 cariboo-gut with its biting thirty-foot lash. So
White Fang could only eat his heart in bitterness and develop a hatred and
malice commensurate with the ferocity and indomitability of his nature.
    If ever a creature was the enemy of its kind, White Fang was that creature.
He asked no quarter, gave none. He was continually marred and scarred by the
teeth of the pack, and as continually he left his own marks upon the pack.
Unlike most leaders, who, when camp was made and the dogs were unhitched,
huddled near to the gods for protection, White Fang disdained such protection.
He walked boldly about the camp, inflicting punishment in the night for what he
had suffered in the day. In the time before he was made leader of the team, the
pack had learned to get out of his way. But now it was different. Excited by the
day-long pursuit of him, swayed subconsciously by the insistent iteration on
their brains of the sight of him fleeing away, mastered by the feeling of
mastery enjoyed all day, the dogs could not bring themselves to give way to him.
When he appeared amongst them, there was always a squabble. His progress was
marked by snarl and snap and growl. The very atmosphere he breathed was
surcharged with hatred and malice, and this but served to increase the hatred
and malice within him.
    When Mit-sah cried out his command for the team to stop, White Fang obeyed.
At first this caused trouble for the other dogs. All of them would spring upon
the hated leader, only to find the tables turned. Behind him would be Mit-sah,
the great whip singing in his hand. So the dogs came to understand that when the
team stopped by order, White Fang was to be let alone. But when White Fang
stopped without orders, then it was allowed them to spring upon him and destroy
him if they could. After several experiences, White Fang never stopped without
orders. He learned quickly. It was in the nature of things that he must learn
quickly, if he were to survive the unusually severe conditions under which life
was vouchsafed him.
    But the dogs could never learn the lesson to leave him alone in camp. Each
day, pursuing him and crying defiance at him, the lesson of the previous night
was erased, and that night would have to be learned over again, to be as
immediately forgotten. Besides, there was a greater consistence in their dislike
of him. They sensed between themselves and him a difference of kind - cause
sufficient in itself for hostility. Like him
