[Illustration] WHITE FANG by Jack London Contents PART I CHAPTER I THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT CHAPTER II THE SHE-WOLF CHAPTER III THE HUNGER CRY PART II CHAPTER I THE BATTLE OF THE FANGS CHAPTER II THE LAIR CHAPTER III THE GREY CUB CHAPTER IV THE WALL OF THE WORLD CHAPTER V THE LAW OF MEAT PART III CHAPTER I THE MAKERS OF FIRE CHAPTER II THE BONDAGE CHAPTER III THE OUTCAST CHAPTER IV THE TRAIL OF THE GODS CHAPTER V THE COVENANT CHAPTER VI THE FAMINE PART IV CHAPTER I THE ENEMY OF HIS KIND CHAPTER II THE MAD GOD CHAPTER III THE REIGN OF HATE CHAPTER IV THE CLINGING DEATH CHAPTER V THE INDOMITABLE CHAPTER VI THE LOVE-MASTER PART V CHAPTER I THE LONG TRAIL CHAPTER II THE SOUTHLAND CHAPTER III THE GOD’S DOMAIN CHAPTER IV THE CALL OF KIND CHAPTER V THE SLEEPING WOLF PART I CHAPTER I THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild. But there _was_ life, abroad in the land and defiant. Down the frozen waterway toiled a string of wolfish dogs. Their bristly fur was rimed with frost. Their breath froze in the air as it left their mouths, spouting forth in spumes of vapour that settled upon the hair of their bodies and formed into crystals of frost. Leather harness was on the dogs, and leather traces attached them to a sled which dragged along behind. The sled was without runners. It was made of stout birch-bark, and its full surface rested on the snow. The front end of the sled was turned up, like a scroll, in order to force down and under the bore of soft snow that surged like a wave before it. On the sled, securely lashed, was a long and narrow oblong box. There were other things on the sled—blankets, an axe, and a coffee-pot and frying-pan; but prominent, occupying most of the space, was the long and narrow oblong box.