It was early in the days of his persecution that he played his first really big crafty game and got therefrom his first taste of revenge.As Kiche, when with the wolves, had lured out to destruction dogs from the camps of men, so White Fang, in manner somewhat similar, lured Lip-lip into Kiche's avenging jaws.Retreating before Lip-lip, White Fang made an indirect flight that led in and out and around the various tepees of the camp.He was a good runner, swifter than any other puppy of his size, and swifter than Lip-lip.But he did not run his best in this chase.He barely held his own, one leap ahead of his pursuer.
Lip-lip, excited by the chase and by the persistent nearness of his victim, forgot caution and locality.When he remembered locality, it was too late.Dashing at top speed around a tepee, he ran full tilt into Kiche lying at the end of her stick.He gave one yelp of consternation, and then her punishing jaws closed upon him.She was tied, but he could not get away from her easily.She rolled him off his legs so that he could not run, while she repeatedly ripped and slashed him with her fangs.
When at last he succeeded in rolling clear of her, he crawled to his feet, badly dishevelled, hurt both in body and in spirit.His hair was standing out all over him in tufts where her teeth had mauled.He stood where he had arisen, opened his mouth, and broke out the long, heart-broken puppy wail.But even this he was not allowed to complete.In the middle of it, White Fang, rushing in, sank his teeth into Lip-lip's hind leg.
There was no fight left in Lip-lip, and he ran away shamelessly, his victim hot on his heels and worrying him all the way back to his own tepee.Here the squaws came to his aid, and White Fang, transformed into a raging demon, was finally driven off only by a fusillade of stones.
Came the day when Gray Beaver, deciding that the liability of her running away was past, released Kiche.White Fang was delighted with his mother's freedom.He accompanied her joyfully about the camp; and, so long as he remained close by her side, Lip-lip kept a respectful distance.White Fang even bristled up to him and walked stiff-legged, but Lip-lip ignored the challenge.He was no fool himself, and whatever vengeance he desired to wreak, he could wait until he caught White Fang alone.
Later on that day, Kiche and White Fang strayed into the edge of the woods next to the camp.He had led his mother there, step by step, and now, when she stopped, he tried to inveigle her farther.The stream, the lair, and the quiet woods were calling to him, and he wanted her to come.
He ran on a few steps, stopped, and looked back.She had not moved.He whined pleadingly, and scurried playfully in and out of the underbrush.
He ran back to her, licked her face, and ran on again.And still she did not move.He stopped and regarded her, all of an intentness and eagerness, physically expressed, that slowly faded out of him as she turned her head and gazed back at the camp.
There was something calling to him out there in the open.His mother heard it, too.But she heard also that other and louder call, the call of the fire and of man -- the call which it has been given alone of all animals to the wolf to answer, to the wolf and the wild-dog, who are brothers.
Kiche turned and slowly trotted back toward camp.Stronger than the physical restraint of the stick was the clutch of the camp upon her.Unseen and occultly, the gods still gripped with their power and would not let her go.White Fang sat down in the shadow of a birch and whimpered softly.
There was a strong smell of pine, and subtle woods fragrances filled the air, reminding him of his old life of freedom before the days of his bondage.
But he was still only a part-grown puppy, and stronger than the call either of man or of the Wild was the call of his mother.All the hours of his short life he had depended upon her.The time was yet to come for independence.
So he arose and trotted forlornly back to camp, pausing once, and twice, to sit down and whimper and to listen to the call that still sounded in the depths of the forest.
In the Wild the time of a mother with her young is short; but under the dominion of man it is sometimes even shorter.Thus it was with White Fang.Gray Beaver was in the debt of Three Eagles.Three Eagles was going away on a trip up the Mackenzie to the Great Slave Lake.A strip of scarlet cloth, a bearskin, twenty cartridges, and Kiche, went to pay the debt.
White Fang saw his mother taken aboard Three Eagles' canoe, and tried to follow her.A blow from Three Eagles knocked him backward to the land.
The canoe shoved off.He sprang into the water and swam after it, deaf to the sharp cries of Gray Beaver to return.Even a man-animal, a god, White Fang ignored, such was the terror he was in of losing his mother.
But gods are accustomed to being obeyed, and Gray Beaver wrathfully launched a canoe in pursuit.When he overtook White Fang, he reached down and by the nape of the neck lifted him clear of the water.He did not deposit him at once in the bottom of the canoe.Holding him suspended with one hand, with the other hand he proceeded to give him a beating.And it was a beating.His hand was heavy.Every blow was shrewd to hurt; and he delivered a multitude of blows.
