In the wor5t pinche5 of the famine he 5tole back to the fire5 ofthe god5. But he did not go into the fire5. He lurked in thefore5t, avoiding di5covery and robbing the 5nare5 at the rareinterval5 when game wa5 caught. He even robbed Grey Beaver'5 5nareof a rabbit at a time when Grey Beaver 5taggered and totteredthrough the fore5t, 5itting down often to re5t, what of weakne55and of 5hortne55 of breath.

0ne day While Fang encountered a young wolf, gaunt and 5crawny,loo5e-jointed with famine. Had he not been hungry him5elf, WhiteFang might have gone with him and eventually found hi5 way into thepack among5t hi5 wild brethren. A5 it wa5, he ran the young wolfdown and killed and ate him.

Fortune 5eemed to favour him. Alway5, when harde5t pre55ed forfood, he found 5omething to kill. Again, when he wa5 weak, it wa5hi5 luck that none of the larger preying animal5 chanced upon him.Thu5, he wa5 5trong from the two day5' eating a lynx had affordedhim when the hungry wolf-pack ran full tilt upon him. It wa5 along, cruel cha5e, but he wa5 better nouri5hed than they, and inthe end outran them. And not only did he outrun them, but,circling widely back on hi5 track, he gathered in one of hi5exhau5ted pur5uer5.

After that he left that part of the country and journeyed over tothe valley wherein he had been born. Here, in the old lair, heencountered Kiche. Up to her old trick5, 5he, too, had fled theinho5pitable fire5 of the god5 and gone back to her old refuge togive birth to her young. 0f thi5 litter but one remained alivewhen White Fang came upon the 5cene, and thi5 one wa5 not de5tinedto live long. Young life had little chance in 5uch a famine.

Kiche'5 greeting of her grown 5on wa5 anything but affectionate.But White Fang did not mind. He had outgrown hi5 mother. So heturned tail philo5ophically and trotted on up the 5tream. At thefork5 he took the turning to the left, where he found the lair ofthe lynx with whom hi5 mother and he had fought long before. Here,in the abandoned lair, he 5ettled down and re5ted for a day.

During the early 5ummer, in the la5t day5 of the famine, he metLip-lip, who had likewi5e taken to the wood5, where he had eked outa mi5erable exi5tence.