Both The Call of the Wild and Finis, the story that completes this

volume, they have in common the space in which the adventure takes place: the area
Arctic near the Yukon River, where the deposits were found that gave
place to the "gold rush." Buck, the vigorous dog who, a victim of a
betrayal, has fallen into the hands of the gold seekers, demonstrates with the
devotion to their master that dogs can be more human than
men. Once their master is dead, they will follow the call of instinct, of nature
ancestral and wild, to join her brother the wolf. As Oriana has written
Fallaci, this violent, sentimental, and cruel novel is a 'hymn to freedom.'
absolute.

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 Jack London

The Call of the Wild

Your Books - 54

ePub r1.0
Titivillus05.11.2019

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Título original:The Call of the Wild
Jack London, 1903
Translation and notes: M. I. Villarino
Appendix: Francisco Cabezas Coca
Illustrations: Charles Pickard
Recording by the author: Justo Barboza

Digital Editor: Titivillus

ePub base r2.1

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Page 5
The Call of the Wild is a direct and complete translation of the original English published.
in its first edition at Macmillan Co., New York, 1903. Ends translation
directly and integrally from the original English (prepublished in Success Magazine, May
1907), later published in a collection of stories under the title: Turtles
of Tasman, Macmillan Company, New York, 1916. The illustrations, original of
Charles Pickard accompanied the text of the English edition by J. M. Dent & Sons
Ltd. of 1968.

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The Call of the Wild

Page 7
 Chapter 1
Towards the primitive

The wandering impulse of ancient desires

suffering ancestral chains
wakes up again from her misty dream
to the fierce race.

Buck did not read the newspapers; that's why he was unaware of the threat that was going to
transform not only their life but also that of the dogs along the coast, from the
Puget Sound to San Diego[1], that had strong musculature and dense
and warm fur. The men who were working through the shadows of the
In the Arctic, they had found a yellow metal and shipping companies and firms...
transport announced the discovery; for this reason, thousands of men flocked
hasty to the lands of the north. These men needed dogs and also
resilient dogs, with strong musculature that can withstand heavy work, and
strong bramble bushes that protected them from the frost.
Buck lived in a beautiful house, in the sunny valley of Santa Clara.[2]. The
they called it Judge Miller's estate. It was set away from the road, half
hidden among a grove that barely allowed glimpses of the wide and cool
balcony that surrounded the house on all four sides. The house could be reached
through gravel paths that wound through wide expanses of
grass and under the intertwined branches of tall poplars. At the back,
the farm was even more spacious. It had large stables, which catered to a
a dozen grooms and stable boys, several rows of little houses for the
service, all of them with their trellis, and a myriad of neat sheds,
high vines, green pastures, orchards and gardens. And then there was the bomb
from the artisan well and a large concrete basin where Judge Miller's children
they took a dip in the mornings, or they refreshed themselves in the afternoons
they were warm.
And over these vast domains ruled Buck. There he was born and there he spent
his four years of life. It is true that there were other dogs (they could not be missing in a
a place as enormous as that one), but they were second-rate. They went back and forth, they

Página 8
they remained in the crowded dog shelters or discreetly got lost in the corners
darker ones of the mansion, like Toots, the little Japanese dog, or Ysabel, the
Mexican hairless dog[3](strange beings that rarely poke their noses out
at home or they tread on the ground). On the other hand, there were the fox terriers.[4], more than
twenty surely, that barked threateningly at Toots and Ysabel,
who watched them from the windows and under the protection of a legion of
armed maids with brooms and mops.

Page 9
Page 10
 Buck was not a dog to stay at home or to live in a kennel. All the
the farm was hers. She would dive into the pool or go hunting with the children of the
judge; was escorting the daughters, Mollie and Alice, on the walks they took
good morning or at dusk; and in the winter nights he used to lie down to the
judge's feet, in front of the crackling fire of the library. The judge's grandchildren the
he carried them on his back and rolled them over the grass; and he didn't lose them
from the viewpoint when they ventured all the way to the stables' fountain and even further
far away, to the grasslands or the orchards. When I walked among the fox-
terriers, he did it with arrogance, and regarding Toots and Ysabel, he despised them.
olympically, for he was the king, and he ruled over all that by the
domains of Judge Miller crawled, dragged or flew, human beings
inclusive.
His father, Elmo, a huge Saint Bernard[5], had been a companion
inseparable from the judge, and Buck was following the same path as his ancestor. Not
he was so big (he only weighed one hundred forty pounds[6]), because her mother, Shep,
it had been a Collie[7]Scottish. But, if those one hundred forty pounds are applied to
it added up to dignity, which is the result of a gifted life and respect
universal, the result was the most majestic appearance. The first four
years of his life had been those of a satisfied aristocrat; he was refined
proud and a bit selfish, as wealthy landowners sometimes become
because of his isolation. But he avoided becoming a mere dog
homemade. Hunting and other pleasures of outdoor life had served him to
reduce fat and firm your muscles; and your fondness for cold water, which came to him
of a race, it was a tonic for his body that kept him in shape.
This was the dog's life that Buck was leading in the autumn of 1897 when the
Klondike discovery[8]dragged men from all over the world to the lands
frosts of the north. But Buck did not read the newspapers and was unaware that Manuel,
One of the gardener's assistants was an undesirable type. Manuel had a
vice: he liked to play the Chinese lottery[9]And besides, when playing I had a
ruinous weakness: he relied on a method, which was to lead him
irremediably to perdition. Because playing systematically requires
money and the salary of a gardener's assistant barely suffice to cover the
needs of a woman and her numerous offspring.
The judge was attending a meeting of the Winemakers Association and the boys were
they dedicated themselves to organizing an athletics club that memorable night when
Manuel perpetrated his betrayal. No one saw him leave with Buck and cross the orchard; the
Buck himself believed they were going for a walk. And no one saw them arrive at the station.

Page 11
from College Park, more than a solitary man who was there and who spoke with
Manuel while some coins passed from one hand to another.
"You could have wrapped the package before delivering it," muttered the outsider.
and Manuel wrapped a strong rope around Buck's neck beneath the
collar.
—Twist it and you'll drown him well —Manuel said, and the outsider nodded.
with another growl.
Buck had endured the rope with serene dignity. The truth is that the
he found it strange, but he had learned to trust the men who
he knew and admitted that human wisdom was superior to his own;
But when he saw that the stranger was grasping the ends of the rope, he growled.
threateningly. He merely hinted at his discontent, believing himself very smug
implying is equivalent to ordering. But what would their surprise be when the rope
he tightened his neck almost preventing him from breathing. He lunged furiously at the
man, who confronted him, grabbed him by the neck and, with a skillful maneuver,
he pulled her backward. Then the rope tightened mercilessly as Buck struggled.
desperate, with his tongue out and panting uselessly. Never in his life did he
they had been treated so infamously and had never felt so in their life
irritated. But his strength gave way, his eyes blurred and he did not realize
that the train was stopping and the two men were pushing it into the van of
luggages.
When he regained consciousness, he vaguely noticed that his tongue hurt and that he
the rattling of some type of vehicle shook. The hoarse whistle of a
a locomotive at a crossing revealed where it was located. It had often traveled
with the judge and he knew too well the feeling of being in the van
of luggage. He opened his eyes and in them was reflected the unconstrained rage of a king.
kidnapped. The man jumped at his neck, but Buck got ahead of him. His jaws
They closed around the hand and did not let go until it lost again.
meaning.
—Es que le dan ataques —dijo el hombre, escondiendo la mano herida
when the person in charge of the van arrived upon hearing the scuffle—. The boss has me
ordered to take them to Frisco[10]. There is a phenomenal dog doctor there, that
he says he can cure it.
Regarding what happened during the trip, the man gave himself a lot to
to be valued in the back room of a bar on the San Francisco wharf.
I only get fifty,
told.

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 He had his hand wrapped in a bloodstained handkerchief and the pant leg
right pant leg torn from the knee to the ankle.
How much did the other guy get? asked the innkeeper.
—One hundred. I wouldn't leave it for a dog less, so you'll have to tell me.
—That is one hundred and fifty —calculated the innkeeper—, although well
They are worth it or I am a fool.
The kidnapper removed the bloodied bandage and looked at his hand.
wound
As long as I don't get angry...
Don't worry, you'll die by hanging,
You, give me a hand before you leave.
Stunned, suffering unbearable pain in the tongue and throat, half
dead from asphyxiation, Buck tried to confront his torturers. But he
They brought him down and twisted the rope several times until they managed to file him down.
the thick brass collar he was wearing around his neck. Then they took off the rope and him
they put him in a drawer similar to a cage.
There he stayed for the rest of that exhausting night, soothing his anger and his
wounded pride. He couldn't understand what was happening. What were they going to do with him?
aquellos desconocidos? ¿Por qué lo tenían encerrado en aquel cajón tan
small? I was unaware of the reasons, but felt oppressed by the vague sensation.
that some calamity was going to happen. Several times during the course of the
that night jumped up at the sound of the shed door creaking open,
waiting to see the judge, or at least the kids. But it always turned out to be
the thick face of the innkeeper who peeked out to take a look at the
mortal light of a tallow candle. And then the cheerful bark that
it trembled in Buck's throat turning into a fierce growl.
But the tavern keeper did not bother him and in the morning two men arrived who
They took the coffin. More torturers, Buck thought, for they had an appearance
horrible, ragged and dirty; and it roared menacingly through them.
bars. But they limited themselves to laughing and goading him with sticks that Buck
he rushed to bite until he realized that this was exactly what
they wanted. So he stayed still and dejected while they lifted the cage up to a
cart. Then he and his wooden prison were passed from hand to hand.
The billing office employees took charge of him; afterwards he
they moved to another car; a trolley transported him along with several boxes and
packages to a transfer station, from where it went to a large warehouse of
railways to end up deposited in the car of an express train.

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 For two days and two nights, the express train car was dragged by
noisy locomotives; and for two days and two nights Buck did not eat
mouthful of water. He was so furious that he had responded to the first ones
gestures of the train employees with grunts and they in turn took revenge
making him furious. If he lunged against the bars, drooling and panting,
They laughed at him and redoubled their mockery. They growled and barked like dogs.
disgusting, they meowed, waved their arms as if they were wings and quacked.
I already knew they were nonsense, but precisely because of that, they offended more.
he honored his dignity, and his rage grew by the moment. He didn't care
much to starve, but the lack of water was very distressing and intensified
his anger in a feverish way. Of nervous and very sensitive nature, the bad
contracts had plunged him into a fever that grew with the inflammation of the
tongue and throat, swollen and dry.
His only relief was that he no longer had the noose around his neck. Before, they had...
played with an advantage, but now that it had been taken away from them, they would show them.
who he was. They would never tie a rope around his neck again, he was determined.
For two days and two nights he neither ate nor drank, and during those two days
And after two nights of torment, a rage accumulated that was not foreseen.
nothing good for the first one who crossed his path. He had the eyes
blood injected and had become a rabid beast. So
he had changed so much that even the judge himself would not have recognized him; and the
railway employees were very relieved when he was taken down from
train in Seattle[11].
Four young men carefully moved the crate to an interior hallway.
of high walls. A burly man, wearing a loose red sweater, came out and
he signed the receipt to the driver. This is the man, Buck said to himself, the next
torturer; and he fiercely threw himself against the bars. The man smiled
he returned and brought an axe and a club.
You won't think of letting it go now, will you? the driver asked him.
"Of course," the man replied, starting to chop away with an axe against
the drawer.
The four men who had brought him rushed out.
they arranged to watch the show well perched at the top of the
wall.
Buck lunged at the splintered woods, sinking his teeth into them and
fighting furiously against them. With each blow of the axe from the outside, he
responded with another from within, roaring fiercely; and its wild longings

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for leaving were equivalent to the controlled calm that the man manifested
from the red jersey for taking it out.
Come on, red-eyed demon,
large enough for Buck's body to pass through. And to the
At the same time he dropped the axe and switched the club to his right hand.
And truly, Buck was a red-eyed demon when he set out to
jumping with bristling hair, foaming mouth, and a crazy look
in his bloodshot eyes. He shot towards the man, with his
one hundred and forty pounds of fury reinforced by the anger accumulated over two days and
two nights of confinement. But halfway through, at the very moment
As their jaws were about to close on the man, he received a blow
that stopped his body and made him clench his jaw tightly in a
bite of pain. It spun in the air and fell to the ground.
Never in his life had he been hit with a stick and he did not understand what
what was happening. With a roar that was more of a scream than a howl, he turned back to
straighten up ready to jump. And again the hit occurred and fell again
crushed to the ground. This time he realized that the blame lay with the club,
but his madness prevented him from being prudent. He attacked again a dozen times, and
other ones the club fell on top of him knocking him down.
After an extraordinarily violent blow, he crawled to the
the man's feet, too stunned to attack again; he limped, he was bleeding
blood from the nose, mouth, and ears, and had its beautiful fur stained with
blood and spit. Then the man stepped forward and deliberately unloaded a
terrible blow to the snout. All the pains I had just suffered were not
nothing compared to the refined cruelty of this. With a roar almost as
fierce like that of a lion, lunged at the man again. But he,
moving the stick from his right hand to the left, he grabbed it from below
the jaw, twisting it at the same time down and back. Buck
described a complete circle in the air and half of another, and then fell to the
face down on the ground.
For the last time, he attacked again. But the man had reserved his strike.
more cunning and Buck collapsed in a ball and completely senseless.
I say! This one doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to taming a dog! shouted
excited one of the men who was sitting on the wall.
I would prefer to tame wild colts.12daily and double portion the
Sunday —the driver shouted as he climbed onto the cart and threw himself in.
to ride the horses.

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 Buck regained consciousness but not strength. Lying in the same place.
from where I had fallen, I watched the man in the red sweater.
--Responds to the name of Buck-- the man murmured, repeating the
words from the letter of the innkeeper, who had announced to him the sending of the box and
its content—. Well, man, Buck —he continued very excitedly—, we have
had a little fight and now, a clean slate. You know what to expect and
me too. Behave well and everything will go smoothly. But if you misbehave,
I'll break your face. Do you understand?

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 And while he spoke, he gently caressed the head that so
ruthlessly had just hit and, although Buck's instincts kicked in
hairs standing on end unwittingly, upon feeling the touch of that hand, he endured it without
protest. When the man brought her water, she drank it eagerly and then
he swallowed a good portion of raw meat, taking it piece by piece from his
hand.
They had defeated him (Buck knew it well), but he was not defeated. He gave himself
tell, once and for all, that he could not face a man
with garrote. He learned the lesson and never forgot it for the rest of his life. The
garrote was for him a revelation that introduced him to the realm of law
primitive nature, and accepted the rules of the game. The meaning of life acquired a
wilder aspect; and, although he did not back down when facing this aspect, he
he did so with all the latent cunning that had awakened in his nature. With
As the days went by, other dogs arrived, some in crates and others tied up with
some gently, and others raging and roaring as he had arrived;
And he saw them all submit to the authority of the man in the red sweater.
Time and again, while watching each of those performances
brutal, Buck remembered the lesson learned; a man with a club is the
Law is a master that must be obeyed, even if it is not accepted.
Buck never did it, despite seeing beaten dogs that humiliated themselves before
that hand and they licked it wagging their tails.
He also saw a dog that was not willing to yield or obey and that
he ended up dying in that struggle for dominance.
Occasionally, men would arrive, newcomers, who spoke with great
animation and many compliments and in all tones to the man in the sweater
red. And when they exchanged money, the outsiders took away a dog or
various. Buck wondered where they would go, for they never returned; but he felt
a great fear of the future and he was glad every time he was not chosen.
But in the end, his time came, in the form of a little man who
he spoke broken English mixed with a thousand strange oaths
that Buck could not understand.
Holy shit![13] he exclaimed as he cast his gaze over Buck. Peggo de
Good joke, huh? How much?
Three hundred, and it's a gift,
red—. And since you are paying with government money, you won't go complain, right?
Perrault?
Perrault smiled. Considering that the price of dogs had
put on a pedestal because of the extraordinary demand for them, it was not

Page 17
an exaggerated sum for that beautiful animal. The Canadian government does not
would come out losing nor would his email travel slower. Perrault understood about
dogs and as soon as he saw Buck he realized that he was one of a kind.
"Very out of the ordinary," he said to himself.
Buck saw the money passing between the hands of both men and did not
it was surprising to see that the little wrinkled man was taking him and Curly away,
docile Newfoundland dog[14]It was the last time she saw the man of
red jersey and it was also the last time he saw the warm lands of the south,
while from the Narwhal bridge he and Curly watched as it moved away
city of Seattle. Perrault took them below deck and left them in the care of
a big guy with a black face named François. Perrault was
Franco-Canadian and with dark skin, but François was also mixed-race and had
the skin much darker. For Buck, they were a race of unknown men
(of which there were still many examples to see), and although it did not reach
to develop affection for them; however, over time, he learned to respect them. It didn't take long
in understanding that Perrault and François were honorable, calm men and
impartial when administering justice, and quite accustomed to dealing
dogs are like to be deceived by them.
In the between deck of the Narwhal, Buck and Curly encountered two others.
dogs. One was a large, snow-white specimen that came from
Spitsbergen[15], where it had been picked up by the captain of a whaling ship, and
which later accompanied a geological expedition through the Barrenlands16.
He was cordial, although somewhat treacherous, and smiled openly while
he was nitpicking some petty issue like, for example, when he stole part of Buck's
his portion the first time they ate together. Buck lunged to give him
a lesson, but at that moment François's whip cracked through the air
punishing the guilty and Buck only had to pick up the bone. He thought that
François had behaved honorably and the mestizo began to gain points.
in Buck's esteem.
The other dog was very reserved and did not get close to anyone, although he also
it is true that he didn't steal anything from the newcomers either. He was gruff and
taciturn and immediately made Curly see that he just wanted to be left alone
and, moreover, that if they didn't do it they would find themselves in trouble. His name was "Dave" and there

I was eating and sleeping, or yawning in between, without

to be interested in nothing, not even when the Narwhal crossed the strait of the
Queen Charlotte17and it began to sway, and to nod and buck like if
was possessed.

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 Buck and Curly became very nervous, half crazy with fear, but he
he raised his head as if annoyed, and deigned to give them an indifferent look,
he yawned and went back to sleep peacefully.
The ship moved day and night following the relentless pulse of its propeller.
y, aunque los días transcurrieron de modo muy similar, Buck se percató de
that it was getting colder and colder. Finally, one morning the propeller stopped and a
An atmosphere of excitement invaded the Narwhal. Buck sensed it, just like the
other dogs, and he sensed the imminence of a change. François placed the
straps and took them up to the deck. As soon as he took a step on that cold
surface, Buck's paws sunk into something white and fluffy that seemed
clay.
He jumped back with a huff. More of those things were falling through the air.
white ones. It shook off but they kept falling on it. Then it sniffed them.
curious and then licked some with his tongue. They burned like fire and
they disappeared immediately. This intrigued him. He repeated the operation with the same
results. Some people watched him laughing out loud and Buck felt
I felt shame without knowing why: it was the first time I saw snow.

