In the same way, he came to tolerate Matt -- as a possession of his master.His master rarely fed him.Matt did that, it was his business;yet White Fang divined that it was his master's food he ate and that it was his master who thus fed him vicariously.Matt it was who tried to put him into the harness and make him haul sled with the other dogs.But Matt failed.It was not until Weedon Scott put the harness on White Fang and worked him, that he understood.He took it as his master's will that Matt should drive him and work him just as he drove and worked his master's other dogs.
Different from the Mackenzie toboggans were the Klondike sleds with runners under them.And different was the method of driving the dogs.There was no fan-formation of the team.The dogs worked in single file, one behind another, hauling on double traces.And here, in the Klondike, the leader was indeed the leader.The wisest as well as strongest dog was the leader, and the team obeyed him and feared him.That White Fang should quickly gain this post was inevitable.He could not be satisfied with less, as Matt learned after much inconvenience and trouble.White Fang picked out the post for himself, and Matt backed his judgment with strong language after the experiment had been tried.But, though he worked in the sled in the day, White Fang did not forego the guarding of his master's property in the night.Thus he was on duty all the time, ever vigilant and faithful, the most valuable of all the dogs.
"Makin' free to spit out what's in me," Matt said, one day, " beg to state that you was a wise guy all right when you paid the price you did for that dog.You clean swindled Beauty Smith on top of pushin' his face in with your fist."A recrudescence of anger glinted in Weedon Scott's gray eyes, and he muttered savagely, "The beast!"In the late spring a great trouble came to White Fang.Without warning, the love-master disappeared.There had been warning, but White Fang was unversed in such things and did not understand the packing of a grip.He remembered afterward that this packing had preceded the master's disappearance;but at the time he suspected nothing.That night he waited for the master to return.At midnight the chill wind that blew drove him to shelter at the rear of the cabin.There he drowsed, only half asleep, his ears keyed for the first sound of the familiar step.But, at two in the morning, his anxiety drove him out to the cold front stoop, where he crouched and waited.
But no master came.In the morning the door opened and Matt stepped outside.White Fang gazed at him wistfully.There was no common speech by which he might learn what he wanted to know.The days came and went, but never the master.White Fang, who had never known sickness in his life, became sick.He became very sick, so sick that Matt was finally compelled to bring him inside the cabin.Also, in writing to his employer, Matt devoted a postscript to White Fang.
Weedon Scott reading the letter down in Circle City, came upon the following:
"That dam wolf wont work.Wont eat.Aint got no spunk left.All the dogs is licking him.Wants to know what has become of you, and I dont know how to tell him.Mebbe he is going to die."It was as Matt had said.White Fang had ceased eating, lost heart, and allowed every dog of the team to thrash him.In the cabin he lay on the floor near the stove, without interest in food, in Matt, nor in life.Matt might talk gently to him or swear at him, it was all the same; he never did more than turn his dull eyes upon the man, then drop his head back to its customary position on his fore-paws.
And then, one night, Matt, reading to himself with moving lips and mumbled sounds, was startled by a low whine from White Fang.He had got up on his feet, his ears cocked toward the door, and he was listening intently.Amoment later, Matt heard a footstep.The door opened, and Weedon Scott stepped in.The two men shook hands.Then Scott looked around the room.
"Where's the wolf?" he asked.
Then he discovered him, standing where he had been lying, near to the stove.He had not rushed forward after the manner of other dogs.He stood, watching and waiting.
"Holy smoke!" Matt exclaimed."Look at 'm wag his tail!"Weedon Scott strode half across the room toward him, at the same time calling him.White Fang came to him, not with a great bound, yet quickly.
He was awkward from self-consciousness, but as he drew near, his eyes took on a strange expression.Something, an incommunicable vastness of feeling, rose up into his eyes as a light and shone forth.
"He never looked at me that way all the time you was gone," Matt commented.
