大家支持。什么?让她与公鸡拜堂成亲?什么?要想和离,先帮他铲除异己?木语花为了郑叶熙,背后受了一刀,毫不畏惧跟着他,坠落悬崖,迎接自己的,却是赶出郑府?回到娘家,后母杀之,父亲告诉自己,本不是亲生女儿,母亲被后母活活毒死,好吧,她,注定是个孤儿。郑叶熙抗旨关入死牢,木语花为之奔走,受人羞辱,将之救出,忍痛离去,郑叶熙沿路追妻。木语花偶遇亲爹,摇身一变成为云兮山庄的大小姐,却中了亲娘的情毒,小命休矣……
  • 飞雪何以念晴风

    飞雪何以念晴风

    一篇很短的、以第三人称讲述的一本小说。随便写写,喜则留、厌则走
  • 明伦汇编人事典掩胔部

    明伦汇编人事典掩胔部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 杰出青少年的思维力训练

    杰出青少年的思维力训练

    弹奏一首动听的乐曲,需要训练;写得一手好字,需要训练:说得一口流利的外语,需要训练;成为一个优秀的职业运动员,需要训练……提高我们的思维能力,同样需要训练。经过训练让思维能力最大限度地得以发挥,是每个杰出青少年制胜的关键! 本书为你提供了34种行之有效的训练方法,希冀能对你有所帮助!
  • 梁启超传(全集)

    梁启超传(全集)

    《梁启超传》以梁启超的生平经历为纵轴,以梁启超与康有为、袁世凯、孙中山等人的交往横向铺展开来,以点带面、以人带史,重新评估了梁启超及其思想的历史价值与当代意义;并以宽广的视野和宏大的格局,以梁启超为中心展示了晚清民国大变局中一代知识分子的痛苦、彷徨及艰难求索的历程。《梁启超传》堪称梁启超辞世83年来最为详尽、客观的传记。
  • 御兽大世界

    御兽大世界

    你穿越到御兽大世界。你成为一名御兽师。你决定……【新书:山海御兽】
  • 陌上花开

    陌上花开

    记忆中的麻雀,羽翼丰满风一阵阵地吹来,爬山过河背负天空,横身躺下来,水声风声一起白了头,自少年一直划拨到晚年的边界。
  • 懒江碎碎念

    懒江碎碎念

    一些断章,一些断断续续的句子,一些属于年少的情绪
  • 邪心

    邪心

    天才杀手夜无邪得到先天灵物混元紫金塔,遭遇强者追杀,重生异界玉川大陆。欺天之秘辛,血染之历史,重临世间!黄金大世,天才云集,一剑绝尘,震天慑地。似仙非仙,似魔非魔,万千大道,亦正亦邪。苍茫大地,缤纷世界,谁主沉浮?唯我邪公子!邪公子:一剑沧澜破天穹,两樽浊酒会知心,前世沽名化凡尘,今生轻笑斩仙人,斩仙人。
  • 男主为何那样精分

    男主为何那样精分

    时又宁与储修初相遇时,他是个年轻沉稳很靠得住的伟光正。然而没多久……这男人满面桃花地挑起她的下巴:“女人,你看起来很可口。”待时又宁这颗老心脏被这小崽子撩拨的心猿意马时,他偏偏又……一脸无欲无求出尘如仙:“你能不能别靠着我?”时又宁:……哦,这男人为何那样精分!这是一个开篇女主精分、后期男主精分、大家都有第二张面孔就看谁最后掉的精分小故事(错误,划掉)其实这是一个打打怪、恋恋爱的甜宠文!!!!!如果不是欢迎来砍作者!