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 Chapter 2
The law of the club and the fang

The first day Buck spent at Dyea beach was like a nightmare.
Every hour held an unpleasant surprise for him. They had torn him away from
suddenly from the heart of civilization to throw it into the heart of primitive things.
This was not a lazy and sunny life, with nothing to do but
lazing around and hanging out. There was no peace or rest here, not a moment of
rest. Everything was confusion and activity, and at every moment, his life or his
the body was in danger. It was absolutely necessary to stay all the
alert time, for those dogs and those men were neither dogs nor
civilized men. They were all beasts and knew no other law than
the club and the fang.
I had never seen dogs fight like those rabid beings and
his first experience taught him an unforgettable lesson. It's true that it was about
from someone else's experience, for if it had been my own I would not have lived to
take advantage of her. Curly was the victim. They had camped near the
woodpile and she, with her natural warmth, approached an Eskimo dog from the
size of an adult wolf and not even half as big as she is. There was no
prior warning, only a lightning strike, a metallic clash of teeth,
a withdrawal as swift and Curly's face was slashed from the eye to
the jaw.
This is how the wolves fought: they attacked and retreated; but there was still more to come.
see more. Thirty or forty Eskimo dogs gathered at the place and surrounded
the fighters in a silent and tense circle. Buck did not understand that
tense silence, nor the anxiety with which they licked their lips. Curly
He ran after his opponent, who attacked her again and retreated to the side. He did
facing Curly's next charge with his chest, in such a way
strange that it brought her down. She never stood up again. This was what the others
the Eskimos were waiting. They lunged at her, growling and
barking and was trapped, screaming in pain, under a mass of bodies
hairy.

Page 20
 Everything was so sudden, and so unexpected, that Buck was left.
dazed. He saw that Spitz was sticking out his scarlet tongue in that way that
in him meant that he was laughing; and he saw François who, wielding a
axe, loaded over that mix of dogs. Three men with clubs were
they helped disperse them. It didn't take them long. Within two minutes of
After Curly had succumbed, François had chased away all his followers with sticks.
attackers. But she lay there, stiff and lifeless, on the trampled snow and
bloodied, practically torn to pieces, and the dark mestizo, standing
together with her, he shouted horrible curses. Often this scene would come to
disturb Buck's dreams. So these were the customs. One did not play.
clean. If you fell, you were lost. Well, he would try not to fall. Spitz returned.
to stick out his tongue and laugh, and from that moment Buck hated him with a deep loathing
implacable and bitter.
He had not yet recovered from the shock caused by the tragic death.
of Curly, when he received another blow. François threw a harness on him
correas y hebillas. Era un arnés semejante al que había visto poner a los
boys on the backs of Judge Miller's horses. And the same that had
He saw the horses working, so he had to start working himself and drag the...
François in a sleigh to the forest bordering the valley to bring a load
from firewood. Although his dignity felt deeply injured by being treated
like a pack animal, was wise enough not to
to oppose. He set to work with the best intention and did what he could, although
everything seemed new and strange to him. François was tough; he demanded obedience
immediate and obtained it thanks to his whip; and Dave, who was a
experienced stick dog[1], he was biting Buck's hindquarters
when this one was wrong. Spitz was in the lead and was also an expert;
but, since he couldn't reach Buck, he would give a warning grunt from time to time
when he cleverly pulled the reins with his weight to indicate to Buck the
path. Buck did not take long to learn and, with the combined teachings of his
two comrades and François quickly made extraordinary progress. Before
that they would return to the camp, I already knew that one had to stop with a "so!"
to advance with a "giddy up!", take the curves wide, and keep your distance
of the rod dog when the loaded sled was descending at full speed a
pending.
Those are really good pegs,
How the hell. I taught him very pointedly.
That afternoon Perrault, who was in a hurry to set off with the mail,
he returned with two other dogs. He said they were called 'Billee' and 'Joe'; they were two

Page 21
brothers and purebred Eskimos. But, even if they were children of the same
Mother, they were as different as day and night. Billee had the flaw of being
excessively kind, while Joe was just the opposite: gruff and introverted,
always grumbling and with a sullen gaze. Buck welcomed them with much
camaraderie, Dave ignored them and Spitz dedicated himself to fighting first with one and
luego con el otro. Billee meneaba la cola en gesto apaciguador, se echó a
he ran when he saw that this was of no use and shouted (still in tone
(conciliator) when the sharp teeth of Spitz sank into his back. But
no matter how many times Spitz turned around, he always found that Joe was doing him.
front, with the bristled hair, ears back, mouth twisted and
growling, snapping with speed and with shining eyes of
diabolical way; the very embodiment of belligerent terror. So
his appearance was terrible, that Spitz had no choice but to resign from
subdue him and, to hide his own discomfort, he turned against him
inoffensive and whining Billee and chased him to the ends of the
camp
At sunset, Perrault arrived with another dog, an old husky, long and thin.
and emaciated, with a face full of scars and a single eye that seemed to warn
of feats worthy of the greatest respect. It was called 'Sol-leks', which means The
Irascible. Like Dave, he neither asked for anything, nor gave anything, nor expected anything; and

when I walked slowly and deliberately among them all, until the
Spitz himself left him alone. He had a peculiarity that Buck had the
misfortune of discovery.
He didn't like people getting too close to the side where his eye was missing. Buck
He offended her without realizing it and found out about such indiscretion on his part.
when Sol-leks turned against him and tore his shoulder to the bone
with a three-inch wound[2]Since then, Buck avoided getting close to him.
the blind side and their camaraderie was never altered again. Apparently only
he had an ambition, the same as Dave, and it was to be left alone; but,
as Buck would come to know later, both had another ambition that was
much more vital.
That night Buck faced the great problem of sleeping. The
store, illuminated by a candle, shone cozily in the middle of the
white plain; and when he naturally went inside, Perrault and
François was welcomed with oaths and by throwing kitchenware at him until
that, recovering from his surprise, fled ignominiously to the cold outside.
A wind was blowing that tightened around him mercilessly, cruelly biting him.
wounded shoulder. He lay in the snow and tried to sleep, but the frost soon...

Page 22
he forced him to stand shivering. Sad and heartbroken, he wandered aimlessly through
among the shops, realizing after a while that all the places were equally
cold. Occasionally, he came across wild dogs, but Buck bristled at the
he was grumbling and growling (for he was learning at full speed) and they let him pass without
to annoy him.
Finally, an idea occurred to him. He would return to see how they were managing.
team members. What a surprise it would be to see that everyone had
missing. He wandered again throughout the entire camp.
looking for them and then returned. Could they be in the store? It couldn't be, because of the
contrary to him, they wouldn't have kicked him out. Where the hell would they be? With their tails.
among the legs and trembling sadly, it began to turn around, disoriented,
around the store. Suddenly the snow gave way under its front paws and it
sank into the ground. Something stirred beneath its feet. With a leap, it sprang towards
back, tense and growling, filled with fear of the invisible and the unknown.
But a friendly bark calmed him and he approached to investigate. A puff
warm air rose to his snout; there, curled up very warmly under the
snow, there was Billee. He won[3]conciliator, he turned and stirred as a test of
goodwill and even dared, in a request for peace, to lick the face of
Buck with his warm and wet tongue.
Another lesson. So that was what they did. With great poise, Buck chose
a site and, with much gesturing and a waste of energy, a pit was dug
hole. In a flash, the heat of his body filled that small space and
he fell asleep. The day had been long and laborious and he slept deeply and
comfortably, although he snorted and barked and fought in the midst of nightmares.
He didn't open his eyes until he was awakened by the noises of the camp that
he was waking up. For the moment he didn't realize where he was. He had been
It was snowing all night and was completely buried. The walls of
snow was oppressing him from all sides and suddenly terror overwhelmed him: fear
What does a beast feel when facing a trap? It was a sign that it was overcoming its.
own life to that of his ancestors; because he was a civilized dog, a
exaggeratedly civilized dog and in his own experience there had not been
known no traps, so I couldn't fear them. All the muscles
from her body contracted spasmodically and instinctively, the hairs of the
neck and the back bristled, and with a fierce roar, it came out of a
jump into the blinding light wrapped in a shimmering cloud of snow. Before
that its paws touched the ground, it saw, spread before its eyes, the white
camp and realized perfectly where he was and remembered everything

Page 23
what had happened since the moment he/she went out for a walk with
Manuel had dug a hole to take shelter the night before.
A shout from François welcomed his appearance.
“Did I not tell you?” shouted the sled driver to Perrault. “That Buck
Let me know the fastest way.
Perrault solemnly nodded. As a courier of the Canadian government and
carrier of important dispatches, he was enormously interested in acquiring
the best dogs and was delighted to have gotten Buck.

Page 24
Page 25
 After an hour, I had already added three more Eskimos to the team, with
they already had nine dogs and in less than a quarter of an hour they were all gone
with the harnesses on and heading down the path that leads to Dyea Canyon.
Buck was glad to leave and, although the work was hard, it didn't seem difficult to him.
unpleasant. He was surprised by the enthusiasm of the entire team, which had caught him off guard.
infected; but even more surprising to him was the change that had taken place in
Dave and Sol-leks. They were other dogs, deeply transformed by the
harness. They had lost all their passivity and indifference. They were alert dogs and
active, anxious for the work to turn out well, and they became immensely irritated,
when something that caused delay or confusion hindered that work.
Working between the reins seemed to be the highest aspiration of her being, all the
reason for their lives and the only thing that gave them pleasure.
Dave was in harness, or as a sled dog; and in front was Buck and then
Sol-leks; the rest of the team lined up in a single file until reaching Spitz who
went in head.
Buck had been deliberately placed between Dave and Sol-leks so that
Outside learning. If one was an advanced disciple, the others were skilled.
teachers, who never left him in a mistake for long and reinforced his
teachings with their sharp teeth. Dave was honorable and very prudent.
He never bit Buck without reason, but he never stopped biting him when
I needed correction. As François's whip supported him, Buck decided
it was better to amend oneself than to counterattack. Once, after a brief rest,
he got tangled in the shots and delayed the game; Dave and Sol-leks tackled him
on top and they gave him a good beating. It turns out that a mix-up happened much
But from then on, Buck was careful to maintain the
ordered straps. And before the day ended, I had mastered it so well.
this art, which his companions barely had to harass him. The whip of
François was muttering less frequently, and even Perrault made Buck the
it's honorable to lift its paws and examine them carefully.
It took a day of forced marches to reach the Canyon, crossing the
Sheep Camp, beyond the Scales and the lumber line, to
through glaciers and very deep snowfields and above the great line
Chilcoot divider that separates salty water from fresh and guards
with zeal the sad and deserted north. They were making good progress when
they flowed through the chain of lakes that fill the craters of extinct volcanoes and,
late at night, they arrived at the huge camp that is in the
the head of Lake Bennett, where thousands of gold seekers were dedicated to
build boats for when the spring thaws arrive. Buck became

Page 26
he dug a hole in the snow and slept the sleep of the exhausted just, but at the
the next morning, very early, they took him out of his cold darkness and he
they hooked up with their teammates to the sled.
That day they made forty miles.[4], as the track was firm; but at
the next day and many of the following had to go making their way, and
this took them more effort, which is why they did not maintain such a good pace.
Generally, Perrault led the expedition by walking on the snow with
snowshoes to make their work easier. François, who was guiding the sled with the
control stick, sometimes I would change places with him, although not very often
frequency. Because Perrault was in a hurry and bragged about his expertise on ice,
knowledge that was essential because the ice layer in autumn
she was very thin and in the places where there was running water there wasn't even
ice.
Day after day, tirelessly, Buck worked hard at the shot. He always
they set out when it was still dark and the first lights of dawn
they were already finding them beating the tracks and with a good distance behind them. And
they always camped late at night, ate a little fish and
they were going to sleep in their holes under the snow. Buck was starving. The pound
and half a portion of dried salmon that was the daily ration given to him was not enough
a tooth. He was never satisfied and continuously suffered from cramps.
hunger. However, the other dogs, as they were smaller in size and
they were used to that life, they only received a pound of fish and they were
They were arranging to stay in shape.
Soon he lost the delicacy of his previous customs. Dining room
refined, he found that his colleagues, who finished first, him
they were stealing the remains of his ration. There was no way to defend oneself. Meanwhile
I fought with two or three, the others swallowed it. So to avoid it, I had to
to eat as quickly as they did; and he was so pressed by hunger that he couldn't
to resist taking what did not belong to him. He watched and learned. When he saw
that Pike, one of the new dogs, a crafty lazybones and thief, was stealing
I sneakily took a slice of bacon while Perrault was turned around, at the
The next day, Buck emulated the feat by taking the whole bacon. He armed himself with a
great commotion, but no one suspected him; and Dub, an incorrigible clumsy one who
He always got into trouble, he was punished for Buck's misdeed.
This first robbery was the proof that Buck was fit to survive in the
hostile environment of the northern lands. It indicated their adaptability, their
ability to adapt to changing conditions, the lack of which would have
meaning a quick and terrible death. And it also indicated the degeneration or

Page 27
crumbling of their moral values, a vain thing and an obstacle in the
ruthless struggle for existence. All of this was very well in the south, where
the law of love and companionship reigned and where property was respected
private and personal feelings; but in the lands of the north, under the law
Of the garrote and the fang, whoever took those things into account was a fool.
and as long as I respected them I could not prosper.
It's not that Buck reasoned this way. He was healthy, and nothing more; and
unconsciously adapted to his new lifestyle. Never until
then he had avoided a fight that might seem disadvantageous to him.
But the club of the man in the red sweater had taught him a code.
elemental and primitive. While living in civilization, I would have been able to
to die for any moral principle; for example, to defend the whip of
Judge Miller; but his total rejection of civilization was now evident.
manifesto when feeling capable of evading a moral consideration in order to
saving one's skin. He didn't steal for the pleasure of it, but because of his stomach.
it demanded it. He did not steal openly, but with cunning and stealth, out of fear of
garrote and the fang. In short, the things he did, he did because he was
easier to do them than not to do them.
Its development (or regression) was fast. Its muscles hardened like
the iron, and became insensitive to normal pain. He managed an economy
internal and also external. He was able to eat anything, no matter how disgusting
indigestible as it seemed; and, once she had eaten it, the juices of her
they extracted from that the last nutritious particle; and their blood
it took her to the most secluded corners of her body, transforming her into
the hardest and most resistant tissues. Their sight and smell sharpened
to a great extent, and her hearing became so sharp that she could hear the slightest sound
while sleeping and to discern whether it was an announcement of peace or danger. He learned to
to bite off the ice that was accumulating between his fingers; and when
I was thirsty and the water hole was covered by thick frozen foam,
knew how to break them by standing on their hind legs and striking the ice with
the front ones. The feature that stood out was the ability he had to
to scent the wind and predict its course a night in advance. Although
not a breath of air would move, when he dug his shelter next to a tree or
near a slope, the wind that would later rise always found him at
sheltered, well protected and warm.
And not only was experience his teacher, but some things were revived in him.
of the instincts that had been dead for a long time. He freed himself from
generations of domestic life. Vaguely recalling the first

Page 28
times of their race, when wild dogs ran in packs through the
primitive forests and they killed their prey when they were hungry. It did not cost him
I work to learn to kill with bites and quick wolf strikes. That's how they had.
fought for their forgotten ancestors. The ancient customs accelerated.
latent within their being and adopted the ancient cunning that they had
printed in the heirs of the race. They revealed themselves without effort or search,
as if they had always been their own. And when, still in the
cold nights, I raised my snout toward a star and let out a long howl and
in it their ancestors, now dead and turned to dust, came back to life,
pointing at a star and howling for centuries until its existence
present. Buck's cadences were his, cadences that expressed his
pain and his feeling in front of the silence, the cold, and the darkness.
And since life is nothing more than a puppet theater, the ancient ballad
he poured out of it and made it his own again; and all because men had
found a yellow metal in the northern lands and because Manuel was a
gardener's assistant whose salary was not enough to cover the needs of
his wife and some personal matters.

Page 29
 Chapter 3
La dominante bestia primitiva

The dominant primal beast was strong in Buck and, under the terrible
conditions of life on the tracks, were further reinforced, although it was growing
in secret. His newly acquired cunning gave him poise and control. He was
too busy adapting to his new life to feel comfortable,
and not only did he not get into fights, but he avoided them when he could, and also
deliberately. He was not prone to act hastily and impulsively; and to
despite the bitter hatred that existed between him and Spitz, he never showed signs of
impatience and avoided offending him.
On the other hand, perhaps sensing that Buck was a formidable rival, Spitz
never missed an opportunity to show her teeth. She repeatedly tried to
intimidate him, relentlessly trying to start a fight that would have to
irrevocably end the life of one of the two.
At the beginning of the journey, this circumstance was about to occur,
but an unexpected accident prevented it. At the end of that day they camped in a
desolate and miserable place on the shores of Lake Le Barge. The heavy snowfall, a
wind that cut like a hot knife and the darkness forced them
to search blindly for a place to camp. And they couldn't have found it
worse. A perpendicular wall of rock rose behind them and Perrault and
François were forced to make a bonfire and spread the bags of
sleep on the same frozen lake. In Dyea they had abandoned the tent.
to travel with less weight. With some sticks, they made a fire that melted the
ice and it went out, so they had to have dinner in the dark.
There nearby, under the protection of the rock, Buck dug his nest. So comfortable
and it was warm in it, which made it difficult for him to get out when François
he spread the fish that he had just thawed over the fire. But, when
Buck finished his ration and returned to him, he found that his shelter was
busy. A threatening snort warned him that the intruder was Spitz. Until then
Buck had avoided confronting his enemy, but that was already
too much. The beast within him revolted. It jumped on Spitz with a

Page 30
rage that surprised both, but especially Spitz, as his experience
with Buck had shown him that his rival was an extraordinarily dog
shy, who managed to get ahead thanks to his great weight and size.
François was also surprised to see them come out of the wrecked den.
entangled in a fight, and guessed the reason for it.
—Wow! —he shouted at Buck—. Give it a good hit! Hit that one well.
hell yes!
Spitz was also unleashed. He howled with rage and anxiety, spinning and
retreating in search of an opportunity to attack. Buck was no less
anxious nor was he less cautious; so he turned from side to side looking for
an advantage. But then something unforeseen happened, something that would postpone their
fight for supremacy until a future moment, after many miles of
exhausting work on the tracks.
A curse from Perrault, the dry impact of a club on a body
a hoarse and piercing groan of pain announced the explosion that
it originated next. Suddenly the camp appeared populated by
lurking hairy forms: nearly a hundred Eskimo dogs
hungry ones who had sniffed around the camp from some Indian village.
They had approached stealthily while Buck and Spitz were fighting and, when
the two men stood in front of them brandishing their thick
garrotes, they showed their teeth and faced them. The smell of food made them
he had gone crazy. Perrault found one with its head stuck in the drawer
of provisions. He delivered a blow with a club on his thin ribs and the box of
provisions rolled on the ground. Instantly, about twenty famished beasts
they fought for the bread and the bacon. Blows were raining down on them from all sides and
they groaned and howled under the blows, but they kept fighting like crazy until
devour the last crumb.
Meanwhile, the amazed dogs of the team had come out of their shelters.
and they were attacked by the fierce invaders. Buck had never seen dogs
like those. It seemed that the bones were going to pierce the skin. They were not
more than skeletons wrapped in dirty skins, with glowing eyes and
gaping fangs. But the madness of hunger made them terrifying and
irresistible. There was no way to confront them. At the first attack the dogs
the team was cornered against the embankment. Buck was being harassed by three
Eskimo dogs and at one moment had the head and shoulders covered.
of scratches and tears. The noise was terrible. Billee groaned as if from
habit. Dave and Sol-leks, bleeding from countless wounds, were fighting
bravely one side by side. Joe was biting like a demon.

