The Call of the Wild 03 英语有声·短篇故事集

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3.The wild animal
The wild animal was strong in Buck, and as he travelled across the snow, it grew stronger and stronger. 
And as Buck grew stronger, he hated Spitz more and more, although he was careful never to start a fight.
But Spitz was always showing his teeth to Buck, trying to start a fight. 
And Buck knew that if he and Spitz fought, one of them would die.
The fight almost happened one night when they stopped by Lake Laberge. 
There was heavy snow and it was very cold. 
The lake was frozen and Francois, Perrault, and the dogs had to spend the night on the ice, under a big rock. 
Buck had made a warm hole in the snow and was sorry to leave it to get his piece of fish. 
But when he had eaten, and returned to his hole, he found Spitz in it. 
Buck had tried not to fight Spitz before, but this was too much. 
He attacked him angrily. Spitz was surprised. 
He knew Buck was big, but he didn't know he was so wild. 
Francois was surprised too, and guessed why Buck was angry.
‘Go on Buck!’ he shouted. ‘Fight him, the dirty thief!’
Spitz was also ready to fight, and the two dogs circled one another, looking for the chance to jump in. 
But suddenly there was a shout from Perrault, and they saw eighty or a hundred dogs around the sledge. 
The dogs came from an Indian village, and they were searching for the food that they could smell on the sledge. 
Perrault and Francois tried to fight them off with their clubs, 
but the dogs, made crazy by the smell of the food, showed their teeth and fought back.
Buck had never seen dogs like these. 
They were all skin and bone, but hunger made them fight like wild things. 
Three of them attacked Buck and in seconds his head and legs were badly bitten. 
Dave and Sol-leks stood side by side, covered in ood, fighting bravely. 
Joe and Pike jumped on one dog, and Pike broke its neck with one bite. 
Buck caught another dog by the neck and tasted ood. 
He threw himself on the next one, and then felt teeth in his own neck. It was Spitz, attacking him from the side.
Perrault and Frangois came to help with clubs, but then they had to run back to save the food. 
It was safer for the nine sledge-dogs to run away across the lake. 
Several of them were badly hurt, and they spent an unhappy night hiding among the trees.
At first light they returned to the sledge and found Perrault and Francois tired and angry. 
Half their food was gone. The Indian dogs had even eaten one of Perrault's shoes. 
Francois looked at his dogs unhappily. ‘Ah, my friends,’ he said softly, 
‘Perhaps those bites will make you ill. What do you think, Perrault?’ 
Perrault said nothing. They still had six hundred kilometres to travel, 
and he hoped very much that his sledge-dogs had not caught rabies from the Indian dogs.
The harness was torn and damaged and it was two hours before they were moving, 
travelling slowly and painfully over the most difficult country that they had been in.
The Thirty Mile River was not frozen. It ran too fast to freeze. 
They spent six days trying to find a place to cross, and every step was dangerous for dogs and men. 
Twelve times they found ice bridges across the river, and Perrault walked carefully onto them, holding a long piece of wood. 
And twelve times he fell through a bridge and was saved by the piece of wood, which caught on the sides of the hole. 
But the temperature was 45° below zero, 
and each time Perrault fell into the water, he had to light a fire to dry and warm himself. 
Once, the sledge fell through the ice, with Dave and Buck, 
and they were covered in ice by the time Perrault and Frangois pulled them out of the river. 
Again, a fire was needed to save them. 
Another time. Spitz and the dogs in front fell through the ice— Buck and Dave and Frangois at the sledge had to pull backwards. 
That day they travelled only four hundred metres.
When they got to th