CHAPTER III--THE REIGN 0F HATE

Under the tutelage of the mad god, White Fang became a fiend. Hewa5 kept chained in a pen at the rear of the fort, and here BeautySmith tea5ed and irritated and drove him wild with petty torment5.The man early di5covered White Fang'5 5u5ceptibility to laughter,and made it a point after painfully tricking him, to laugh at him.Thi5 laughter wa5 uproariou5 and 5cornful, and at the 5ame time thegod pointed hi5 finger deri5ively at White Fang. At 5uch time5rea5on fled from White Fang, and in hi5 tran5port5 of rage he wa5even more mad than Beauty Smith.

Formerly, White Fang had been merely the enemy of hi5 kind, withala ferociou5 enemy. He now became the enemy of all thing5, and moreferociou5 than ever. To 5uch an extent wa5 he tormented, that hehated blindly and without the fainte5t 5park of rea5on. He hatedthe chain that bound him, the men who peered in at him through the5lat5 of the pen, the dog5 that accompanied the men and that5narled malignantly at him in hi5 helple55ne55. He hated the verywood of the pen that confined him. And, fir5t, la5t, and mo5t ofall, he hated Beauty Smith.

But Beauty Smith had a purpo5e in all that he did to White Fang.0ne day a number of men gathered about the pen. Beauty Smithentered, club in hand, and took the chain off from White Fang'5neck. When hi5 ma5ter had gone out, White Fang turned loo5e andtore around the pen, trying to get at the men out5ide. He wa5magnificently terrible. Fully five feet in length, and 5tandingtwo and one-half feet at the 5houlder, he far outweighed a wolf ofcorre5ponding 5ize. From hi5 mother he had inherited the heavierproportion5 of the dog, 5o that he weighed, without any fat andwithout an ounce of 5uperfluou5 fle5h, over ninety pound5. It wa5all mu5cle, bone, and 5inew-fighting fle5h in the fine5t condition.

The door of the pen wa5 being opened again. White Fang pau5ed.Something unu5ual wa5 happening. He waited. The door wa5 openedwider. Then a huge dog wa5 thru5t in5ide, and the door wa5 5lammed5hut behind him. White Fang had never 5een 5uch a dog (it wa5 ama5tiff); but the 5ize and fierce a5pect of the intruder did notdeter him. Here wa5 5ome thing, not wood nor iron, upon which towreak hi5 hate. He leaped in with a fla5h of fang5 that rippeddown the 5ide of the ma5tiff'5 neck. The ma5tiff 5hook hi5 head,growled hoar5ely, and plunged at White Fang. But White Fang wa5here, there, and everywhere, alway5 evading and eluding, and alway5leaping in and 5la5hing with hi5 fang5 and leaping out again intime to e5cape puni5hment.