Page 31
In one of them, its teeth grabbed the front leg of an Eskimo and tore it off.
They ground it down to the bone. Pike, the cunning one, jumped on the wounded animal and
he broke the neck with a bite and a pull. Buck grabbed a slug.
opponent by the throat and was splashed with blood when his teeth
they sliced through the jugular. The lukewarm taste of blood in his mouth caused him a
greater ferocity. He lunged at another, feeling at the same time that some
teeth were digging into his own throat. It was Spitz attacking him.
betrayal from the other side.
Perrault and François, who had left the camp clear due to their
they came to save their sled dogs. The wild wave of beasts
famished ones stepped back before them and Buck was able to break free, but it was only for a
instant. The two men had to run back to protect the
supplies and the Eskimo dogs took the opportunity to attack again at the
team. Billee, with the courage that terror gives, jumped over the fierce circle and fled.
on the icy surface. Pike and Dub followed him, on his heels, and the
the rest of the team followed his example. When Buck was about to jump after
he saw out of the corner of his eye that Spitz was lunging at him with the
evident intention to bring it down. If it fell, it would be under that pack.
of Eskimo dogs with no hope of getting out alive. But he endured to
he firmly resisted Spitz's attack and then quickly fled towards the lake.
Later the nine dogs of the team gathered to search
shelter in the forest. Although they were no longer being pursued, they found themselves in a state
deplorable. All without exception had wounds in four or five places
different, and some are serious. Dub had a back leg in very bad condition.
conditions; Dolly, the last Eskimo dog that had been added to the team in
Dyea had a big gash in the neck; Joe had lost an eye, and the nice guy
Billee, with a bitten and torn ear, spent the night groaning and
complaining. At dawn they cautiously returned to the camp and
they found that the intruders had left and the two men
estaban de mal humor. Habían perdido más de la mitad de las provisiones.
The sled dogs had gnawed through the bindings and the covers of the sled. The
the truth is that they had left nothing, no matter how inedible it seemed. They
they had eaten a pair of moose skin loafers from Perrault, pieces of the
leather from the straps and even half a meter of François's whip. This
interrupted the sad contemplation of these outrages to take a look at
his injured dogs.
Oh, my friends! - he said softly - You crazy ones may
so many mogdiscos. Maybe all crazy peggos. Sacredam! What do you think?

Page 32
Eh, Perrault?
The email shook its head in a gesture of doubt. It had four hundred left.
miles of road to reach Dawson[1]could hardly afford to
declare the anger among his dogs. After two hours of swearing and fighting with
the harnesses were eventually fixed and the battered team set off
struggling through the hardest stretch that had been until then
they had found and, indeed, the worst that remained for them to travel until
arrive in Dawson.
The Thirty Mile River[2] had not frozen. Its fierce waters refused to
to freeze and only in the whirlpools and in the still waters had formed a
a little ice. They took six exhausting days to traverse those terrible
thirty miles, truly terrible, as each stretch of them constituted a
danger to the life of dogs and men. A dozen times Perrault, who
He was leading the march, felt the ice crack under his feet and was saved.
thanks to the pole I was carrying and that I held in such a way that always
was left lying across the hole that his body had formed. But the cold
it was getting colder and the thermometer recorded fifty degrees below zero and, each time
that the ice was breaking, Perrault had to make a fire and dry his clothes.
He did not back down from anything, and that is why he had been chosen as a messenger of the
Government. Faced any risk, advancing resolutely with its face
wrinkled in the middle of the icy wind and worked tirelessly since the
first lights of dawn until it became night. I wandered through the
dangerous shores where the ice was so thin that it sank and broke beneath
his feet and on whose surface they did not dare to stop. On one occasion, they
sank the sled with Dave and Buck, who almost perished frozen and whom
they were pulled out of the water half-drowned. As always, a fire had to be lit.
bonfire to save them. They were covered with a hard layer of ice and both
men were made to run around the fire, sweating, until they were
melted the ice, and so close to the flames that they got scorched.
On another occasion, it was Spitz who sank, dragging everything behind him.
team minus Buck, who halted the fall with all his strength, with his legs
forwards clinging to the slippery edge and the ice breaking
sinking around him. But behind Buck was Dave, who also
it contained the fall, and behind the sled was François pulling with such strength
that their tendons could be heard cracking.
Once again it happened that the frozen surface broke in front of them and
from behind and they had no other escape but to ascend the wall
rocky. Perrault climbed it by pure miracle while François prayed for it to be.

Page 33
that miracle would happen; and then they braided with all the straps and
pieces of sled straps and the remains of the harnesses a long rope and,
tied to her, they brought up the dogs, one by one, to the top of the
cliff. Then they lifted the sled and its load and finally François climbed up. And
then we had to find a place to go back down and the descent became
it was done through the rope; so by nightfall they would meet again at
the river and they had not managed to advance all day more than a quarter of
milla.

Page 34
Page 35
 By the time they arrived at Hootalinqua, where the ice was in good condition
conditions, Buck was exhausted. The rest of the dogs were
he was somewhat like him, but Perrault, to make up for lost time
lost, they made them work from sunup to sundown. On the first day, they covered thirty-five
miles to Big Salmon and the next day another thirty-five to the
Little Salmon; on the third day they traveled forty miles, which allowed them to arrive
quite close to the Five Fingers.
Buck's feet were not as compact nor as hardened as
those of the Eskimo dogs. Theirs had begun to soften through
for many generations since the last of their ancestors in state
the savage had been tamed by a cave dweller or a man from
river. He spent all day limping painfully and, when he arrived at the
At the moment of camping, he would lie on the ground as if he were dead. Despite
from hunger, he was unable to get up to go fetch his ration of fish and
François had to bring it closer to him. Besides, the dog handler was rubbing Buck's feet.
for half an hour, every night after dinner, and sacrificed the upper part
from his loafers to make four little shoes for Buck. This relieved him a lot and
even Buck managed to bring a smile to Perrault's wrinkled face.
smile when, one morning, François forgot to put it on and Buck lay down
on the ground on its back, waving its four legs in the air, and refused to
move until they put on the loafers. Over time his feet became
They got used to the tracks and ended up throwing away the worn-out shoes.
One morning, on the banks of the Pelly, Dolly, who had never stood out for
nothing, suddenly she went crazy. She announced her state with a howl.
long and chilling, which made the dogs' hair stand on end in fear,
and then pounced on Buck. He had never seen a rabid dog nor
he had no reason to be crazy, but he realized that it was
terrible and ran away terrified. He shot off and Dolly, panting and drooling, him
he was biting his heels; and he was running so scared that she couldn't catch up to him
distance, although she ran so fiercely that he couldn't get away either.
entered the forest that was in the highest part of the island, emerged through the
low point of the tip, crossed a frozen canal to reach another island and then a
third, turned towards the main river and, desperate, began to cross it. Everything
this time, although I couldn't see her, I heard her growling a step behind him. At a
a quarter of a mile away he heard François calling him and was backing towards him,
feeling that the dog was chasing him at close range; he was without
I struggled, but I trusted blindly that François would save him. The dog handler

Page 36
calmly held the axe in one hand and, as soon as Buck passed by
speed before him, the axe fell upon the head of the crazed Dolly.
Buck stumbled against the sled, exhausted, panting, helpless.
That was the opportunity Spitz had been waiting for. He pounced on Buck and
he sank his teeth into his defenseless enemy twice, tearing the flesh
to the bone. Then the crack of François' whip was heard and Buck had the
satisfaction in witnessing how Spitz received the biggest beating yet
then it had not been given to any dog of the team.
—A demon, that Spitz —Perrault commented—. One day he killed the
Buck.
Two demons, that Buck,
I observe Buck and I know what is going to happen. Migga: one good day Buck will go away.
The hinchagg is naggices and is going to crush the Spitz and vomit it in the snow.
I know it.
From then on, war was declared between both dogs. Spitz as
guide dog and recognized team leader felt his supremacy threatened by
that strange southern dog. And indeed Buck seemed strange to him, for
none of the numerous southern dogs I had met had reached
dar resultado en la vida de campamento ni en las pistas. Todos eran
too soft and died from exhaustion, cold, or hunger. Buck was the
exception. Only he managed to survive and adapt, reaching a level comparable to the
Eskimo dogs in strength, ferocity, and cunning. Moreover, it was a dog.
dominant, and the fact that the club of the man in the red sweater had
suppressed in him the crazy recklessness of his desires for domination, it made him even more
dangerous. He was predominantly cunning and capable of waiting for the moment
timely with a patience that was undoubtedly the original of its kind.
It was inevitable that the struggle for power would occur. Buck was looking for the
occasion, with a natural desire, because he had fallen into the nets of that
incomprehensible and unknown pride that arises on the tracks and in the reins,
pride that keeps dogs clinging to their task until they exhale the
last breath, which induces them to die happily tied to the harnesses and them
It breaks the soul to be taken away from this kind of life. It was the pride that Dave felt.
like a stick dog and the one from Sol-leks when he would throw in front of everyone with everything
their forces; the pride that took over them as soon as they lifted the
camp and transformed those sullen and taciturn beasts into
hardworking, vehement, and ambitious animals; the pride that spurred them on
during the whole day and then left them at the edge of the camp every
night, leaving them immersed in a restlessness and in a taciturn discontent.

Page 37
It was the pride that motivated Spitz and made him torment the sled dogs.
they skated or lounged on the tracks or hid at the time of
put on the harnesses in the morning. It was the same pride that made him fear
Buck as a possible guide dog. And this was also Buck's pride.
He openly threatened the leadership of the other dog. He stood in between them.
and the slackers that I should punish. And I did it deliberately. One night
A heavy snow fell and in the morning the sly Pike was missing. He was
well hidden in its shelter with more than a foot of snow above.
François called him and searched for him in vain. Spitz was furious. He roamed
the camp like a madman, searching and digging in the spots that he
they seemed more favorable and growling with such rage that Pike heard him and
trembled in his hiding place.
But when they finally found him and Spitz lunged to punish him, Buck
he interposed with the same fury between the two. The leap was so unexpected, and
so skillfully achieved, that Spitz, losing his balance, fell towards
back. Pike, who until then had been trembling like a coward,
He gathered courage in the face of Buck's declared rebellion and jumped at his boss.
knocked down. Buck, who had already forgotten the rules of fair play, also
threw over Spitz. But François, who found the incident amusing, did not stop.
to always be ready to administer justice and he struck his whip on
Buck with all his strength. Even then, Buck did not leave his...
Prostrate enemy, the man used the handle of the whip. Half dazed by
the blow, Buck fell backwards and endured a good number of whips
while Spitz was punishing the incorrigible Pike.
The rest of the days, as they approached Dawson, Buck continued
interposing between Spitz and the culprits; but he did it very cleverly,
when François was not around. As a consequence of the cover-up
Buck's rebellion resulted in a general insubordination that was
spreading among the dogs. It did not affect Dave and Sol-leks, but the rest
the team was going from bad to worse. Things were not going well. Continuously they
they caused quarrels and disturbances. Problems arose at every moment and deep down
Among them was Buck. François remained alert, for the dog handler was afraid.
constantly the fight to the death that he knew was inevitable between the two dogs
sooner or later; and more than one night he had to get out of his sleeping bag to the
to hear the fights between other dogs, fearful that Buck and Spitz had
confronted.
But the opportunity never presented itself and thus they arrived in Dawson in a
gray afternoon, with the big fight still pending. There were many men and

Page 38
countless dogs and Buck found them all working. It seemed like
if in the natural order of things it were arranged that dogs had
that work. Throughout the day they tirelessly roamed the main street
tied in long shots and at night, their jingling could still be heard.
They dragged lumber for construction and firewood for the fire, they carried
material from the mines and carried out all the tasks in the valley of Santa
Clara desempeñaban los caballos. De vez en cuando Buck se encontraba con
a southern dog, but most of them belonged to the wild breed of
the alabaster Eskimo dogs. Every night, regularly, at the
nine, at twelve and at three, they sang a nighttime song, a magical ballad
and strange to which Buck joined happily.
Whether the Northern Lights illuminated them with their cold glow or if the
stars frolicked in a chilling dance, while the earth lay inert beneath
a blanket of snow, that song of the Eskimo dogs could have
the meaning of a challenge in life; but it was expressed in a minor tone, with
prolonged moans and suggested sobs, and it was more of a lament of
to live, the expression of the painful work of existence. It was a tune
ancient, as ancient as the species itself, one of the first ballads of a
younger world, in those times when songs were about sadness.
Pregnant with the pain of countless generations and this complaint
strangely moved Buck. When he moaned and sobbed, he did so with the
the pain of being alive, which was the ancestral pain of their ancestors in freedom and
at the same time the fear and the mystery that the cold and darkness provoked in him,
for them it also meant fear and mystery. And the fact that this
that it moved him so profoundly was a sign that he had retreated, to
through centuries of domesticated life, to the primitive beginnings of the
life in the times of howling.
Seven days after arriving in Dawson, they descended the steep slope of
the Barracks to the Yukon trail, heading towards Dyea and Salt Water.
Perrault was carrying messages that were possibly more urgent than those he had just brought;
he was also excited about being an unparalleled email and was
set to break the speed record of that year. And this was helped by
various factors. The week of rest had allowed the dogs to
they would recover and were in excellent shape. The track they had opened up
through later they had been trampled and hardened by other travelers who arrived afterward
them. And in addition, the Police had arranged, at two or three points along the route,
food deposits for dogs and men, with which I could travel with
less weight.

Page 39
 They arrived at Sixty Mile, which is fifty miles away, in one day;
On the second day, they were already climbing up the Yukon on their way to Pelly. But
that extraordinary speed was achieved only thanks to the great ones
efforts and many tribulations that François had to endure. The insidious
The rebellion led by Buck had destroyed the team's solidarity. Already
they did not run like a single dog on the tracks. The support that Buck provided to
the rebels led them to commit all kinds of petty misdeeds. Spitz already
He was not a very fearsome boss. They were not afraid of him, and everyone competed at the time.
to test your authority. Pike stole half a fish one night and gave it to him.
he drank under Buck's protection. One night Dub and Joe faced Spitz.
and had to resign to punish them as they deserved. And even the nice guy
Billee was less nice and did not puff so conciliatorily as before.
Buck never approached Spitz without growling and threateningly bristling his fur.
In fact, he acted almost like a bully and spent his time showing off.
right under Spitz's very nose.
The breakdown of discipline also affected the dogs in their relationships.
between each other. They quarreled and fought more than ever, to the point that sometimes the
the camp was engulfed in a terrifying cacophony of howls. Only Dave and
Sol-leks remained impassive, although somewhat irritable due to the
endless disputes. François hurled strange and barbaric oaths,
while kicking the snow in useless fury and pulling her hair. The whip whistled
nonstop through the dogs, but it was of no use. As soon as he turned the
turn, they were back at it. He backed up Spitz with his whip, but Buck
he supported the rest of the team. François knew that Buck was the cause of everything
the problems, and Buck knew that François knew it; but the dog was
too smart to be caught red-handed. He was working with
he was keen on shooting, as he found the task extremely enjoyable; but he still
he preferred to subtly provoke a fight between his peers and
make the reins get tangled.
At the mouth of the Tahkeena, one night after dinner, Dub
spotted a snow hare[3], but it slipped away and he couldn't catch it. To
At that moment, the whole team was on high alert. About a hundred meters away from them.
there was a camp of the northwest Police[4], with fifty dogs,
all of them Eskimos, who joined the pursuit. The rabbit ran out.
shot down river, he aimed towards one of its arms and continued running through it
frozen stew. It was fleeing rapidly over the snow surface while the dogs
they made their way through the center of the main river. Buck was in the lead and he
about sixty dogs followed, curve after curve, but I couldn't get them.

Page 40
Scope. He was running for his life, groaning anxiously, with his beautiful
body that sparkled with every jump it made under the pale and white light of the
moon. And jump by jump, like a pale specter of ice, the rabbit sparkled
in front of him.
All that commotion of ancient instincts that, at moments
determined, prompts men to leave the noisy cities and head towards
a bosques y llanuras, con el propósito de matar a otros seres con proyectiles
chemically propelled lead, the thirst for blood, the joy of killing:
Buck felt all of this, but in a very deep way. He ran to the front.
from the group, chasing the little beast, to the raw flesh, to kill it with its
own teeth and soak their snouts up to their eyes in warm blood.
There is an ecstasy that marks the pinnacle of life and beyond which not
this can be elevated. And the paradoxical thing about life is that this ecstasy occurs
when one is more alive and completely forgets that they are.
ecstasy, this forgetfulness of existence, occurs in the artist, trapping him and
taking it out of himself in a flame of passion; it occurs in the soldier, intoxicated with
war in a desolate field when fighting without quarter; and it took place in Buck
when leading the group, chanting the ancient alobunado cry, and
he was chasing that live prey that was swiftly escaping him in the moonlight.
I was probing the depth of her nature, and the parts of her nature that
were deeper than him, returning to the bowels of time. He
dominated the powerful flow of life, the tide of existence, the joy
perfect of each of its muscles, of its joints and of its nerves,
as they represented something that was not dead, but alive and exuberant,
and it expressed itself through movement, flying exultantly under the stars and
on the face of a dead substance that did not move.
But Spitz, cold and calculating even in his most exalted moments, left the
pack and took a shortcut crossing a narrow strip of land where the
the river's arm formed a wide curve. Buck did not know it and, as he came out of the curve,
still chasing that snowy rabbit specter that was fluttering about
in front of him, he could see another snowy specter, larger in size, jumping
from the slope that overlooked the river and intercepted the path of the rabbit. It was
Spitz. The rabbit could not go back and, when the white teeth came to him
they broke their spine in the middle of a jump, they screamed with a shout so loud that
it could have been that of a wounded man. Upon hearing it, upon hearing the cry of life that
it sinks from the apex of life into the claws of death, the whole pack
the one that was running after Buck let out a hellish howl of joy.

Page 41
 But Buck did not shout. He did not stop, but instead lunged at Spitz, shoulder first.
against the shoulder, and with such violence that he did not hit him in the neck. They rolled
together for the powder snow. Spitz got up so quickly that he seemed
that had not yet fallen, bit Buck on the shoulder and
he leaned back. He bit down hard twice, as if they were the
steel jaws of a trap, as it pulled back to better secure itself, and
A snort escaped from his thin twisted lips.

