1 Kidnapped

CHAPTER 1 Kidnapped Buck did not read the newspapers. If he did, he would have known that trouble was brewing, not only for himself, but for every dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. A little while ago, some men, who lived far north in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal that was worth a lot of money. Now, thousands of men were heading north in pursuit of that metal they called gold. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were dogs like Buck, heavy dogs with strong

第一章被绑架的巴克不看报纸。 如果他知道，他就会知道麻烦正在酝酿，不仅是他自己，还有从普吉特海湾到圣地亚哥的每一只肌肉强壮、长着温暖长毛的狗。 不久以前，一些住在遥远的北极黑暗中的人发现了一种价值不菲的黄色金属。 现在，成千上万的人向北进发，寻找他们称之为黄金的金属。 这些人想要狗，他们想要的狗是巴克那样的狗，又重又壮

muscles and furry coats to protect them from the cold. Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley in California. Judge Miller's place, as it was called, stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide porch that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by gravel driveways, which wound about through wide lawns. Behind the house were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys worked, rows of vine-clad servants' cottages, long grapevines, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. There was a large well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller's boys took their morning swim and kept cool in the hot afternoon. And over this great estate Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other

肌肉和毛茸茸的皮毛保护它们抵御寒冷。 巴克住在加州阳光普照的圣克拉拉山谷的一所大房子里。 所谓米勒法官的住处，背对大路，半隐在树林里，从树林里可以瞥见四周宽阔的门廊。 通往这所房子的是一条砾石车道，这条车道蜿蜒穿过宽阔的草坪。 房子后面是大马厩，十几个马夫和男孩在马厩里干活，一排排长满葡萄藤的仆人小屋，长长的葡萄藤，绿色的牧场、果园和浆果地。 有一口大水井，还有一个大水泥缸，米勒法官的孩子们早上在那里游泳，在炎热的下午保持凉爽。 巴克统治着这个伟大的庄园。 他在这里出生，在这里度过了他人生的四年。 这是真的，还有其他的

dogs, there could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived quietly in the corners of the house like 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 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 not a house dog or a kennel dog. He looked after the entire place. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge's sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge's daughters, on long twilight or earlymorning walks around the estate; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge's feet before the roaring library fire. He

狗，在这么大的地方，不可能没有其他的狗，但它们不算数。 它们来来往往，住在人口众多的狗舍里，或者安静地住在房子的角落里，就像日本的哈巴狗图茨和墨西哥的无毛怪动物伊莎贝尔一样，它们很少把鼻子伸出门来，也很少把脚踩到地上。 另一方面，有一些猎狐犬，至少有二十只，它们在一群拿着扫帚和拖把的女仆的保护下，对着窗外望着他们的图茨和伊莎贝尔发出可怕的许诺。 但巴克既不是家养的狗，也不是狗窝里的狗。 他照看着整个地方。 他跳进游泳池，或者和法官的儿子们一起去打猎；他陪着法官的女儿莫丽和爱丽丝在黄昏或清晨绕着庄园散步；在冬天的夜晚，他躺在法官的脚边，站在图书室熊熊燃烧的炉火前。 他

carried the Judge's grandsons on his back, rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the horse stables stood, and the berry patches grew. He walked like a king past the kennel dogs and utterly ignored Toots and Ysabel because he was king—king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller's place, humans included. Buck's father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge's close friend, and Buck tried to follow in the way of his father. He was not so large—he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds—for his mother, Shep, had been a smaller Scotch shepherd dog. Still, one 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,

他把法官的孙子们背在背上，把他们在草地上滚来滚去，看守着他们的足迹，一路狂奔到马厩院子里的喷泉边，甚至更远的地方，那里有马厩，长着浆果块。 他像国王一样从狗窝里走过，完全不理睬图茨和伊莎贝尔，因为他是所有像米勒法官那样爬、爬、飞的东西（包括人类）的国王。 巴克的父亲埃尔莫是一位身材高大的圣人。 伯纳一直是法官的密友，巴克也想走他父亲的老路。 他没有那么大——体重只有140磅——因为他的母亲谢普是一只更小的苏格兰牧羊犬。 尽管如此，一百四十英镑的身价，加上良好的生活和普遍的尊敬所带来的尊严，使他能够举止得体。 在他长大后的四年里，

he had a fine pride in himself, and was even a trifle bit arrogant, as country gentlemen can sometimes become. But he had saved himself by not becoming a mere pampered house dog. Hunting and running outdoors had kept down the fat and hardened his muscles. He also loved to play and swim. This was the kind of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the Klondike gold rush dragged men from all over the world into the frozen North. But Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel, one of the gardeners, had one dangerous problem: he loved to gamble. One night when the Judge was at a meeting, and the boys were busy—on the memorable night of Manuel's treachery—no one saw him and Buck go off through the orchard on what Buck imagined was just a stroll. And except for one other man, no one saw them arrive at the tiny trail station

他对自己非常自豪，甚至有点傲慢，乡村绅士有时也会这样。 但他没有成为一只娇生不养的看家狗，从而拯救了自己。 打猎和户外跑步使他的脂肪减少，肌肉硬化。 他还喜欢玩耍和游泳。 1897年秋天，当克朗代克的淘金热把世界各地的人们吸引到冰天雪地的北方时，巴克就是这样的狗。 但巴克不看报纸，他也不知道园丁之一曼纽尔有一个危险的毛病：他喜欢赌博。 一天晚上，法官正在开会，孩子们正忙着——就在曼努埃尔背叛的那个难忘的夜晚——没有人看见他和巴克穿过果园，巴克以为他们只是在散步。 除了另外一个人，没有人看到他们到达了那个小小的驿站