Chapter 14
In April, the journey is finished, and White Fang returns to the home village. He has grown much, and it is clear that he is of a pure wolf strain. He looks slender and his coat is gray like a wolf's coat. He is the largest puppy in the village, except for Lip-lip.
One older dog, Baseek, who before the journey would have frightened him, has been growing weaker with age. At one point, White Fang is given a large amount of meat from a moose that has just been cut up. Eating it alone, Baseek catches him and tries to take his meat. Immediately, White Fang slashes him twice and springs away. Looking fierce, Baseek pulls himself up, and White Fang is frightened of him. However, the smell of meat is strong, and Baseek tries to start eating it in front of White Fang. This is too much, and White Fang strikes at Baseek's right ear, tearing it into shreds. Baseek is knocked over, and White Fang bites at his throat. Now the situation is reversed, and Baseek is forced to walk away.
The confrontation gives White Fang greater faith in himself, and greater pride. In midsummer, White Fang comes upon a new teepee, and finds Kiche there, remembering her vaguely. But when he approaches, she snarls at him. She does not remember him and tries to bite him.
White Fang continues to grow as the months go by, becoming stronger and more compact. He also becomes more solitary and ferocious. He cannot stand being laughed at, and flies into a horrible rage. When he is being laughed at, he attacks all the dogs of the camp in anger.
When White Fang is three, a famine comes to the Mackenzie Indians. There is no food, and the dogs begin to eat one another. The old and weak of the Indians are dying. They begin to eat the leather of their shoes and mittens. White Fang goes to the woods, and hunts small animals. He hunts squirrels, and when they become scarce, looks for mice. He encounters a young wolf, and he is so hungry that he kills and eats it.
At one point, he even meets Lip-lip, also living in the Wild. He kills him quickly, despite the fear that always goes along with his most hated enemy. Soon after, he finds a village near a different part of the river. It is the old Indian camp, just in a new location. He marches down to Gray Beaver's teepee, and is greeted with fish from Kloo-kooch. He sits down and waits for Gray Beaver to come home.
Chapter 15
There is no longer a chance White Fang will ever get along with the other dogs, for he is now made leader on the dog sled. The dogs hate him now, and chase him all day long on the sled. There is no way out for White Fang. If he turns to face the dogs, Mit-sah cracks his whip on White Fang. But he can't fight the dogs behind him with his tail.
At the end of the day, Mit-sah cries the command to stop the sled, and White Fang stops. At first, the other dogs keep running and attack White Fang, but they soon learn that Mit-sah will punish them with the whip. In the camp, however, the dogs are always attacking him.
However, the dogs cannot kill White Fang; he is too quick and wise. There is no other dog nearly as ferocious as White Fang, and Gray Beaver finds this amazing. When White Fang is almost five, he and Gray Beaver go on another journey to the Yukon. In their travels, the dogs they meet are not prepared for White Fang. He is a fighting machine.
In the summer, White Fang and Gray Beaver arrive at Fort Yukon. There is the old Hudson's Bay Company fort, and Gray Beaver stops. He has heard rumors of gold, and he has come with furs and leather to trade. It is at Fort Yukon that White Fang sees his first white man, and sees that they are even more powerful than the Indians.
He also fights with their dogs, and finds that they are weak and clumsy. He often strikes them at the throat and allows the other Indian dogs to kill them, thereby avoiding the punishment that comes from killing a dog. The dogs also learn to wait for steamboats, bringing more white men. Their dogs come off the boats and can be easily attacked.
Chapter 16
Only a few white men live in Fort Yukon. They are called Sour-doughs because, lacing baking powder, they make their bread with sourdough. They dislike the newcomers and enjoy seeing White Fang kill their dogs. One man really enjoys watching the fights - Beauty Smith. He is a horrible person; an evil creature.
Beauty comes to Gray Beaver's camp to try and buy White Fang. Gray Beaver refuses to sell. Beauty gives up, but returns often, and always with whiskey. Soon, Gray Beaver is addicted to the whiskey, and slowly loses all of his money to his thirst. Again, Beauty tries to buy White Fang, and this time he is paying in bottles of whiskey. Gray Beaver agrees to the trade.
Beauty Smith tries to take White Fang, but is bitten. He leaves the camp and returns with a club. White Fang tries to resist going with Beauty, but is beaten. He finally gives in. However, when he is tied, he quickly bites through the leather and returns to Gray Beaver's camp.
In the morning Gray Beaver brings him back to Beauty Smith, and White Fang receives another beating. Beauty beats White Fang again, with a whip. A weaker dog would have died from the beating, and White Fang is very sick afterwards. Gray Beaver leaves, and goes back to the Mackenzie River. White Fang is tied with chain instead of leather. He cannot escape, and he knows he must do what his new master wants.