Page 42
Page 43
 Chapter 3
La dominante bestia primitiva
the sixty dogs prepared to lie down on him; but he managed to straighten up, still
in the air, and the circle stopped and remained waiting.
But Buck possessed a quality that compensated for the ability: imagination.
He fought instinctively, although he was also capable of doing so.
rationally. He lunged, as if he were going to use the previous trick of
push with the shoulder, but at the last moment he crouched down to touch the
snow. His teeth closed around the front left paw of Spitz. He
he heard a crunch of broken bones and the white dog confronted him on three
legs. He tried to knock it down three times and then repeated the trick and broke its
right front paw. Despite the pain and his helplessness, Spitz tried
desperately trying to stand. I saw the silent circle, their eyes
shining and the tongues hanging, and I saw those silver clouds of
breaths that rose through the air and approached him, as he had seen
on other occasions similar circles close around defeated opponents of the
past. Only this time the defeated was him.
He had no hope left. Buck was relentless. The forgiveness
it was relegated to milder climates. It began to take positions for the
final attack. The circle had closed to the point where I could feel
the breath of the sled dogs at his side. He could see them surrounding
Spitz, half crouched and ready to jump, with their gaze fixed on him.
he paused. All the animals remained motionless, as if they were made of
stone. Only Spitz shuddered and bristled, staggering, growling very
threateningly, as if wanting to scare away the inexorable death.
Then Buck jumped on him and pulled back; as he fell on him, his shoulder struck against
full about the one from Spitz. The dark circle became a point on the
snow bathed in the rays of the moon as Spitz disappeared from sight.
Buck stood watching him: he was the lucky winner, the
dominant primitive beast that had killed and found the fact
rewarding.

Page 45
 Chapter 4
The one who gained supremacy

Huh? I'm not lying when I say that Buck is two.

demons.
This is how François spoke the next morning after realizing that he was missing.
Spitz, and Buck was covered in wounds. He took him close to the campfire and was
pointing them to the light of the fire.
That Spitz fights like a devil,
cuts and the open wounds.
And that Buck fights like two devils, François replied. Drown.
Yes, we do agree. No more Spitz, no more problems, I follow.
As Perrault was gathering the camping gear and loading the sled, the
Perreiro set out to put the harnesses on the dogs. Buck settled into place.
what Spitz would have needed as a guide dog; but François, without noticing him,
he took Sol-leks to the coveted position. In his opinion, Sol-leks was the best of
the dogs that were left to him. Buck rushed furiously at Sol-leks,
throwing it out from there and placing it in its place.
Wow, wow! - shouted François, clapping his hands, very amused.
in the thighs—. Migga to that Buck. He killed the Spitz and he thought he needed
his place. "Get out of there, dog!" he shouted; but Buck refused to move.
He grabbed Buck by the scruff of the neck and, although the dog was growling threateningly,
he dragged him to one side and put Sol-leks back in place. The old dog did not
this was funny, and it became clear that he feared Buck. François was stubborn,
but, as soon as he turned around, Buck pushed Sol-leks again, who in
In no way did anyone oppose the change. François was furious.
—Well, for God's sake, I'll fix you! —he shouted, returning with a club.
huge in the hand.
Buck remembered the man in the red sweater and slowly backed away; neither did he
he tried to replace Sol-leks when he was placed back in the lead again. But
he kept circling at a prudent distance from the club, growling with rage and
bitterness; and while I was wandering around there, I kept an eye on the club, just in case

Page 46
François was throwing it at him and he had to dodge it, since Buck had become a.
expert in the matter of clubs.
The dog handler continued with his task and, when the time came to put
Buck in his old place, called him. But Buck stepped back two or three steps.
François went after him and the dog kept backing away. And so they continued for a while.
until François threw the stick thinking that Buck feared a thrashing. But
Buck had openly rebelled. It was not that he wanted to dodge a
beating: what he wanted was to take the command position. He had the right to it. He
He had won it and would not settle for less.
Perrault intervened and the two men chased him for
almost an hour. They were throwing the clubs at him, but he dodged them. They cursed him to
he and all his ancestors, and all his descendants up to the last
generation, and to all the hairs of his body and to the last drop of blood
from his veins; and with every curse, he responded with a growl and kept himself
out of reach. He made no move to escape; he kept running.
around the camp, making them see that as soon as they took it into account
his wish would come closer and he would behave well.
François sat down and started scratching his head. Perrault checked his watch.
and uttered a blasphemy. Time was flying and it had already been more than an hour since
They should have been on the tracks. François turned to scratch his head. The
he waved and smiled shyly at the email, which shrugged its shoulders in a
gesture that indicated they were giving up. Then François went over to
where Sol-leks was and called Buck. Buck laughed like dogs do,
but kept his distance. François unbuckled Sol-leks' straps and him
he was reinstated in his old position. The shot was already hooked to the sled.
in a continuous line, ready for the tracks. There was no other place for Buck anymore.
that the first one. François called him again and Buck laughed again but
keeping a distance.
—Tie the gaggote — ordered Perrault.
François obeyed and then Buck approached at a trot, laughing.
triumphantly, and took the lead of the team. The straps were hooked,
the sled took off, the two men set off and everyone headed towards
great speed the river's path.
Although the dog handler had already assessed Buck in advance, by qualifying him
like two demons, it didn't take long for him to realize that he had
underrated. Buck took charge of his guide dog duties immediately; and
whenever it was necessary to put prudence and quick reasoning into play

Page 47
and quick action, it showed that it was even superior to Spitz, of which
François had never seen anything like it.
But above all, Buck excelled at giving an order and making sure that
his companions fulfilled it. Dave and Sol-leks did not care about the
leadership change. It was not a problem within his responsibilities. What was his was
to exert oneself with all their might on the tracks. While no one interfered
in this, he didn't care about the rest. For them, as if they were guiding the
great guy Billee, as long as he was able to maintain discipline. Without
embargo, the rest of the team had been upset during the last days of
Spitz and they were very surprised to see that Buck now wanted to involve them.
in the waist.
A Pike, who was behind Buck, and who never pulled on the straps more
force that is strictly necessary, shook him repeatedly and vigorously
playing the lazy one; and before the first day was over, he was throwing like
He had never done it in his life. On the first night of camping, Joe, the
bland, he gave him an enormous beating, something that Spitz had never experienced.
managed to do. Buck crushed him due to his superior weight and was
biting him until Joe stopped biting and started to moan
asking for a truce.
Immediately the team's mood improved. The situation was recovered.
solidarity of yesteryear and the dogs ran again like one single dog over
the clues. In the Rink rapids, two native Eskimos, Teek were added.
and the speed with which Buck dominated them left François speechless.
I've never seen a peg like that Buck! he exclaimed. No, never!
Pogg Cgisto worth a thousand dollars! Huh? What do you say, Perrault?
And Perrault nodded. By then he had already beaten his record and
I was gaining time day by day. The track was in excellent condition, smooth and
hard, and there was no need to face new snowfalls. The cold was not
excessive. The temperature had dropped to fifty degrees below zero and during
the entire journey was like that. The men took turns on foot or in the sled and
the dogs maintained the march with very few stops.
The Thirty Mile River was relatively covered in ice and it took them a day.
in covering what had taken them ten to climb. They did it all at once.
sixty mile journey from the tip of Lake Le Barge to the rapids
from White Horse. Crossing the Marsh, the Tagish, and the Bennett (seventy miles of
they were traveling at such speed that the man who had to go on foot had to
tie yourself with a rope behind the sled. And the last night of the second

Page 48
the week crowned the White Pass and they descended towards the sea with the lights of
Skaguay[1]and the boats at their feet.
It was a trip that broke all records. They had averaged
forty miles during each of the fourteen days it had lasted.
For three days, Perrault and François walked proudly down the street.
mayor of Skaguay and they were constantly inviting them to drink, while the
the team became a constant center of worship for a crowd
of dog breeders and dog busters.
Then three or four guys from the west tried to clean up the city and, as
they only managed to get them shot, the public's interest centered
in other idols. Then orders came from the Government. François called to
Buck hugged him and cried on his back. And that was the last time Buck
saw François and Perrault. Like other men, they disappeared forever.
of Buck's life.
A Scottish mestizo took charge of him and his companions and, along with
Another dozen dogs embarked on the hard journey back to Dawson.
Now it wasn't about running fast, nor breaking records; it was about working.
hard every day dragging a heavy load; because they were pulling from the
mail convoy that carried news from all over the world to the men who
they were looking for gold under the shadow of the pole.

Buck did not like this task but carried it out honorably, so proud.
from his work as Dave and Sol-leks, and he tried to ensure that his companions also
they would fulfill their duty. It was a monotonous life that passed with
mechanical regularity. The days were exactly the same as each other. Each
tomorrow, at a set time, the cooks would appear, they would light the
bonfires and breakfast was served. Then, while some were taking down the camp,
Others would harness the dogs and set off an hour before it was
it would produce the darkness that announces the dawn. At night, the
camp. Some were hammering in the tents, others were cutting firewood and pine branches.
to make beds, and others carried water or ice for the cooks. Additionally
they were feeding the dogs. For them, that was the best moment of the day,
although it was also nice to wander around the surroundings, after
having eaten the fish, in the company of the other dogs, who were more
of a hundred. Among them were very fierce fighters, but after three fights
with the fiercest, Buck became the master and as soon as he bristled his fur and
They moved away from its path when it bared its teeth.
Perhaps what he liked most was to lie in front of the fire with his legs.
rear legs tucked under its body and the front ones extended, the head

Page 49
standing and with dreamy eyes blinking in front of the flames. Sometimes it
I remembered the mansion of Judge Miller in the sunny valley of Santa Clara, and of the
cement tank where I used to swim, and Ysabel, the hairless Mexican dog,
and Toots, the little Japanese dog; but more often he remembered the man from
red jersey, the death of Curly, the big fight with Spitz and the good things that
had eaten or what he would like to eat. He did not feel nostalgia. The sunny land
it seemed very distant and far away to him, and these memories did not dominate him.
Much more powerful were the memories of her heritage, which conferred to the
unknown things until then a very real familiarity; instincts
which were nothing but the memories of their ancestors turned into
customs), dormant for many centuries and later also in
he, would wake up and come back to life within himself.
Sometimes, while I was lying there, blinking absorbedly at the
llamas, he thought that those flames belonged to another fire, and that he
I found myself lying in front of another fire and watching a man who was not him.
mestizo cook who was in front of him. That other man had longer legs.
shorter and the arms longer, and their muscles were fibrous and knotted, instead
rounded and voluminous. That man's hair was long and
tangled and the profile of his head receded from the eyes. It emitted
unos sonidos extraños y parecía temer enormemente la oscuridad a la que de
he continued to peek out waving in his hand, which hung at mid-distance.
between the knee and the foot, a stick with a stone tied at the tip. It was almost
naked, with a scorched and torn skin that covered part of the
back, but his body was very hairy. In some places, like in the
chest and shoulders and the outer face of the arms and thighs the hair was so
stupid that looked more like skin. It did not stand upright, but with the trunk
slightly leaning forward, from the hips up, and the legs
bent at the knees. There was an elasticity in her body.
special, an almost feline tension, and the alert attention of a being that has lived
in constant fear of the visible and the invisible.
On other occasions, that hairy man would sit crouched next to the
fire, with his head between his legs and he would fall asleep. Then he would put
the elbows on the knees and the hands intertwined above the head,
as if wanting to protect itself from the rain with its furry arms. And beyond the
fire, in the darkness that surrounded them, Buck could see many embers
lit, two by two, always in pairs, and I knew they were the eyes of the
great predatory beasts. I could hear the noise their bodies made as they walked
through the underbrush and the sounds they made at night. And when I was

Page 50
dreaming there, by the banks of the Yukon, with sleepy eyes blinking before
the fire, those sounds and those images from another world made it so that
the hairs on his back and neck stood up until he began to moan
in a low tone and softly howl; then the mestizo cook
he was shouting at him:

Hey, Buck! Wake up!

With that, the other world faded away and appeared before his eyes the
real world; and Buck stood up, yawned and stretched as if
I would have been sleeping.
The journey was very hard; they dragged the mail and the work was difficult for them.
exhausted. They were thin and exhausted when they arrived in Dawson, and they had
that having given them ten days off, or at least a week. But after all
two days already they were heading up the slopes of the Yukon towards the Barracks, loaded
with correspondence for abroad. The dogs were tired, the
Dog handlers growled and, to top it all off, it snowed every day. This
it meant that the tracks were soft, the friction was greater and, therefore,
the dogs had to pull harder; however, the dog handlers
they behaved well and did what they could to help the animals.
Every night the dogs were attended to before anyone else. They ate first.
that the drivers, and none of the men got into their sleeping bag
without having checked the legs of the dogs in his team beforehand. Nevertheless,
each day they found themselves more weakened. Since the beginning of winter
they had already traveled eighteen hundred miles, dragging sleds for such
exhausting journey; and eighteen hundred miles eventually take their toll on anyone
dog, no matter how strong it is. Buck endured it, forcing his to work his
companions and maintaining discipline, but he was also very tired.
Billee moaned and complained in his dreams every night. Joe appeared more
tasteless as ever and no one could get close to Sol-leks, not even from the side.
blind neither by the other.
But the one who suffered the most was Dave. There was no doubt that something was happening to him. He
he became more sullen and irritable, and as soon as they set up camp, he would become a
hole and the men had to bring him food there. As soon as it
they would unhook from the harness and go down to their hole, not getting back up until
the next morning when they were hooking him back up. Sometimes, on the road, when
I was shaken by a sudden stop of the sled, or when it pulled hard to take off,
he let out a cry of pain. The dog handler examined him, but could find nothing.
The other drivers were interested in his case. They talked about him at the
time to eat and when they smoked the last pipe before going to bed, and a

Page 51
that night they held a meeting. They took him out of his hole and brought him near the
fire, and there they were touching it and squeezing it until it complained several times
sometimes. I had some internal issue, but they could neither locate any broken bones, nor
to know what it was about.
By the time they reached Cassiar Bar, it was so weak that it was falling apart.
frequency on the track. The Scottish mestizo stopped the shot and unhooked it and
he placed the next dog, Sol-leks, between the poles, letting him run at will
behind the sled. But, despite how sick he was, Dave was offended.
that they would unhook him, and he protested and grunted while they were releasing the straps and
then he moaned pathetically when he saw Sol-leks take the position that he
had occupied and performed for so long. For I felt the pride of
the track and the shot and, although he was dying, he could not bear that another
dog would do his homework.
When the sleigh started moving, it struggled greatly through the
soft snow next to the hardened track, biting Sol-leks, pushing him
to make him fall on the other side of the road, onto the soft snow, trying
to get between the reins and position oneself between him and the sled, without stopping to moan and
to cry and scream with pain and sorrow. The mestizo tried to drive him away with whips; but
he ignored the cracking whip and the man felt sorry to punish him
more strength. Dave refused to run quietly along the track, behind
from the sled, something that would have been easy for him, and continued wobbling through the
soft snow, where it was very difficult to advance, until it was exhausted.
Then it collapsed and there it remained howling mournfully while the long
A sled team passed by him swiftly.

Page 52
Page 53
 He was still able to gather his strength to drag himself after them until
the expedition made a stop along the way and then advanced the sleds to
arrive at his and stood next to Sol-leks. The driver entertained himself for a
moment to ask the man behind for fire for his pipe. Then
he returned and turned on his equipment. The dogs started to run around the
They easily slipped away, turned their heads very surprised and stopped.
very surprised. The driver was also surprised; the sled did not
had moved. He called his companions to contemplate what had happened:
Dave had gnawed at Sol-leks' straps and was standing in front of the
sled, in its place.
With his eyes, he pleaded to be allowed to stay there. The driver was
perplexed. His companions were commenting on how a dog's can be broken.
soul when they prevent him from doing a job that is killing him; and they remembered
other cases, that they had known, where some dogs that were already
too old to work, or who were injured, had died at
separate them from the shot. They decided it would be more merciful that, since Dave was going to
dying in any case, they allowed him to die among the reins, happy and
happy. So they caught him again, and he began to throw with that pride.
his usual one, although occasionally a scream would escape him due to the evil
that gnawed at his insides. He fell several times and the shot dragged him and in another
on one occasion the sled fell on him and left him limping on one of his legs
back
But he held on until he reached the camp where the driver made him a
site by the fire. The next morning he felt too weak.
in order to travel. When it came time to put on the harnesses, he tried to drag himself until
the driver. He barely managed to get to his feet, stumbled and fell. Then he was
crawling slowly to the place where they were hooking their
companions. He advanced with his front legs and dragged his body in one pull,
and then it would pull its front legs forward again and take another tug to move forward
a few inches. His strength left him and the last time his
companions saw him lying in the snow gasping and looking at them
anxiously. But they continued to hear his mournful howl until they
they lost sight behind the trees by the riverbank.
There the expedition stopped. The mixed-race Scot returned slowly until
the camp from which they had just left. The men stopped talking.
A gunshot was heard. The man returned in a hurry. The whips.
they settled down, the sleigh bells jingled cheerfully, the sleds slid

Page 54
down the track; but Buck knew, as did the other dogs, what was going on.
happened beyond the river trees.

Page 55
 Chapter 5
The hard work of the shooting and the track

Thirty days after leaving Dawson, the Salt Water mail with Buck.
and his companions at the front, were arriving in Skaguay. They were in a state
pitiful, defeated, and exhausted. The one hundred forty pounds of weight of Buck
had been reduced to one hundred and fifteen. The rest of their companions,
although they were smaller dogs, they had relatively lost more weight than
he. The sly one, Pike, who in his long life of trickery had feigned to
a pig that had an injured leg, now limped quite seriously. Also
Sol-leks was limping and Dub had a dislocated shoulder.
Everyone had their feet badly injured, without elasticity or
any resistance. They let their paws fall heavily on the track, with the
the fatigue of each day of travel would double. Nothing bad happened to them:
they were just dead tired. It wasn't the exhausting tiredness that is
produced after an intense and brief effort, from which one recovers in question
of hours; it was the mortal fatigue generated by slow exhaustion and
extended the forces, after several months of hard work. They no longer
There were no energies left to recover, nor reserve forces to draw upon.
They had exhausted them all to the last drop. Every single one of their
muscles, of their fibers, of their cells, were tired, mortally
tired. And with reason. In less than five months they had traveled two thousand
five hundred miles, and in the last one thousand eight hundred they had only had five
rest days. When they arrived in Skaguay, it seemed like they were in the
last. Only if they could keep the reins tight and, when they went uphill
below, they could hardly keep out of the reach of the sled.
Come on, tired little legs! the driver shouted trying to
cheering them on as they lined up on Skaguay's Main Street—. We're arriving and
Then we are going to rest. Okay? Yes, sir, we are going to have a
great rest.
The same drivers trusted that they would be given a few days off.
They too had traveled one thousand two hundred miles in just two days.

