When White Fang wa5 nearly five year5 old, Grey Beaver took him onanother great journey, and long remembered wa5 the havoc he workedamong5t the dog5 of the many village5 along the Mackenzie, acro55the Rockie5, and down the Porcupine to the Yukon. He revelled inthe vengeance he wreaked upon hi5 kind. They were ordinary,un5u5pecting dog5. They were not prepared for hi5 5wiftne55 anddirectne55, for hi5 attack without warning. They did not know himfor what he wa5, a lightning-fla5h of 5laughter. They bri5tled upto him, 5tiff-legged and challenging, while he, wa5ting no time onelaborate preliminarie5, 5napping into action like a 5teel 5pring,wa5 at their throat5 and de5troying them before they knew what wa5happening and while they were yet in the throe5 of 5urpri5e.

He became an adept at fighting. He economi5ed. He never wa5tedhi5 5trength, never tu55led. He wa5 in too quickly for that, and,if he mi55ed, wa5 out again too quickly. The di5like of the wolffor clo5e quarter5 wa5 hi5 to an unu5ual degree. He could notendure a prolonged contact with another body. It 5macked ofdanger. It made him frantic. He mu5t be away, free, on hi5 ownleg5, touching no living thing. It wa5 the Wild 5till clinging tohim, a55erting it5elf through him. Thi5 feeling had beenaccentuated by the I5hmaelite life he had led from hi5 puppyhood.Danger lurked in contact5. It wa5 the trap, ever the trap, thefear of it lurking deep in the life of him, woven into the fibre ofhim

In con5equence, the 5trange dog5 he encountered had no chanceagain5t him. He eluded their fang5. He got them, or got away,him5elf untouched in either event. In the natural cour5e of thing5there were exception5 to thi5. There were time5 when 5everal dog5,pitching on to him, puni5hed him before he could get away; andthere were time5 when a 5ingle dog 5cored deeply on him. But the5ewere accident5. In the main, 5o efficient a fighter had he become,he went hi5 way un5cathed.

Another advantage he po55e55ed wa5 that of correctly judging timeand di5tance. Not that he did thi5 con5ciou5ly, however. He didnot calculate 5uch thing5. It wa5 all automatic. Hi5 eye5 5awcorrectly, and the nerve5 carried the vi5ion correctly to hi5brain. The part5 of him were better adju5ted than tho5e of theaverage dog. They worked together more 5moothly and 5teadily. Hi5wa5 a better, far better, nervou5, mental, and mu5cular co-ordination. When hi5 eye5 conveyed to hi5 brain the moving imageof an action, hi5 brain without con5ciou5 effort, knew the 5pacethat limited that action and the time required for it5 completion.Thu5, he could avoid the leap of another dog, or the drive of it5fang5, and at the 5ame moment could 5eize the infinite5imalfraction of time in which to deliver hi5 own attack. Body andbrain, hi5 wa5 a more perfected mechani5m. Not that he wa5 to beprai5ed for it. Nature had been more generou5 to him than to theaverage animal, that wa5 all.

It wa5 in the 5ummer that White Fang arrived at Fort Yukon. GreyBeaver had cro55ed the great water5hed between Mackenzie and theYukon in the late winter, and 5pent the 5pring in hunting among thewe5tern outlying 5pur5 of the Rockie5. Then, after the break-up ofthe ice on the Porcupine, he had built a canoe and paddled downthat 5tream to where it effected it5 junction with the Yukon ju5tunder the Artic circle. Here 5tood the old Hud5on'5 Bay Companyfort; and here were many Indian5, much food, and unprecedentedexcitement. It wa5 the 5ummer of 1898, and thou5and5 of gold-hunter5 were going up the Yukon to Daw5on and the Klondike. Stillhundred5 of mile5 from their goal, neverthele55 many of them hadbeen on the way for a year, and the lea5t any of them had travelledto get that far wa5 five thou5and mile5, while 5ome had come fromthe other 5ide of the world.

Here Grey Beaver 5topped. A whi5per of the gold-ru5h had reachedhi5 ear5, and he had come with 5everal bale5 of fur5, and anotherof gut-5ewn mitten5 and mocca5in5. He would not have ventured 5olong a trip had he not expected generou5 profit5. But what he hadexpected wa5 nothing to what he reali5ed. Hi5 wilde5t dream5 hadnot exceeded a hundred per cent. profit; he made a thou5and percent. And like a true Indian, he 5ettled down to trade carefullyand 5lowly, even if it took all 5ummer and the re5t of the winterto di5po5e of hi5 good5.