10 The Call of the Wild

CHAPTER 10 The Call of the Wild One night Buck woke up suddenly and sniffed the air, his hair bristling. From the forest came a call that was different than before. It was a long, drawn-out howl. He sprang through the camp, where everyone was still asleep, and ran through the woods. As he moved closer to the cry, he went slowly and carefully until he came to an open place among the trees. There Buck saw a long, lean timber wolf, sitting on its hind legs, with its nose pointed to the sky. Buck made no noise, but the wolf stopped

howling and looked around. Buck walked into the open, half crouching, his body poised and ready to jump, tail straight and stiff. Buck wanted to show that he could be friendly, but the wolf ran away. Buck followed and easily caught up to him. The wolf whirled around, ready to fight. Buck did not attack. Instead, he circled around the wolf and tried to show that he was friendly. The wolf was suspicious and afraid. Buck was at least three times larger than the wolf, and the wolf's head barely reached Buck's shoulder. When he saw a chance, the wolf ran away and Buck chased him again. Buck always caught up to him, and he ran again, until he was tired. In the end Buck got what he wanted. The wolf, finding that he was not in danger, finally sniffed noses with him. They became friendly and played with each other in a nervous, shy way. After some time, the wolf

started off at an easy run. He wanted Buck to come along, and they ran side by side through the night, into the mountains. They ran for days, and Buck was happy. He knew he was finally answering the call, running next to his friend, who was like a brother to him. They stopped by a stream to drink, and then Buck remembered John Thornton. He sat down. The wolf started on, and then returned to him, sniffing noses and trying to encourage Buck to keep going. But Buck turned around and started slowly back. For an hour the wolf ran by his side, whining softly. Then he sat down, pointed his nose upward, and howled. It was a sad howl, and as Buck kept going, he heard it grow fainter until it was lost in the distance. John Thornton was eating dinner when Buck ran into camp and jumped on him, licking his face, biting his hand in their friendly way, while Thornton shook Buck

back and forth and called him names. For two days and nights Buck never left camp, never let Thornton out of his sight. He followed him everywhere, watched him while he ate, saw him into his blankets at night and out of them in the morning. But after two days Buck began to feel the strange call in the forest stronger than ever. Buck's restlessness came back, and he could not stop thinking about the wolf and their run through the forest. Once again he took to wandering in the woods, but the wolf was not there. He began to go out at night, staying away from camp for days at a time. Once he crossed over the mountain and wandered for a week, looking for the wolf, hunting and eating as he traveled. He never seemed to get tired. He fished for salmon in a stream, and he even won a fight against a large black bear. It was a hard battle, and it made Buck

feel like a fighter again. Two days later, he hunted wolverines and caught two of them. He felt like the best hunter in the world, the strongest animal. He was proud, and it showed in the way he moved. Except for the brown color on his nose and above his eyes, and the white hair across his chest, he looked like a gigantic wolf, larger than the largest wolf in the world. Buck's father was a St. Bernard, so Buck inherited his size and weight from him, while he had inherited his shape from his mother, who was a shepherd. His nose was long like a wolf's, but it was larger than the nose on any wolf. His head was shaped like a wolf's head, but it was three times larger. He was as cunning as a wolf, and he was as smart as a shepherd and a St. Bernard. All this, plus the experience gained in the North, made him as strong as any animal that was in the wild. He could respond to sights and

sounds as fast as lightning. As quick as a husky dog could leap, he could leap twice as fast. He could see a movement, or hear a sound, and respond in less time than another dog needed just to see or hear something. His muscles were powerful, and they snapped like steel springs. "There has never been such a dog," said John Thornton one day, as he and his partners watched Buck marching out of camp. "After he was made, the mold was broke," said Pete. "By jingo! I think so myself," Hans agreed. They saw him marching out of camp, but they did not see what changed as soon as he was hidden in the forest. He stopped marching. He became a thing of the wild, creeping softly. He knew how to hide, to crawl on his belly like a snake, and, like a