Page 56
rest and deservedly, very naturally and justly, a period of idleness. But
so many men had gone to the Klondike, and there were so many brides,
wives and other relatives who had stayed far away, that the mail was leaving
accumulating in huge piles, and, in addition, there were official dispatches.
From Hudson Bay, new batches of dogs arrived to replace those that
they were no longer suitable for the tracks. It was necessary to get rid of those that were no longer valuable and,

since dogs matter little compared to dollars, it was necessary to

sell them.
Three days passed, during which Buck and his companions were able to
realize how extremely tired and exhausted they were. Then, the room
In the morning, two men from the United States arrived and the
They bought them, with harnesses and all, for a few pennies. The men were called
one another 'Hal' and 'Charles'. Charles was middle-aged; he had skin
white, with watery and near-sighted eyes and a great twisted mustache, which
he was hiding some withered and drooping lips. Hal was a nineteen-year-old young man.
twenty years, carrying a belt full of bullets, a large revolver
Colt and a knife. This belt was a more characteristic feature. It revealed his
immaturity, a total and indescribable immaturity.
Those two men were obviously out of place and the reason for
which the men of his kind dared to march to the northern lands
it is a mystery that resists all explanation.
Buck heard them bargaining, saw the money pass from the man's hands to the
the government agent and noticed that the Scottish mestizo and the
mail convoy drivers exited their lives as they had before.
Perrault and François and all the others. When they led him along with his
companions to the camp of their new masters, Buck found himself in a
dirty and neglected place, with the store half-fallen, the dishes unwashed and
everything is in disarray; moreover, he saw a woman. "Mercedes," they called her.
men. She was Charles's wife and at the same time Hal's sister. What a family!
Buck watched them warily as they finished dismantling the tent and
They were loading the sleigh. They put a lot of effort into it, but lacked efficiency.
They rolled up the store in a package that was three times larger than what it could handle.
having been. They kept the tin dishes without washing them. Mercedes was in the way.
continuously the work of the men and chattered without ceasing, giving them
advice and making reproaches. When they put a bag of clothes in the
front part of the sled, suggested to them that it would work better at the rear; and when the
they had placed it behind and it was underneath two other packages, he realized

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that she had forgotten to put away some clothes that needed to go
necessarily in that bag and it had to be unloaded again.
Three men came out of a nearby store and stared at them,
smiling and winking.
They already have a good load with what they're carrying,
Even if it means sticking my nose where I don't belong, I wouldn't do it in their place.
would take the store.
—¡Ni soñarlo! —gritó Mercedes, alzando los brazos con gesto de
Remilgada consternation—. How the hell was I going to manage without a shop?
We are already in spring and it will not be cold for them again,
man.
She shook her head very resolutely and Charles and Hal placed the last ones.
junk on top of that mountain of luggage.
Do you think it will start? asked one of the men.
"And why not?" Charles replied curtly.
: "Well, well," the man hastily said in a soothing tone.
It just crossed my mind. It seemed a bit to me.
overloaded...
Charles turned his back and tied the reins as best as he could; that is,
quite bad.
—And of course, the dogs will be pulling that contraption all day long —he commented
another man.
Of course, yes,
holding the control stick with one hand and wielding the whip with the other
another—. Go! —he shouted—. Go, now!
The dogs lay down on the front leashes, pulling with strength
for a few moments and then they stopped. They were unable to move the
sled
—Lazy beasts! I'll show you! —he shouted, ready to shake them.
with the whip.
But Mercedes intervened, shouting:
—No, Hal, don't do it! —and grabbed the whip and took it out of his hands—.
Poor things! You have to promise me that you won't mistreat them while it lasts.
I travel, because if not, I'll stay here.
—What do you know about dogs! —grumbled his brother—. Let me see if you leave me alone.
in peace. They are lazy, I tell you, and you have to beat them if you want to achieve
some of them. They are like that and, if not, ask anyone; ask those
men.

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 Mercedes looked at him pleadingly, with a gesture of repulsion at his presence.
of the pain painted on her pretty face.
What happens to them is that they can't stand up.
Men are exhausted, that's what happens to them. They need to rest.
Damn the break! said Hal with those hairless lips.
And Mercedes said:
Oh! -hurt and saddened to hear the curse.
But in any case, he sided with his brother and stood up for him:
Don't pay attention to that man,
You lead the dogs, so do what you think is best.
Hal's whip fell again upon the animals. They lay down on
the front straps, drove the legs into the crushed snow, lowered the
body and pulled with all their might. The sled remained unmoved,
as if it were anchored. After two more attempts, they stopped, panting. The
the whip cracked fiercely and then Mercedes intervened again. She knelt down
on his knees before Buck, with tears in his eyes, and he hugged his neck.
Oh my poor ones,
You win? And that way they won't hit you.

Buck did not like the woman, but he felt too miserable.
as if to oppose her, so he endured her like just another number
the evils of that day.
One of the onlookers, who had been clenching his teeth to not let go
a string of insults, ended up speaking.
I don't give a damn what could happen to you, but for the
Well, to the dogs I will say that it is better they take off the sleigh: the boards.
they are frozen and stuck to the ground. If you put your body weight against the
The lever of the control, from left to right, will be released.
For the third time they tried to get going again, but this time,
following the advice, Hal was able to peel off the boards that had gotten stuck
soldiers on the ground due to the ice. The overloaded and cumbersome sled advanced
laboriously dragged by Buck and his companions, over which fell a
rain of beatings. One hundred meters further the path turned in a curve at
It is difficult to head down the main street. Only a man of great experience.
he would have been able to keep the sled balanced and Hal was not that
man. When they took the curve, the sled overturned, spilling half of it.
from the load through the poorly secured straps. The dogs did not stop.
The sled, lightened of its weight, was sliding sideways behind them. They were
angry about the bad treatment received and the unfair burden. Buck was

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Furious. He took off running followed by his entire team. Hal shouted: 'Soo!'
"Wow!", but they continued as if nothing had happened. The man lost his balance and
fell to the ground. The overturned sled passed over him and the dogs headed towards
All march through Main Street sowing joy for Skaguay, as they leave.
scattered around the center of the population are the remnants of the load.
Some kind-hearted citizens stopped the dogs and collected
the scattered belongings. And, moreover, they gave them a piece of advice: half of the
load and double the number of dogs, if they intended to reach Dawson. That was what
what they said. Hal and his sister and her husband listened reluctantly,
they set up the tent and checked their supplies. Cans of emerged.
canned goods, which made the onlookers laugh, because on the Great Track the cans of
canned goods are the dream of any traveler.
"Blankets like for a hotel," commented one of the men who were laughing.
and they helped them—. With half it is more than enough; get rid of them.
Throw away the store and all those dishes; anyway, nobody is going to wash them...
Holy heaven! Do they think they are traveling on a Pullman?[1]?
And so they inexorably continued to eliminate the superfluous. Mercedes cried.
when he saw them dumping his travel bags on the ground and throwing them away, one
for one, all her clothing. She cried in general and then in
particular every time they threw something. She was sitting with her hands in the
knees, rocking helplessly. He swore he would not move from there not even for a
dozen of Charles. He pleaded with everyone and for everything, and in the end, he dried his eyes and
he started throwing away essential clothing with such enthusiasm
that, after finishing with theirs, he attacked the belongings of the
men and wiped them out as if it were a cyclone.
And still after this, the luggage, although reduced by half, continued
being huge. Charles and Hal went out in the afternoon and bought six dogs
new. With these, plus the six from the original team, and Teek and Koona, the
Eskimo dogs acquired at the Rapids of the Rink during the record journey,
there were fourteen dogs in the team. But the new dogs, which were coming from other
lands, although they had already been tamed, were of little use. Three of them
they were pointers[2]with short hair, one was a Newfoundland and the others were two
stray dogs of unknown breed.
It seems that the newcomers didn't know anything at all. Buck and his
companions looked at them disdainfully and, although Buck immediately said to them
He showed what his place was and what they could not do, it was impossible for him.
to teach them what they had to do. They reluctantly adapted to the work in the
track and in the shot. Except for the two stray dogs, the others were

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stunned and with their spirit shattered by the fierce and unknown environment
where they had ended up, and due to the mistreatment received. The two dogs
street vendors had no spirits of any kind and the only thing that could be
to shatter were the bones.
So, with the useless and discouraged newcomers and the old
team exhausted from two thousand five hundred miles of continuous traveling, the
prospects did not seem bright at all. Despite which, the two
the men were in very good spirits and also very proud. They were going to travel to the
big, with fourteen dogs. They had seen other sleds crossing the Pass heading towards
Dawson, or arriving from Dawson, but none of them had fourteen dogs.
Naturally, there is a reason why a sled never travels through the Arctic.
with fourteen dogs, and it's because a sled cannot carry all the food
necessary for fourteen dogs. But Charles and Hal did not know it. They had
calculated the trip with paper and pencil: so much per dog, for so many dogs and so much
days, it adds up to so much. Mercedes looked down on them and nodded.
comprehensively. Everything seemed so simple!
Well into the following morning, Buck set out with all the
team up the street. They were not lively at all, nor was there any sign of vivacity nor
gallantry in none of the dogs. They set out dead from
tiredness. Buck had already traveled the distance between Salt Water four times.
and Dawson was bitter to know that, as exhausted as he was, he had
that he would repeat the same route. Neither he nor she put their heart into the task.
none of the dogs. The outsiders were shy and scared and the
veterans did not trust their masters.
Buck had a vague feeling that he couldn't trust those two.
men and the woman. They didn't know how to do anything and over time it became clear to them that
who were also incapable of learning anything. They were disastrous at everything and
They lacked order and discipline. They would stay up until midnight setting up a...
dismantled camp and it took them half the morning to set it up again and
load the sleigh so clumsily that they spent the rest of the day stopping
to put the bundles back. There were days when they didn’t progress even ten.
miles, and others where they didn't even start. And no day did they arrive at
cover not even half the distance that the men had taken as a basis for
calculate the food for the dogs.
It was inevitable that animal food would eventually become scarce. But
this came about with much anticipation, as they were overfed, with the
they advanced the moment when they were to put them on a diet. The dogs
new arrivals, to whom chronic hunger had not accustomed them to

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squeeze the juice out of minimal amounts of food, they had a voracious appetite.
Moreover, as the exhausted sled dogs were pulling with little energy,
Hal decided that the calculated ration was too small and doubled it. And for
It was almost time, when Mercedes, with tears in her lovely eyes and voice
trembling, she couldn't manage to coax him into giving the dogs a little more of
food, she was going to steal fish from the sacks and gave it to the animals
hidden. But what Buck and the dogs needed was not food, but
rest. And although they were not making much progress, the heavy load they were dragging
was mining his forces.
Then the time came to put them on a diet. One day Hal realized that
he had used half of the food in just a quarter of the journey, and what
it was worse, that it was absolutely impossible to get more. So he reduced the
necessary rations and tried to increase the pace of the march. His sister and his
brother-in-law supported their plans, but that did not work out because of his own
incompetence and due to the heavy weight of the load. It was very simple to give them to the
dogs less food; what was impossible was to get them to run more
quickly and also for more hours, because they wasted a lot of time with the
morning preparations. They not only ignored how to make the dogs work,
but they themselves didn't know how to work.
The first to fall was Dub. A clumsy thief, always caught.
and punished, he had been a loyal worker. His dislocated shoulder, without
carefully and without rest, it had gone from bad to worse, until Hal finally ended up
to shoot him with his great Colt revolver. There is a saying from those lands
according to which a stray dog dies of hunger with the ration of one dog
Eskimo; so that the six outsider dogs of Buck's team do not
They had no choice but to die of hunger, as they were only given half of
the ration of an Eskimo dog. First the Newfoundland died, then the
three short haired pointers and, in the end, no matter how much effort they put in
clinging to life, the stray dogs eventually died as well.
By then the three people had lost all kindness and
good southern customs. Devoid of its novel-like charm, the journey
the Arctic became a reality too harsh for those men
and that woman. Mercedes stopped pitying the dogs, for she was
too busy feeling sorry for herself and fighting with her
husband and with his brother. They were never too tired to quarrel. The
difficulties caused his irritability, which grew with them, multiplying.
and surpassing them by far. The wonderful patience they acquire on the track
the men who work hard and suffer deeply, without losing kindness

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and the good words, those two men never came to know them and
that woman. They had no remote idea of her existence. They were rigid and
sore; all their muscles ached, all their bones ached, even their soul ached.
it hurt; and that's why they spoke rudely and the first thing they said when
The point of the morning and the last thing they said to each other every night were bitter words.
Charles and Hal were arguing about how Mercedes gave them the slightest
opportunity. Each of them was convinced that they worked harder than
the other and took advantage of all opportunities to express this conviction.
Mercedes sometimes sided with her husband and other times with her
Brother; all in all, it was a beautiful and endless family fight.
They could start discussing who was going to cut some splinters for the
fire (a discussion that only concerned Charles and Hal); after a while already
they had brought out the rest of the family, parents, mothers, uncles, cousins,
people who were all thousands of miles away and, some of them,
dead. That Hal's opinion on artistic matters or the type of comedies
facilona that her mother's brother wrote had something to do with it.
the fact of having to cut some splinters is something that exceeds the limits of
any reasoning; however, it is most likely that the discussion
Let those routes bring out political prejudices.
of Charles. And that the gossiping tongue of Charles's sister had something
what to see with the act of lighting a campfire in Yukon, just seemed to him
it's logical for Mercedes, who was unleashing a stream of comments on the topic and,
by the way, about equally unpleasant characteristics of his family
husband. And meanwhile, the fire continued not to ignite, the camp.
it was half assembled and the dogs were fasting.
Mercedes felt especially offended for her reason of
female condition. She was lovely and delicate and, until then, she had always been
treated with gallantry. But the current attitude of her husband and of her
brother was far from being chivalrous. He had the habit of showing himself
defense and they complained about this. And how they censored what she
it seemed like the most fundamental prerogative of her sex, she dedicated herself to doing them the
impossible life. Without any consideration for the dogs and claiming that
she was tired and sore, she insisted on traveling on the sled. She was pretty and
delicate, but weighed one hundred twenty pounds3, that was not a small thing to
to add to the already heavy burden that the animals, weak and
hungry. And there she sat for several days, until the dogs fell.
exhausted and the sled stopped. Charles and Hal begged him to get off and

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walk; they pleaded with her earnestly, while she cried and shouted
to the sky and unleashed a string of complaints about the brutality of men.
On one occasion, they forcibly pulled her off the sleigh. They didn't think to return it.
to repeat. She threw herself on the ground like a spoiled child and there she stayed sitting on the
track. They continued on their way, but she did not move. After three miles
they unloaded the sleigh, went back to get her, and lifted her up again by force
to the sleigh.
Overwhelmed by their own suffering, they did not notice the suffering of the
animals. Hal's theory, which he only put into practice on someone else's head, was
that one had to be tough. He started by preaching it to his sister and to his
brother-in-law, but, in light of the success, he set out to instill it in the dogs by force
from beatings. Upon arriving at Five Fingers, they had run out of food for the
animals and an old toothless Indian offered them some pounds of hides
frozen horses in exchange for the Colt revolver that Hal always carried
belt, along with the great hunting knife. Those hides, torn off from
the emaciated horses of some cowboys, six months ago, were very poor
food substitute. And since they were frozen, they looked more like strips of iron.
galvanized; when they reached the stomachs of the dogs, they melted and
they were reduced to thin, leathery, insubstantial strips and a mass
of rough and indigestible bristles.
Despite everything, Buck continued to struggle forward.
team, like in a nightmare. I threw as much as I could; and when I could no longer
more, it would fall to the ground and there it would stay until, by force of lashes or
strangulations, they forced him to get back up. His beautiful fur had
lost all the shine and smoothness. The hair hung down, limp and matted, or
splotched with dry blood, in those spots where Hal had hit him with
the garrote. His muscles had been reduced to knotted strings and
the flesh had disappeared from his body, so that one could count
all the ribs and all the bones of his skeleton through the flaccid
folded skin in grooves, revealing the empty interior. It was disheartening,
but Buck did not let himself be discouraged, as he had been able to verify
man in the red sweater.
And the same thing that happened to Buck also happened to his companions.
They were walking skeletons. There were seven in total, counting him. The excessive
suffering had made them insensitive to the sting of the whip or to the
bruises from the club. The pain from the blows felt vague and distant,
in the same way that the things their eyes saw and their ears perceived them
they seemed vague and distant. They were half dead, we would even say three

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fourth parts dead. They were simply other bags of bones in the
that barely sparkled with any spark of life. When they took a break in the
path, they would fall onto the track like dead dogs and the spark
it paled and fogged as if it were about to escape from them. And when the club or
the whip fell again on his flanks, the spark flickered weakly;
then they barely joined in and continued the march
staggering.
But one day the good guy Billee fell and could no longer do it.
lift. Since Hal had traded his revolver, he took the axe and
he struck Billee on the head, as he lay there between the
he separated the corpse from the harness with another axe blow and threw it into a
side of the road. Buck saw it, his companions saw it, and everyone realized
tell that it was something that would also happen to them very
probably. The next day Koona fell and only five were left: Joe, so
exhausted to the point of being neither bland; Pike, limping and hobbling, half
unconscious and with no spirits even to slack off; Sol-leks, the one-eyed,
still working on the tracks and on the reins with loyalty and complaining about
having so little energy to throw; Teek, who had not traveled as much as the
the others in winter and that, because it was in better condition, received more
hits than the others; and Buck, still at the front of the team, but not imposing
no discipline nor worry about it, blind with weakness half of the
time, and keeping the path purely by instinct and the vague touch of their
legs.
It was a beautiful springtime, but neither the dogs nor the men could.
They noticed it. Day by day the sun rose earlier and set later.
afternoon. It was dawn at three in the morning and twilight lasted until
nine o'clock at night. Throughout the day the sun shone. The ghostly
the silence of winter had given way to the great spring murmur of the
life that awakens. This murmur sprang from all the earth, overflowing with the
joy of living. It arose from the things that came back to life and started to move again, things
that had remained as dead and motionless for the long months
of ice. The sap was rising inside the pines. The willows and the poplars
they burst with little shoots. The bushes and climbing plants were returning to
to turn green. The crickets spent the night singing and, during the day, everything
type of creatures were crawling on the ground searching for the sun. The partridges and the
Woodpeckers fluttered through the forests, filling them with sound. The
squirrels chattered, the birds sang, and above all of them,

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the wild ducks were grazing that were flying in from the south skillfully
wedges that tore through the air.
From the slopes of all the hills came the tinkling of the water that
ran, the music of the hidden springs. Everything melted, broke,
crackled. The Yukon struggled to break the ice that contained it. It was going
undoing from the bottom while the sun was eating it from above. It
they formed air bubbles, cracks appeared that were separating, and fine
ice layers ended up falling to the bottom of the river. And in the midst of all this
explosion, of all this clamor and heartbeat of the awakening of life, under the sun
shining and through barely whispering breezes, like pilgrims from the
death, the two men, the woman and the dogs advanced.
When they arrived at John Thornton's camp at the mouth
from the White river, the dogs were falling, Mercedes was sobbing while sitting on the
sleigh, Hal blasphemed foolishly and Charles's eyes were crying from
melancholy. When they stopped, the dogs fell to the ground as if dead.
Mercedes wiped her eyes and looked at John Thornton. Charles sat down on a
trunk to rest. He sat down very slowly and with a lot of effort,
well, I was numb. Hal did all the talking. John
Thornton was making the final touches to the handle of an axe that he
he had just carved with the branch of a birch. He carved and listened, responding
with monosyllables and, when asked for his opinion, he gave brief advice.
I knew that type of livestock, and I gave the advice knowing it fully.
security that they were not going to be taken into account.
They told us up there that the bottom of the track was melting and
It would be better if we waited —he commented upon hearing the warning given to him.
Thornton that they should not continue risking themselves on the brittle ice—. We
they said we wouldn't make it to the White River and here we are —and
there was a hint of pride in these last words.
—And they weren't lying —John Thornton replied—. The bottom is at
about to collapse at any moment. Only a madman, and there is always one
someone with luck would get it. I assure you that I would not risk my skin.
over that ice, not for all the gold in Alaska.
—It's probably because you're not a crazy person —Hal said—. But we are leaving.
a Dawson.
He unfurled the whip.
—Get up, Buck! Come on, up! Giddy up!
Thornton continued carving the wood. He knew very well that it was useless.
to interpose between a madman and his madness and, moreover, with two or three more madmen or

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less, the world would turn the same.
But the dogs did not get up upon hearing the command. It had been a while since they had only
they responded with a force of blows. The whip cracked over them punishing them without
pity. John Thornton bit his lips. The first one to manage to get in
it was Sol-leks. Then Teek. After that, Joe did it, barking plaintively.
Pike, after painful efforts, fell twice, when he was almost
he managed to get up, and on the third try he succeeded in standing. Buck neither
At least he tried. He stayed in the same place where he had lain down. The
the whip bit him repeatedly, but he neither complained nor moved. Thornton was
about to open his mouth several times and held back. His eyes became
they got wet and got up and started walking up and down
nervously, while the whips continued.
It was the first time Buck had let him down and that was reason enough to
that Hal would get furious. He dropped the whip and grabbed the club as if
custom. Buck refused to move, despite the rain of bludgeons that fell on him.
fell on top.
Like his comrades, he could barely stand; but unlike
they were determined not to get up. He had a vague feeling of danger
imminent. I had felt it strongly when they arrived at the riverbank and
I still felt it. Because of the very thin and brittle ice that I had noticed.
all day under his paws, it seemed to him that disaster would be inevitable in
those ice areas where his master insisted on taking him. He refused to
move. He had suffered so much and was so exhausted that the blows barely hit him
dolían. Y mientras seguían cayéndole encima, la chispa de vida que había
Inside it oscillated and diminished. It almost went out. Buck felt a strange
drowsiness. As if from very far away, he felt the sensation that he was being
catching. He ended up no longer feeling pain. He didn't notice anything anymore, although he could hear very

vaguely the blow of the club on his body. But he felt it so distant that
She no longer felt like her body.
And suddenly, without warning, with a heart-wrenching scream that seemed more like
the roar of a beast, John Thornton lunged at the man who
he brandished the club. Hal staggered back, as if something was about to fall on him.
fallen tree. Mercedes shouted. Charles stood staring thoughtfully, he wiped himself.
the wet eyes, but he did not get up because he felt stiff.
John Thornton stood in front of Buck, trying to control himself, so
furious that he couldn't even speak.
If you touch that dog again, I'll kill you,
interrupted.