Chapter 17
As Beauty's dog, White Fang becomes a fiend. He is kept chained in a pen and is taunted often by Beauty. One day, another dog is put into the pen with White Fang, a large mastiff. White Fang fights quickly and aggressively, leaping around and slashing the mastiff many times. The mastiff is dragged from the cage by his owner. From then on, White Fang starts to look forward to fighting with other dogs. He is a prisoner, and his hate can only be set loose when another dog enters the pen. He is always the winner, even against three dogs or a wolf caught in the Wild.
In the fall, Beauty brings White Fang from Fort Yukon to Dawson. White Fang is now known as "The Fighting Wolf" for his accomplishments in fighting other dogs. They ride on a steamboat, and there are always men around the cage, looking in. White Fang hates them and snarls at them.
In Dawson, White Fang becomes an attraction, and people come to see the wild beast in the cage. He is not given any rest, and is kept in a rage to entertain the audiences. White Fang is quicker than any other dog, and more aggressive. Fewer people want their dogs to fight White Fang, because they know the outcome. The Indians capture wolves to fight him, and finally he is pitted against a lynx. White Fang must fight for his life against it, but in the end he is the victor, and there is no one left for him to fight. Everyone knows White Fang will always win. But in the spring Tim Keenan arrives with his bulldog, Cherokee.
Chapter 18
Beauty Smith takes the chain off White Fang's neck, and Tim Keenan shoves the bulldog, Cherokee, towards him. Cherokee is lazy and just sits there, not making a move. White Fang strikes, tearing Cherokee's ear and jumping away. Cherokee is confused because he cannot get close to White Fang. In all his fights before, both he and his opponent wanted to get close. But White Fang fights like a cat. White Fang tries to knock Cherokee over, but the bulldog is too squat and close to the ground. White Fang tries to topple him too many times, and at last loses his balance. In this moment, Cherokee clamps down on his throat.
White Fang tears around, trying to get free, but cannot. There is nothing he can do. He does not understand what is happening, and has never fought anyone like this before. There is simply no way to get out of the grip that Cherokee has on White Fang. It looks like the fight is over, and Cherokee has won. At last, White Fang falls backwards, exhausted, and Cherokee closes in to tighten the grip on his throat. White Fang is no longer struggling.
When he sees this, Beauty Smith gets up and begins to kick White Fang. At this, a newcomer starts to force his way through the crowd. As Beauty continues kicking White Fang, the newcomer approaches him and punches him in the face, yelling. Beauty falls, and then tries to get up again. The newcomer punches him in the face again. He calls to his friend, Matt, to help him get the bulldog off White Fang. Matt takes hold of White Fang, and is ready to pull whenever the newcomer can get Cherokee's jaws open.
He can't get them open, and his yells to the crowd for help are only met with sarcastic jeering. Slowly, bit by bit, the newcomer is able to pry Cherokee's jaws off. White Fang tries to get up several times, but cannot. The newcomer tells Beauty that he is buying the dog for one hundred and fifty dollars. Beauty protests, saying that the dog is worth a lot of money, and that he won't be robbed. The newcomer, however, insists that he is buying, and says that if Beauty tries to go to the law for help, he will have Beauty run out of town. As everyone leaves the area, Tim Keenan finally finds out who the newcomer is. He is Weedon Scott, a mining expert and a very important person.
Chapter 19
From the beginning, the taming of White Fang looks hopeless. Scott's friend Matt notices the harness marks on his chest, and sees that he has been tamed before. But this doesn't seem to matter. White Fang has been with them two weeks and is even wilder than when they first got him.
Matt approaches him with a club, and releases the chain around his neck. White Fang does not even know he is free. It has been months since he was let loose for anything besides a fight. He doesn't understand, and he walks to the corner of the cabin, keeping both Matt and Weedon Scott in his sight.
Scott throws him some meat, and he jumps out of the way of it. Stupidly, another of Scott's dogs, Major, goes for the meat. White Fang jumps at him, and bites at Major's throat. Matt goes to White Fang and kicks him, and receives a bite in the leg in return for it. It's also clear that Major is going to die from the injury he received. Scott says that they must kill White Fang, but Matt argues and convinces Scott that White Fang should live.
Scott walks up to White Fang, talking gently and slowly bring his hand down. White Fang starts to snarl and grow tense. He knows that some punishment is going to come.
Matt goes for the rifle, insisting that White Fang is untamable and must be shot. When Matt reaches for the rifle, White Fang begins to growl and tense up. When Matt actually picks it up and aims it, White Fang quickly runs out of the way. Both Matt and Weedon Scott agree that White Fang is simply too intelligent to kill.
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