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 The dog is mine,
Get out of my way or you'll have to deal with it.
with me. I am going to Dawson.
Thornton remained between him and Buck without giving the slightest sign of stepping aside. Hal
he pulled out his large hunting knife. Mercedes screamed, cried, laughed, and showed signs of
to be seized by an attack of hysteria. Thornton struck Hal on the
knuckles with the axe handle that made him drop the knife. He returned to
to crush them when he made a move to go pick them up. Then he bent down, picked up
the knife and cut the reins of Buck with two blows.
Hal didn't feel like fighting anymore. Besides, he had in his hands,
better said in the arms, to his sister, and Buck was half dead and
could only serve to pull the sled. A few minutes later they left the
bank facing the river. Buck heard them march and lifted his head to
to look at them. Pike was in front and Sol-leks on the traces; between them were Joe and Teek.
Everyone was limping and swaying. Mercedes was sitting in the loaded cart.
sled, Hal was handling the control rod and Charles was bouncing behind.
As Buck watched them, Thornton knelt down beside him and was
palpating it, with rough and affectionate hands, in case it had any broken bones. For
when the sled was a quarter of a mile away, it had already
realization that Buck only had a bunch of bruises and a
terrible state of starvation. The man and the dog continued to watch how
the sled was being dragged over the ice. Suddenly they saw that the back part
he was sinking, like into a pothole, and Hal, gripping the control lever, was jumping up
the air. They heard Mercedes scream. They saw Charles turn around.
trying to escape. And then a large piece of ice gave way and men and dogs
they disappeared. There was only a huge hole to be seen. It had come off
the bottom of the track.
John Thornton and Buck looked at each other.
Poor little one,

Page 68
Page 69
 Chapter 6
For the love of a man

When John Thornton's feet had frozen in December of the year

previously, his companions left him settled in the camp so that
they could be restored and they went upstream to look for a raft of
logs that took them to Dawson. He still limped a little when he saved
a Buck, but, with the good weather, he fully recovered. And there,
lying by the river during those long spring days, watching
running water, lazily listening to the trills of the birds and the
murmur of nature, Buck gradually recovered his strength.
A break is very nice after a three thousand mile trip and there is
that it is acknowledged that Buck indulged in the good life while his wounds healed
wounds, she replenished muscles and the flesh began to cover her bones again. The truth is
that everyone (Buck, John Thornton, Skeet, and Nig) was lazying around happily
while they waited for the ferry that would take them to Dawson. Skeet was a
Irish Setter puppy[1], which from the very first moment tried to get along
with Buck and to which he, when he was half dead, could not offer
some resistance. She had that quality of a nurse that many dogs have;
and like a cat with her kittens, she dedicated herself to licking and cleaning the wounds
de Buck. Every day without fail, after breakfast, he dedicated himself to the
task that she had set for herself, to the point that Buck expected
his care with as much interest as that of Thornton. Nig, who was also
friendly, although less expressive, it was a big black dog, half hound, half
greyhound, with smiling eyes and eternal good humor.
To Buck's surprise, no dog showed any signs of being jealous of him.
They seemed to share the kindness and generosity of John Thornton. According to Buck
he was regaining strength, they dragged him into all kinds of naive games, to the
which Thornton always ended up joining them; and thus Buck would come out of the
convalescence and starting a new life. For the first time, I felt love, a
authentic and passionate love. I had never come to know it there in the
Judge Miller's farm, in the sunny valley of Santa Clara. For the children of

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Judge had been a co-worker, in his hunts or walks; for the
grandchildren of the judge, a kind of honorary protector, and for the same judge, a
worthy and respected friend. But what is called a burning and fevered love,
What is adoration and madness, I had only felt it towards John Thornton.
This man had saved his life, which is saying something; but he was also the
I love perfectly. Other men were concerned about the well-being of their dogs, for
sense of duty and for his own convenience; but he took care of his dogs
as if they were their children; because anything else would have been unthinkable. And it
He used to go all out. He never forgot to greet them with affection or a word.
friendly and would sit for long periods talking with them (chatting, he would say) and
I enjoyed this as much as the animals themselves. I used to grab the head of
Buck in his rough hands in a very special way, resting his
head over the dog's, and rocking it while I was telling it curses, that to
Buck thought they were words of love. For Buck, there was no greater joy.
that rough embrace and the sound of those oaths in a low voice; and to
with each swing, it seemed to him that his heart was going to escape from his chest, from the
emotion he felt. When he let go, Buck would leap at his feet,
with a smiling mouth, sparkling eyes, the neck pulsing with sounds
uninformed, and there he remained motionless while John Thornton spoke to him
admired
—For God's sake, Buck; you just need to talk!
Buck had a way of expressing his love that almost hurt.
to take Thornton's hand between his teeth and bite it with such force that the
the marks from the teeth stayed for a good while. But just like
Buck understood that swear words were words of love, the man gave himself
It accounts for the fact that those bites were actually caresses.
However, most of the time, Buck's love was expressed
as worship. Although he went crazy with joy when Thornton touched him
I spoke to him, I wasn't looking for these demonstrations. Unlike Skeet, so
fond of sticking her snout under Thornton's hand and being there
removing it until it was caressed, or by Nig, who used to approach
rest his big head on his master's knees, it was enough for Buck to
to adore him from afar. He would spend hours lying at his feet, attentive, alert,
observing her face, attentive to her, studying her, without losing the slightest
detail of any gesture, any movement or change of expression.
On other occasions, he would lie further away, to one side or behind the
man, and he observed the outline of his figure and the occasional movements of his
body. And they were so engrossed that often the intensity of the

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Buck's gaze made Thornton turn his head and return the favor.
gaze without a word, with the heart bursting out through the eyes as it
I went out to Buck.
Until a long time after his salvation, Buck did not like to lose.
in view of Thornton. From the moment he left the store until he went back inside
in it, Buck was right on his heels. The constant changes of owner
what he had suffered in those northern lands had led him to think that
there was no permanent master. She feared that Thornton would disappear from her life
as Perrault, François, and the Scottish mestizo had disappeared. Even
at night, in dreams, those nightmares were stalking him. On those occasions
he would wake up and crawl through the cold to the entrance of the store and there he
I was listening to my master's breathing.
But despite the great love she felt for John Thornton and that she could
seems like a sign of civilizing influence, the strength of the primitive, that the
north had awakened in its being, it was still alive and active. It was loyal and faithful.
qualities that are born with fire and under a roof; but he also kept his
cleverness and fierceness. It was a wild creature, emerging from nature to
to sit by the fire of John Thornton, and not a dog from the gentle lands
sureñas, marked by generations of domestic life. For the great love that it
he couldn't, he was not able to steal from that man; but he didn’t hesitate for a second in
to rob other men, from other camps; and he did it so cunningly that
always managed to escape unscathed.
His face and body bore scars from the teeth of many dogs, but
he continued fighting with the same strength and with greater skill. Skeet and Nig were
too tame to fight, and besides, they were John's dogs
Thornton; but as soon as a strange dog appeared, of any breed or
category, soon learned of Buck's superiority or found herself
caught in a death struggle with a terrible adversary. And Buck was
implacable. He had learned the law of the club and the fang very well and
He never wasted an advantage nor forgave an enemy he saw.
dedicated to dying. He had learned from Spitz and from the most combative dogs of
the police and the postal service, and I knew there was no middle ground.
One had to dominate or be dominated; and mercy was a sign of weakness. In
primitive life did not exist. Piety was confused with fear and this brought about the
death. To kill or be killed, to eat or be eaten: such was the law; and Buck obeyed.
that mandate that arose from the depths of time.
He was older than the days he had lived and the breaths he had taken.
breath. In it, the past and the present were intertwined, and eternity pulsed

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in its being with an irresistible rhythm to which one bowed, like one
surrendered before the waves and the tides. When I was sitting by the fire
John Thornton was nothing more than a broad-chested dog with white fangs.
dense fur; but behind it lived the shadows of dogs of all kinds, half
wolves and wild wolves that surrounded him, hungry for the flesh that he ate,
thirsty for the water I drank, sniffing the wind with him, listening to what
he heard and revealing to him the sounds of the wild life of the forests; they him
they imposed their customs, directed their actions, with him they would lie down to rest
and they dreamed of him, and even went further and became the object of their
dreams.
So imperiously did these shadows call him that he felt them more and more each day.
the humanity and the demands of men are distant. In the deepest of
the forest echoed a call and, whenever I heard it, with its mystery
shuddering and attractive, he felt urged to turn his back on the fire and the
home and to venture into the forest to its very depths, not knowing
where and why the call resonated imperiously, from the deepest
from the forest. But, as soon as I arrived at those soft virgin lands and to
those green shadows, the love I felt for John Thornton brought me back to
draw to the fire.
Only Thornton held him back. The rest of humanity meant nothing.
for him. Sometimes a passing traveler would praise him or pet him, but he
remained indifferent and, if the man was too effusive, she would get up and leave.
largaba. Cuando llegaron los compañeros de Thornton, Hans y Pete, con la
Despite the long-awaited raft, Buck refused to pay them any attention until he found out.
they were friends of Thornton; then he tolerated them with a certain passivity,
accepting their favors as if they were doing them a favor by accepting them. They were
big men, in the style of Thornton, who lived in contact with the
land, and they had basic and clear ideas; when they arrived with the raft at the great
whirlpool next to the Dawson sawmill, they had already noticed
how Buck was and his habits, and they did not insist on getting that
intimate with them, like Skeet and Nig used to do.
However, her love for Thornton seemed to grow day by day. He was the only
man whom I allowed to put a bundle on his back in the
summer displacements. Nothing was too much for Buck, if Thornton allowed it.
I was ordering. One day (after the profits from the sale of the raft had been shared...
and leaving Dawson heading towards the birth of the Tanana) the men and the dogs
they were sitting on the edge of a cliff that dropped straight down to a bed of
bare rocks, three hundred feet[2]lower down. John Thornton was sitting

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next to the edge with Buck by his side. Suddenly, an absurd idea occurred to him and
he drew Hans and Pete's attention to the experiment he was planning to carry out.
—Jump, Buck! —he ordered, extending his arm over the abyss.
A second later, I was grabbing Buck at the edge of the cliff and Hans and
Pete was pulling both of them to safety.
It is magnificent,
speech recovered.
Thornton shook his head.
No; it's wonderful, and also tremendous. You know, sometimes it scares me.
I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of anyone who dares to lay a hand on you.
besides, if he is nearby —Pete remarked bluntly, pointing at Buck with
the head.
—Poor Christ —added Hans—. Me neither.
In Circle City, before the year ended, Pete's fears were
became a reality. Burton the Black, a vile and ill-natured guy,
he had gotten into a fight with a newcomer in the bar,
when Thornton stepped in, soothing, between them. Buck, as if
custom, was lying in a corner, with its head between its paws, without
not lose sight of a single movement of his master. Burton landed a punch on him
with all his strength without the slightest warning. Thornton stumbled out and
he managed not to fall to the ground because he was able to grab onto the bar of the bar.
The witnesses of the scene heard something that was neither a bark nor a ...
howl, rather a roar and then they saw how Buck's body
lifted through the air from the ground to Burton's neck. The man
he saved his life, because he instinctively put his arm forward, but fell to the ground with
Buck above. Buck released the arm he was holding between his teeth and returned to
to the neck. This time the man barely managed to protect himself and ended up with the
torn neck. Then the crowd rushed at Buck and it
they separated from the man; but while a doctor tried to contain the
hemorrhage, he was roaming around there, growling devilishly, trying
to attack, and they only contained him by surrounding him with a barrier of hostile clubs.
A 'miners' council' soon convened, which decided that the dog had
acted under provocation and Buck was acquitted. But since that day it became
famous and his name spread throughout all the camps of Alaska.
Later, in the autumn of that same year, he saved his life again.
John Thornton in very different circumstances. The three partners were going down a
rowboat through a difficult stretch of rapids on the Forty Mile River. Hans and Pete
they advanced along the shore, holding it with a fine hemp cord from a tree

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in the tree, while Thornton was inside the boat and descending with the help of a
long pole, while shouting orders to those on the shore.
Buck, en tierra, ansioso y preocupado, avanzaba por delante del barco sin
to lose sight of its master for a second.
At a particularly dangerous point, where a rocky outcrop remained
just submerged under the water, while Thornton tried to push the boat
towards the deep water, Hans let go of the rope and ran down the riverbank,
still with the rope in hand to try to collect the boat further down
the stones. Thus he did and the boat slid downstream on a current
as fast as the wheel of a mill, when Hans pulled on this
rope, but too suddenly. The boat capsized and was dragged towards the
shore, as Thornton was thrown off and dragged downstream towards the
most dangerous point of the rapids, a stretch of turbulent waters that
No swimmer could have survived.
Buck plunged instantly; after three hundred meters, in the middle of
a whirlpool caught up with Thornton. When he noticed that this was the case,
he grabbed the tail, Buck headed towards the shore, swimming with all his strength
splendid vigor. But they were advancing little towards the shore, for the water was
It was being dragged forcefully downstream. From further down came the fateful
the roar of the current even wilder as it opened up into several arms and
hit against the rocks that split it like the spikes of a huge comb.
The force of the water was tremendous at the beginning of the last slope and
Thornton realized that it was impossible to reach the shore. He tried to hold on.
to a rock, it was bouncing over another and fell abruptly onto one
third. There she desperately clung to the slippery surface with the
two hands, releasing Buck, and shouted to him over the roar of the water:
—Go, Buck! Go!
Buck could not stop and continued downstream, desperately struggling,
but unable to return. When he heard Thornton's orders again, he drew
partly the body of water, turned its head as if to look at its master for
last time and returned obediently towards the bank. He swam with vigor and Pete and
They managed to drag him to the shore at the exact point where he already
it was impossible to swim and death seemed inevitable.
They knew that the time a man is capable of facing a
a rushing current clinging to a slippery rock, it's a matter of minutes; so
they ran at full speed over land, to a point located higher up
from the place where Thornton was located. They tied the rope with which they had gone
dragging the boat around Buck's neck and back, making sure that neither it

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would suffocate or hinder his movements while swimming, and they threw him into the water. He swam
desperately, but not maintaining the right direction. He realized that
his mistake was too late, when he was passing by Thornton, halfway
a dozen strokes from him, and the current was inevitably dragging him away.
Hans maneuvered the rope skillfully as if Buck were a ship.
a rope pulled him in the middle of the current and Buck sank underwater,
and below it went to the shore where they pulled him out. He was half-drowned and
Hans and Pete threw themselves on him, making him swallow air and vomit water. He managed to
to stand up, but fell down again. The weak sound reached them
from Thornton's voice and, although they could not understand what he was saying, they knew
who was at the limit of his strength. The voice of his master acted upon Buck
like an electric shock. He jumped to his feet and ran toward the shore
in front of the men up to the point where he had previously jumped into the water.
They tied the rope to him again and he jumped into the water again and moved through it, but
this time in the right direction. He had made a mistake once, but not
he would make the same mistake again. Hans was slowly letting go of the rope and
Pete tried to avoid getting tangled. Buck maintained his course until he found himself in
straight line above Thornton; then made a turn and went down with the
speed of a train towards the man. Thornton saw it coming and, just when
Buck was reaching with all the force of a battering ram, dragged by strength
from the current, he threw himself over it and grabbed with both arms onto its hairy
neck. Hans tied the rope to a tree and Buck and Thornton plunged in
under the water. Drowning, panting, sometimes one on top and other times the other,
crawling against the pebbles on the bottom, colliding with rocks and
raigones managed to reach the shore.

Page 76
Page 77
 They put Hans and Pete face down on a large log at Thornton.
tree and there they were rolling it at full speed until it returned in
Yes. The first thing he looked at was Buck, over whose rigid body and seemingly
without life, Nig moaned, while Skeet licked his wet face and closed eyes.
Thornton, despite being bruised and in pain, carefully examined the
Buck's body, when he had regained consciousness, and realized that
he had three broken ribs.
There's nothing more to discuss,
And there they stayed until Buck's ribs were healed and he could
get back on the road.
That winter, in Dawson, Buck still achieved another feat, perhaps
less heroic, but that put her name a few points higher on the
totem[3]of the fame of Alaska. This feat proved to be especially beneficial.
for the three men who were in great need of the equipment they obtained
with her and thus they were able to make the long-awaited trip to the virgin lands of
this, where the miners had not yet arrived. It all started with a
conversation in the Eldorado bar, where the men bragged about
nice about his favorite dogs. Buck, with the fame he had, became
the focus of all conversations and Thornton had no choice but to
to come out in his favor. After half an hour, one of the men insisted that his
the dog was able to pull a sled with five hundred pounds on it and
to leave pulling him; another boasted that his dog did it with six hundred
pounds and a third that is his with seven hundred.
—¡Bah, bah! —dijo John Thornton—. Buck es capaz de arrancar un
sled loaded with a thousand pounds of weight.
And take it off the ice and drag it a hundred yards.[4]? —asked
Matthewson, a king of the mines and the one who had said that his dog could handle
seven hundred pounds.
And to unstick it from the ice and drag it a hundred yards, John replied.
Thornton with poise.
Well, said Matthewson in a deliberately slow tone, so that
everyone could hear it—. I bet a thousand dollars he can't. Here it is
the money.
And saying this, he placed a bag of gold powder on the counter.
size of a sausage.
No one opened their mouth. Thornton's lantern, if it was a lantern, had
found an answer. He felt a wave of warm blood rising to his
cheeks. His tongue had betrayed him. He didn't know if Buck was capable of

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dragging a thousand pounds of weight. Half a ton! He realized that it was a
disparate. I trusted greatly in Buck's strength and often had
thought that I would probably be able to lift such a weight; but never
until that moment he had faced the possibility of having to do it
and the eyes of half a dozen silent and expectant men were fixed
in him. On the other hand, I didn't have the thousand dollars, and Hans and Pete didn't either.
I have a sleigh out there loaded with twenty sacks of flour.
fifty pounds each —Matthewson continued without further ado
contemplations—, so there is no problem.
Thornton did not answer. He didn't know what to say. He looked at those present.
with the absent gaze of the man who has lost the ability to reason and
you are looking for the mechanism that will get it started again. Suddenly
His eyes were fixed on Jim O’Brien, another of the magnates and a former colleague.
As soon as he saw it, he decided to do something he had never done before.
it would have happened.
Can you lend me a thousand dollars? she asked in a faint voice.
"Sure," O'Brien replied, setting another heavy bag down next to the one of
Matthewson—. Although I don't trust much that the animal is capable of
do it. You know, John?
Eldorado's clientele took to the streets to witness the test.
tables were left empty and the customers and employees came over to see
what remained was the challenge and placing bets. Several hundred men, with
gloves and fur coats formed a circle a short distance from the sleigh. The
Matthewson's sled, loaded with a thousand pounds of flour, had been sitting there.
for a couple of hours and in the intense cold (sixty degrees below zero) the skates
habían quedado completamente pegados a la nieve dura. Los hombres
They were betting two to one that Buck would not be able to lift the sled.
it sparked a discussion about the term 'unpeeling' O'Brien argued that
Thornton had the right to take off the skates and it was enough that
Buck will "start" the sleigh, that is, he will set it in motion. Matthewson
he insisted that the phrase implied that Buck had to take off the skates from the
frozen claws of the snow. Most of the men who had witnessed
the bets turned in their favor and then the odds went up to three to one
against Buck.
No one would bet in his favor. Nobody believed he was capable of such a feat.
Thornton had been forced to accept the challenge, but he had many
doubts about it; and now, before the sled, before the pure reality, with the team

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of ten dogs curled up in the snow right there, the task still seemed even more
impossible. Matthewson could hardly contain his joy.
—Three to one! —he shouted—. I'll bet you another thousand three to one, Thornton. What
you tell me?
Doubt was reflected on Thornton's face, but he set off.
fighting spirit: the same one that grows in the face of difficulties, that refuses to
to admit that something is impossible and that it is deaf to everything that is not the cry of
the battle. He called Hans and Pete. Their bags were half empty and, even
including their own, the three partners managed to gather no more than
two hundred dollars. They were in a bad moment and that amount was everything.
its capital; however, they placed it, without a moment's doubt, alongside the
six hundred dollars from Matthewson.
They unhitched the ten dogs from the harness and tied Buck with his own.
harness to the sled. He had caught the excitement and in a way he was
he realized that he had to do something extraordinary for John Thornton. His
splendid appearance provoked murmurs of admiration. It was in perfect
conditions, without an ounce of meat to spare, and the one hundred and fifty pounds that
it weighed several pounds of energy and strength. Its fur shone lustrously.
like silk. The mane on the neck and back, even if it was still
as now, it was half bristled and seemed to rise at every moment,
as if an excess of energy transmitted life and activity to each of the
Fur. The broad chest and strong front legs were so well-proportioned
like the rest of the body, and the muscles could be guessed firm under the skin.
The men felt his muscles and assured that they were hard as the
iron, and then the bets dropped to two to one.
—Hey, gentleman! Hey! —stammered a member of the dynasty.
recently, a king of the Skookum Benches—. I give him eight hundred just like that.
Thornton shook his head negatively and stood next to Buck.
You have to stay away,
and free field.
The crowd fell silent; only the voices of the jeerers could be heard.
offering futile bets of two to one. Everyone recognized that
Buck was a magnificent animal, but twenty bags of fifty pounds of flour
they seemed too big for them to loosen the purse[5].
Thornton knelt beside Buck. He took Buck's head in his hands.
and rested her cheek against the dog's. But she didn't shake it playfully,
as he used to, he did not whisper sweet words of love; he only murmured in her ear:
Show me that you love me, Buck. Show me that you love me.

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 That is what he whispered to him. And Buck grew impatiently contained.
The crowd was watching them with curiosity. The matter was turning out
mysterious. It seemed like a spell. When Thornton stood up, Buck him
he took the gloved hand between his teeth and bit it; then he went
letting go little by little, as if he didn't want to. It was his response, expressed not with
words, but with a loving gesture. Thornton moved away from him.
—Now, Buck —he said.
Buck tightened the reins and then loosened them a little. This is how he had learned.
to do it.
—Get going! —Thornton shouted with a sharp voice in the tense silence.
Buck leaned to the right, finishing the movement with a push.
that tightened the reins again and abruptly stopped the momentum of its hundred
fifty pounds. The load shook and beneath the skates there was a
light crunch.
—Hurry! —ordered Thornton.
Buck repeated the maneuver, this time to the left. The crackling sound
turned into a snap, the sleigh swayed, the skates slipped and
they moved a few inches to one side. The sled had detached.
men held their breath without realizing it.
-Now, GO!
Thornton's order rang out like a gunshot. Buck threw all his
leaning forward, tensing the reins with a violent thrust. All his
the body contracted under the tremendous effort, and its muscles twisted and
They piled up as if they were alive under the silky fur. Their broad chest
I was scraping the ground; with my head low and forward, I moved my legs at full speed.
speed, leaving parallel tracks of its hooves on the hard snow. The
the sled swayed and balanced, about to take off. Buck slipped a paw
and one of the men let out a scream. Then the sled started to give
jolts, in a rapid succession of shakes, without stopping again...
half an inch... one inch... two inches... Little by little the shakes
They decreased until Buck completely suppressed them, according to the sled.
it was picking up speed and the movement became continuous.
The men caught their breath and began to breathe again, without realizing that
that, for a moment, they had stopped doing so. Thornton was running
behind Buck, encouraging him with brief words of enthusiasm. They had
measured the distance and, as he approached the pile of logs that indicated the
At the end of the hundred yards, a murmur began to be heard that grew until
turn into a victorious clamoring when Buck passed the logs and stopped

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upon hearing the voice of command. Everyone unleashed their enthusiasm, even
Matthewson. Hats and gloves flew through the air. The men were
they shook hands, silly and foolish, and chatted happily and
dizzyingly.
But Thornton fell to his knees next to Buck. With his head next to that of the
dog, he rocked it in his arms. Those who approached them heard him.
cursing Buck, with long and fervent insults, sweet and loving.
—Hey, sir! Hey! —mumbled the king of Skookum Bench—. I'll give you
A thousand for him, sir; a thousand dollars, sir... a thousand two hundred, listen.
Thornton stood up. His eyes were moist. Tears welled up in him.
they slid down the cheeks unabashed.
—Sir —he said to the king of Skookum Bench—. I do not want to.
Go to hell and enjoy it, sir.
Buck grabbed Thornton's hand between his teeth. Thornton stayed
rocking it. And, as if driven by the same impulse, the onlookers
they stepped back to a respectful distance; none committed the indiscretion of
interrupt them.

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Furious. He took off running followed by his entire team. Hal shouted: 'Soo!'
"Wow!", but they continued as if nothing had happened. The man lost his balance and
fell to the ground. The overturned sled passed over him and the dogs headed towards
All march through Main Street sowing joy for Skaguay, as they leave.
scattered around the center of the population are the remnants of the load.
Some kind-hearted citizens stopped the dogs and collected
the scattered belongings. And, moreover, they gave them a piece of advice: half of the
load and double the number of dogs, if they intended to reach Dawson. That was what
what they said. Hal and his sister and her husband listened reluctantly,
they set up the tent and checked their supplies. Cans of emerged.
canned goods, which made the onlookers laugh, because on the Great Track the cans of
canned goods are the dream of any traveler.
"Blankets like for a hotel," commented one of the men who were laughing.
and they helped them—. With half it is more than enough; get rid of them.
Throw away the store and all those dishes; anyway, nobody is going to wash them...
Holy heaven! Do they think they are traveling on a Pullman? ?
And so they inexorably continued to eliminate the superfluous. Mercedes cried.
when he saw them dumping his travel bags on the ground and throwing them away, one
for one, all her clothing. She cried in general and then in
particular every time they threw something. She was sitting with her hands in the
knees, rocking helplessly. He swore he would not move from there not even for a
dozen of Charles. He pleaded with everyone and for everything, and in the end, he dried his eyes and
he started throwing away essential clothing with such enthusiasm
that, after finishing with theirs, he attacked the belongings of the
men and wiped them out as if it were a cyclone.
And still after this, the luggage, although reduced by half, continued
being huge. Charles and Hal went out in the afternoon and bought six dogs
new. With these, plus the six from the original team, and Teek and Koona, the
Eskimo dogs acquired at the Rapids of the Rink during the record journey,
there were fourteen dogs in the team. But the new dogs, which were coming from other
lands, although they had already been tamed, were of little use. Three of them
they were pointers with short hair, one was a Newfoundland and the others were two
stray dogs of unknown breed.
It seems that the newcomers didn't know anything at all. Buck and his
companions looked at them disdainfully and, although Buck immediately said to them
He showed what his place was and what they could not do, it was impossible for him.
to teach them what they had to do. They reluctantly adapted to the work in the
track and in the shot. Except for the two stray dogs, the others were

Page 60
It was made up of fresh meat, the load of the sled mainly consisted of
in ammunition and tools, and the trip planning was done counting
with an unlimited future.
Buck was indescribably enjoying hunting, fishing, and wandering around without...
finally through unknown lands. They spent weeks walking nonstop, day
some days; and other times they would stay several weeks camping anywhere
place, while the dogs rested and the men lit bonfires to
to melt clay and frozen earth and to be able to sift in those huge holes
quantities of sand sieves in the heat of the fire. Sometimes they went hungry and
others had big feasts, depending on the abundance of the hunt and luck
of the hunter. Summer arrived and dogs and men, with their gear on their backs,
They crossed in a raft the blue lakes of the mountains and ascended and descended rivers.
unknowns in fragile boats made of sawn logs in the
nearby forest.
Months went by and they came and went through that vastness.
unknown, where there was no man, but where there must have been some.
there had been, if the Lost Cabin really existed. They crossed gorges
in the midst of summer storms, they shivered under the midnight sun
the bare mountains that separate the forest boundaries of the region of the
eternal snows, descended through warm valleys among swarms of flies and
mosquitos and, in the shade of the glaciers, picked such sweet strawberries and flowers
as beautiful as any of the best from the southern lands. In the
autumn arrived at a strange area of lakes, sad and silent, that had been
home of the wild duck, but where no living being or sign of life could be seen anymore.
there was nothing but icy winds, ice even in the places
safeguarded, and a melancholic beating of waves on the solitary riverbanks.
And they spent another winter wandering over the forgotten tracks of others.
men who had preceded them. On one occasion, they came across a
open path in the forest and they believed they were approaching the Cabin
Lost. But the path ended as incomprehensibly as it had begun.
started, without leading anywhere, and turned out to be as mysterious as the man
that he would build it and the reason he had for doing so. Once again, they stumbled.
with the remains of an ancient hunting lodge and, among the tattered pieces of some
rotten mantas, John Thornton found a long-barreled flintlock rifle.
He recognized it as one of the rifles from which, in its early days,
I used the Hudson Bay Company1in the northwest, when a weapon like
that one was worth a ton of beaver pelts stacked one on top of the other until
to reach the height of the rifle. And there was nothing more: no trace of the man who in

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those times I had built the shelter and had abandoned the rifle among
the blankets.
Spring arrived again, and after so many walks, they ended up not
with the Lost Cabin, but with a pleasure on the surface of the earth in a wide valley
where the gold shone like yellow butter at the bottom of the sieve. No longer
They searched more. Every workday brought them thousands of dollars in powder.
clean and gold nuggets, and they worked every day. They kept saving the gold in
moose skin bags, at the rate of fifty pounds per bag, and
piling them up as if they were logs next to the hut made of fir branches.
As giants toiled and the days passed by at great speed as if
it was a dream, while they were piling up their treasure.
The dogs had no other task but to occasionally haul the
hunting that Thornton was shooting, and Buck spent endless hours by the fire.
The image of the hairy man was appearing to him more insistently each time.
short legs, now that there was little work; and often blinking next to
to the fire, Buck wandered with him through that other world of his memory.
The most outstanding feature of that other world was, apparently, fear.
When I watched the hairy man sleeping by the fire, with his head
between the legs and the hands crossed above the head, Buck was giving himself
It accounts that he slept restlessly and woke up often.
startled; and on those occasions I would scrutinize the darkness in fear and
he was adding more wood to the fire. When they walked along the seashore and the
The hairy man was collecting shells that he ate as he gathered them.
eyes spun tirelessly in search of hidden threats and their legs were
you always lend to run, swift as the wind, as soon as the appeared
danger. They slid silently through the forest, Buck glued to the heels of the
hairy man; and both were alert and watchful, with their ears tense and the
trembling nostrils, for man's hearing and sense of smell were so
sharp like Buck's. The hairy man was able to climb trees.
and advancing through the heights as quickly as on the ground, swaying
hanging from the branches from branch to branch, sometimes with gaps of up to
twelve feet, letting go and grabbing hold again without ever falling, without losing the
control. It actually seemed to move with the same ease through the
trees that on the ground, and Buck remembered having spent whole nights in
sailing under a tree where the hairy man was resting, firmly holding on to
the branches while I was sleeping.
And, closely linked to the visions of the hairy man, was the
a call that kept ringing in the depths of the forest. It filled him with

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enormous impatience and strange desires. It made him feel a gentle joy and
sweet and felt a wild longing and yearning for something unknown
to be precise. Sometimes she ventured into the forest in pursuit of the call, seeking it
as if it were something tangible, barking softly or provocatively,
depending on how he felt. Sometimes he would stick his snout into the fresh moss of the
forest, or in the black earth where tall grasses grow, and inhaled
joyfully the dense smells of the earth; at other times, it would stay for several hours
curled up behind any tree trunk covered with lichen, as if
was lurking, with eyes wide open and ears very attentive, of
anything that moved or was heard around him. Perhaps, lying in
in that position, I hoped to uncover that call that I was unable to understand.
But he didn't know what motivated him to do those things. He felt
driven to do them without being able to reason about them.
He was overwhelmed by irresistible impulses. Sometimes he was lying down in the
camping, dozing sleepily at noon and, suddenly, he would raise
the head raised the ears, listening with full attention; and then it would put on
at the foot of a jump and shot out and didn't stop running for hours
whole through the ships[2]from the forest or through the open spaces where
some bushes were growing. He loved to wander through dry riverbeds and
to spy hidden on the life of the birds in the woods. One could spend the day
entirely lying in the underbrush watching the partridges that were fluttering around
moving up and down. But what he liked the most was running, in the
smooth twilight of summer nights, attentive to the softened and
sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds just like a
man can read a book and searching for that mysterious thing that called him
and I would tell him incessantly, whether he was awake or asleep, to come.
One night, he woke up with a jolt, with restless eyes, the flaps of the
snout sniffing tremulously, and the fur bristling in repeated waves. Of
the forest received the call (or one of its notes, that the call had
much more), concrete and defined like never before: a howl
prolonged, similar but different from that of any eskimo dog. And he
it became known and familiar, like a sound already heard. It crossed
running the sleeping camp and, with a light and silent step, ventured in.
in the forest. As he approached the lament, he slowed down, walking
very carefully until he reached a clearing in the forest and saw there, sitting
on its haunches, with its snout pointing to the sky, a long and thin gray wolf.
Although Buck had not made any noise, the wolf stopped howling and
he tried to detect his presence. Buck moved through the clearing, half-crouched, with

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the body contracted, the tail straight and stiff, supporting the legs on the ground with
extreme caution. Each movement announced, intermingled, a
a threat and a welcoming disposition. It was the threatening truce that marks
the meeting of the prey animals. But the wolf fled as soon as it
Vio. Buck followed him, jumping large distances, desperate to catch up.
followed down a blind path, in the bed of a dry stream, where some
Fallen logs blocked the way. The wolf turned, spinning on its paws.
rear ends like Joe used to do and like all sled dogs do
when they are cornered; he would growl and his hair would bristle while
he was clashing his teeth in a series of quick and successive bites.
Buck did not attack him; he dedicated himself to walking around him, enclosing him with
friendly requests. The wolf was distrustful and scared, because
Buck was three times bigger than him and his head barely reached his shoulder.
of the dog. So, as soon as he had the chance, he escaped and the chase resumed.
to resume. Time and again he found himself cornered and the scene repeated itself;
but he was not in good physical shape, otherwise Buck would not have
was able to catch up with it so easily. I ran until the head of
Buck reached the height of his flank and then turned, cornered, and faced back.
to escape at the slightest opportunity.
But in the end, Buck's persistence was rewarded, for the wolf, upon
seeing that the dog did not want to harm him, he brought his muzzle closer to Buck's.
They sniffed each other. Then they became friends and were playing around.
in that nervous and somewhat shy way that wild animals do
they hide their ferocity. After a while, the wolf started to walk at a slow pace
light and secure, with the appearance of someone heading to a specific place.
He made Buck understand that he could accompany him and together they ran through the
dark shadow and crossed the stream bed to the throat of where
it arose above the dividing line of the waters, from where it came.
At the bottom of the hill on the other side of this slope, they arrived at a
flat land where there were large expanses of forest and many streams,
and there they ran while the sun rose and the day went by
heating up. Buck was crazy happy. He realized that at last
he responded to the call, running beside his brother from the forest towards the
place from where the call undoubtedly came. The memories of yesteryear came to mind
in a rush and it moved him as it had moved him in other times
realities of those who were a shadow. I had already done those things in
some place in that world that I vaguely remembered, and began to do them again

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now, when I ran freely through the open spaces, with the virgin land
under its paws and the wide sky above its head.
They stopped to drink at the edge of a stream, and as they paused, Buck remembered.
by John Thornton. He sat down. The wolf began to walk towards the place of
where the call undoubtedly came from, then turned towards him, sniffed him.
Hocico made some gestures to encourage him to continue. But Buck gave in.
the return began slowly on the way back. For almost an hour
his wild brother was running by his side, whimpering softly. Then he
he sat down, lifted his snout towards the sky and howled. It was a mournful howl and
Buck kept hearing it, increasingly distant, as he continued on his way,
until it was lost in the distance.
John Thornton was having dinner when Buck arrived at the camp.
she showered him like a cyclone, offering him great displays of affection,
throwing it on the ground and rolling it around; he licked its face and bit it
hand and "he was being a clown," as John Thornton would say, and he would cradle him and...
he/she was saying endearing insults.
For two days and two nights Buck did not leave the camp.
lost sight of John Thornton. She followed him everywhere while
I worked, I watched him while he ate, and I was by his side when he lay down.
at night and would get up in the morning. But after two days the call
The forest was heard more loudly than ever. Buck found himself again.
unsettled, and he was haunted by the memories of his wild brother and of the
happy land that lay beyond the dividing line of the waters, and of the
walks that together took through the vast expanses of forests. Again
he began to wander through the forest, but his wild brother did not come, and although
he spent sleepless nights listening, he no longer heard its howl
complaining.
He started sleeping outside and sometimes he would leave the camp during
several days; on one occasion he crossed the dividing line that is there for
above the gorge and descended through the region of forests and torrents.
He wandered around there for a whole week, searching in vain for the
recent footprints of his wild brother, killing its prey while following
advancing, and walking with that long and easy trot that never seems to tire
fatigue. He fished for salmon in a large river that was about to flow into any
point in the sea and on its shores killed a great black bear, which had been blinded
the mosquitoes while I was fishing like Buck, and that came roaring out through the
forest, defenseless and furious. Despite all that, the struggle was tremendous and
awakened the last latent remnants of Buck's ferocity. So, when

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two days later he returned to where his dead prey was and found
a dozen of carcayús[3] fighting over the spoils, drove them away without any
effort; and those who managed to escape left behind two who were no longer there
for many disputes.
The thirst for blood grew stronger than ever. It was a killer,
a predatory animal, that fed on living beings, alone, without any other help than
his own strength and skill, which allowed him to survive in a hostile environment
where only the strong survived. Because of all this, he began to feel very
proud of himself, a pride that was reflected in his physical appearance. He
it showed in all its movements, it was evident in each one's game
his muscles were clearly expressed in his bearing and made him more beautiful if
It fits on his beautiful fur. If it weren't for the brown spot he had on
the snout and above the eyes and by the lock of white hair that crossed him
the chest could well have been taken for a giant wolf, bigger than
the largest of the whole pack. From his father, the Saint Bernard, he inherited the weight and
the size, but his mother, the collie, had shaped that weight and that
size. Its muzzle was the long muzzle of a wolf, only bigger than it
snout of any wolf, and its head, although wider, was the head of a
extended wolf.
His cunning was the cunning of a wolf, corrected and enhanced; his
intelligence, that of a shepherd dog and that of a Saint Bernard together; and all this,
joined to an experience gained in the cruelest of schools, he had
turned into a creature as fearsome as any of those that roamed
through those wild lands. Carnivorous animal that lived exclusively in
meat base, was at the peak of its life and was overflowing with strength and
energies. When Thornton passed his hand over its back petting it, he
it produced a crackling snap as each hair discharged a magnetic spark
to the touch of the hand. Each part of their body and mind,
each cell of your nerves and each of your fibers was tuned to the
most exquisite sharpness; and among all the parts there was a balance or a
perfect adjustment. To the images, sounds, and events that required
action, responded with the speed of lightning. If an Eskimo dog
he was quickly balancing to defend himself or to attack, Buck did it twice as much
quickly. I saw the movement or perceived the sound and responded in less
time that any other dog needed to realize what
he had seen or heard. He perceived it, made a decision and acted
immediately. In fact, these three actions (perceiving, reasoning and
react) were sequential, but the gaps of time between them were in

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Tiny bucks that seemed simultaneous. Their muscles were
overloaded with vitality and suddenly sprang into action, as if they were
steel springs. Life flowed through him like a beautiful torrent, joyful
and exuberant, and it seemed as if it wanted to escape from its raptured body
passion and generously spread throughout the world.
I've never seen a dog like that before,
while the three partners watched Buck walking away from the camp.
After doing it, they broke the mold,
—For Christ's sake! I thought the same —said Hans.
They saw him leave the camp, but they did not see the immediate and
tremendous transformation that occurred in him as soon as he reached intimacy
from the forest. He no longer walked. In that moment he became a beast and moved
gently, with feline steps, like a fleeting shadow that appears and
disappears into the shadows. He knew how to take advantage of every hiding place, to crawl over
it moves like a snake and, like her, jumps and attacks. It was capable of hunting
a white partridge in its nest, to kill a rabbit without waking it, and to hunt with a
bite in the air the striped squirrels that took a second before
to take refuge in the trees. In the open pools, the fish were not
too fast for him not even the beavers, who were repairing their dams, did so
sufficiently cautious. He killed to eat, not out of whim; but
I preferred to eat what he had killed. His actions obeyed impulses so
strangers who sometimes took pleasure in chasing squirrels and, when they already
she had within her reach, she let them escape, screaming terrified up to the top of
the trees.

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Page 91
 When autumn arrived, moose appeared in large quantities.
they were slowly moving south to spend the winter in the valleys
lower and less cold. Buck had already defeated a lost cub; but he
he tried to confront a greater and more dangerous enemy, and one day he came across
one on the dividing line above the gorge. A herd of
twenty moose were coming from the region of the forests and the torrents and among them
a large male stood out. He was furious, and with a height of more
six feet was an even more formidable opponent than Buck could
desear. El alce meneaba su enorme cornamenta palmeada que se ramificaba
in fourteen points and spanned seven feet wide, from one point to the other.
His little eyes were blazing with a spark of resentment and he roared furiously upon seeing Buck.
From one side of the moose, just behind the shoulder, the tip of a
feathered arrow, which explained his fury. Guided by that instinct
coming from the distant days when he hunted in a primitive world, Buck
he proceeded to separate the male from the rest of the herd. It didn't turn out well at all.
easy. He had to jump and bark in front of the moose, staying out of the
reach of its antlers and its terrible sharp hooves, which would have
could have taken life in one blow. Unable to shy away from the dangerous
fangs and escape, the moose fell into fits of rage. Then it charged
about Buck, who was cunningly retreating, drawing him towards himself while
I pretended that I couldn't escape. But, when I had managed to separate it that way
of their companions, two or three of the younger males would charge again
about Buck and the injured male could return to the pack.
There is a patience in the wild nature (tenacious, tireless, obstinate
like life itself) that is capable of keeping the dead hours still at the
spider in its web, serpent made into a ring, panther in its ambush;
this patience is especially characteristic of beings that hunt other living beings;
and it was Buck's own, who did not leave the pack and delayed his
marching, harassing the young males, distressing the females and their
offspring and driving the wounded male crazy with rage. They continued like this for
noon. Buck was multiplying, attacking from all sides, enveloping the
a herd with a whirlwind of dangers isolated its victim as soon as it had
managed to return with his companions, was exhausting the patience of the creatures
persecuted, which is less than the patience of the creatures that are dedicated to
to pursue.
As the day progressed and the sun descended to its bed in the northwest
darkness had returned and the autumn nights lasted six hours), the males
young people were increasingly less willing to go back to where their boss was.

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found themselves in difficulty. The approach of winter urged them to move.
to lower areas, but apparently, they were not going to be able to get rid of
that creature that delayed them. Moreover, it was not the life of the pack, nor
at least that of the young males, which was in danger. They were only asked
the life of one of its members and this mattered to them much less than the
their own, so they finally agreed to pay this tribute.
At dusk, the old male stood, with his head down, observing
her companions (the females she had met, the young ones she had
spawned, the males that he had dominated) which were quickly lost in the distance.
among the last lights. He could not follow them because in front of him jumped that
ruthless terror with fangs that wouldn't let him escape. It weighed three
hundredweights, more than half a ton[4]I had lived a long and intense life,
filled with struggles and fights, and in the end faced death under the teeth
of a creature whose head did not exceed the height of its large knees.
From that moment on, Buck did not leave his prey day or night,
neither gave him a moment of rest, nor allowed him to nibble on the leaves of the
trees nor the sprouts of the willows and small birches. And neither does it
he gave the wounded male the opportunity to quench his burning thirst in the streams
that crossed. Sometimes, in desperation, he would run for a good
passage. So Buck let him run, but he followed him so calmly.
he searched, satisfied with the way the game was unfolding, lying down when
the moose stopped and attacked him fiercely when he tried to eat or drink.
That great head was collapsing under its horned tree and its step.
dragged was weakening little by little. He was standing still for longer each time,
with his snout on the ground and ears drooping, fallen; and Buck had each time
more time to drink or to rest. In those moments, when I gasped
with its red tongue out and its eyes fixed on the moose, Buck thought that
a change in the appearance of things was going to occur. He seemed to perceive in
the earth a tremor. Just as the moose arrived, they arrived
also other types of life. The forest and the water and the air seemed to throb with
his presence. The news reached him that was not coming to him either by sight or by
the ear, nor by smell, but by another more subtle sense. He saw nothing nor heard
nothing, but she knew that the earth was in a certain way different; and decided that
I would investigate the matter as soon as I had completed the task I was working on.
hands.
Finally, at dusk on the fourth day, he managed to bring down the great moose; all
The day and the whole night he stayed next to his prey, eating and sleeping.
successively. Then, when he found himself rested, fresh and strong, he gave himself

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half turn towards the camp and John Thornton. He set off at a trot
long and comfortable and walked for hours and hours without getting lost in that labyrinth
of trails, moving straight toward the camp through a region
unknown, with a confidence in the direction that would embarrass
any man with a compass.
As he approached, he perceived the new tremor more clearly.
from the earth. A life had spread that was different from the one that was there.
had happened during the summer and he was already aware of it, and not in a subtle way.
mysterious. The birds were talking about it, the squirrels were whispering about it, even the
the breeze murmured. Several times it stopped and breathed in the fresh morning air
great gasps, reading a message that propelled him forward in great leaps.
He was oppressed by the feeling that a calamity was going to happen, or even that
it had already occurred; and when he crossed the last torrent and descended down the valley
towards the camp, he advanced very cautiously.
Three miles from the camp, he came across fresh tracks that led him.
they raised the hairs on the back of my neck. They were heading straight for the camp and
towards John Thornton. Buck quickened his pace, running stealthily,
all his nerves tense and alert, attentive to the multiple details that...
they revealed what happened: everything except the ending. His instinct provided him
a varied description of the life he was running towards. He noticed the
silence of the forest filled with emotions. The birds had flown.
squirrels were hiding. He could only see one: a shiny gray specimen
that was flattening against a dry and gray branch as if it were part of it,
like a woody protrusion of the wood itself.
When Buck slid stealthily like a flying shadow, suddenly
turned its snout to one side, as if a material force had
caught and pulled from him. He followed that new smell to some bushes and
he found Nig. He was lying on his side, and had crawled over to
to die there, with an arrow that pierced through his body from side to side.
A hundred yards away Buck ran into one of the sled dogs that had been there.
bought Thornton in Dawson. The dog was struggling in its last gasps
of death, in the middle of the track, and Buck passed by him without stopping. Of
from the camp came the faint sound of many voices that rose and
they were extinguishing in a monotonous chant. When they emerged into the clearing of the forest, they found

Hans, lying face down and feathered with arrows as if he were a pig
spine. At that very moment Buck looked towards where he had been the
the branch hut and what he saw made the hair on his mane stand on end and
from the loin. He was overwhelmed by a feeling of infinite rage. He didn't realize that

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it roared, but it let out a terribly fierce roar. It was the last time in its life
which allowed passion to usurp the place of cunning and reason, and
Hello, because her great love for John Thornton made her lose her mind.
The yeehats were dancing around the remains of the pine cabin when
suddenly they heard a terrifying roar and saw that something was coming at them
an animal like they had never seen before. It was Buck, a living hurricane of fury, who
It was looming over them in a frenzy of destruction. It pounced on the first
man who found (who was the leader of the yeehats) and tore his throat out
until a jet of blood erupted from the severed jugular. He did not linger
biting more into that victim, but instead proceeded with another bite to
to smash the neck of another Indian. There was no one to stop him. He was writhing around
among them, biting, cutting, destroying, in a continuous movement and
terrifying that challenged the arrows that were shot at it. And it really moved
so incredibly fast, and the Indians were in such a compact group,
they injured each other with their own arrows; and one of the young men
hunters threw a spear at Buck that pierced the chest of another hunter with
such momentum, that it pierced him and the tip came out through the skin of his back.
Then panic seized the yeehats and they fled terrified into the forest.
screaming along the way that the Spirit of Evil had arrived.

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Page 96
 And truly, Buck was the embodiment of a demon that pursued them.
furious and knocked them down as if they were deer while they ran through the
trees. It was a fateful day for the yeehats. They were scattered all over
the region and even a week later the survivors did not succeed
meet in a lower valley and take stock of the victims. As for
Buck returned to the desolate camp when he got tired of chasing them. There.
He found Pete dead among the blankets at the first moment of surprise.
The desperate struggle that Thornton had fought was freshly written in
the earth and Buck was sniffing around all its details up to the edge of a
deep pond. On its shores, with the head and the front legs in
the water, Skeet was found, loyal until the end. The pond, muddy and murky by
the makeshift dams effectively hid its contents; but there it was
John Thornton, because Buck followed his trail to the water from where he did not
no trace was coming back out.
Buck spent the day sadly meditating by the pond or wandering
uneasy about the camp. Death as a suppression of movement,
as the disappearance of life in living beings, I knew it; and I also knew
that John Thornton was dead. This created a great void for him, as if
I was hungry; but it was an emptiness that wouldn't stop hurting and that food didn't
managed to satisfy. Sometimes, when he stopped to contemplate the corpses of the
he forgot about his pain, and then he felt very proud of himself
same, with a pride greater than what I had ever felt until then.
He had killed the man, the noblest prey that existed, and had.
killed under the law of the club and the fang. He was sniffing at the corpses with
curiosity. They had died so easily! It was harder to kill a
Eskimo dog to a man. They had nothing to do, if it weren't for the
arrows, the spears and the clubs. From now on I would never see them again.
fear, except when they carried arrows, spears, and clubs in their hands.
Night arrived, and a full moon rose among the trees and ascended into the
sky illuminating the land which it bathed with a ghostly light. And at
As night fell, Buck, who was sadly meditating by the pond, became aware of
that in the forest a new life was emerging, different from the one they had brought
the yeehats. He stood up and listened and sniffed. From very far away came a faint
and sharp howls, followed by others like them. Gradually the howls were
they became stronger and closer. And again Buck recognized them as something
que ya había oído en aquel otro mundo que persistía en su memoria. Avanzó
to the center of the clearing and stayed there listening. It was the call, the
call of many notes, which resonated more suggestively and imperatively than

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never. And then more than ever he was willing to obey. John Thornton
he was dead. The last bond had broken. Men and their demands already
they did not have it held.
On the hunt for their prey, as the yeehats did, following the trail of the
migratory elk, the wolf pack had finally arrived from the region of
the forests and the torrents have invaded the valley of Buck. They came down like a
silver flood to the clearing where the moon shone; and there in the middle was
Buck, motionless like a statue, waiting for his arrival. They stayed.
overwhelmed, by how big and still it seemed to them, and there was a moment of
silence until the boldest jumped towards him. Like a lightning bolt, Buck
he retaliated and broke his neck. Then he fell back again.
completely motionless, as before, while the wounded wolf writhed
agonizing before their eyes. Three others repeated the test quickly again.
succession and one after another had to withdraw bleeding from their wounds
neck and back.
That was enough for the whole herd to rush forward in a stampede, huddled together,
clumsily stumbling in his attempts to take down his prey. The
Buck's wonderful speed and agility were very useful to him. He would turn on his...
rear legs and biting and gnawing incessantly, multiplying,
presenting an apparently unbreakable front due to how quickly it was spinning and
he was turning back and forth. But to prevent being attacked from behind he did not have
no choice but to go back beyond the pond, along the bed of the
stream, until culminating in a large embankment of stones. It was backing up until a
angle that the embankment made and that the men had been excavating in their
mining explorations and from that angle it presented a battle: it was protected
on three sides and only had to defend the front.
And he did it so well that after half an hour they left puzzled.
They all had their tongues out and were panting, and their white fangs gleamed.
cruelly in the moonlight. Some were lying on the ground, with the
head held high and ears tense forward; others stood up and
they were watching him; and others were licking the water from the pond.

One of the wolves, long, thin, and gray, advanced cautiously.

friendly, and Buck recognized in him the wild brother he had
ran around for a whole day and a night. He barely whined, and when Buck
he replied with a whimper, they brought their snouts together.
Then an old, skinny wolf covered in scars stepped forward. Buck turned.
the snout, as if it were going to growl, but ended up bringing its snout together with his.
After which the old wolf sat down, raised its snout to the moon and

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he let out a long wolf howl. The others sat down and howled. And then
Buck heard the call with unmistakable accents. He too sat down and howled.
Upon finishing it, he left the corner and the pack of wolves surrounded him,
playing with it in a way that was both friendly and wild. The bosses launched the
the pack's barking and they ventured into the forest. The other wolves them
they continued, barking in unison. And Buck went with them, running alongside his
wild brother, barking while running.
Here the story of Buck could conclude. Not many years had passed.
when the yeehats perceived a change in the gray wolf species;
they saw some that had a brown spot on the forehead and on the snout and a
white tuft of hair in the middle of the chest. But the most notable thing is that the
Yeehats say that there is a Ghost Dog that runs ahead of the pack.
They are afraid of this Ghost Dog, because it is smarter than them and enters
stealing in their camps in the midst of winter, mocks them
traps, kills his dogs and defies his bravest hunters.
I say! And there are still worse things to tell. There are hunters who never return.
At the camp, there have been hunters whose tribe members have
found with the throat cruelly torn and with traces of wolf
around, which are larger than the footprints of any wolf. Every autumn,
when the yeehats follow the movements of the moose, there is a valley through which
who never delve in. And there are women who become sad when around
From the fire, the story is told of how the Spirit of Evil chose that valley.
as a dwelling.
However, every summer a visitor arrives in that valley who
they do not know. It is a large wolf, with magnificent fur, similar to
same time different from the other wolves. Crosses alone from the region
from the joyful forests and descends to a clearing that exists among the trees. There
a yellow stream runs from between some rotten leather bags
of moose and disappears into the ground; through the water, tall grasses and the
lichens cover everything and hide their yellow color from the sun; there it stays
wandering for a good while and before leaving it emits a single prolonged howl
and pitiful.
But he does not always go alone. When the long winter nights arrive and
the wolves seek their prey in the lowest valleys, one can see them running
at the front of the pack in the pale light of the moon or under the faint glow of the
aurora borealis, jumping like a giant in front of its companions, and its
the throat roars clamorous while singing a song of a younger world,
What is the song of the pack.

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