Kitabı oku: «The Call of the Wild / Зов предков», sayfa 3

Suffering awful pain from throat and tongue, with the life half gone out of him, Buck attempted to face his kidnappers, when they came again. But he was thrown down and choked repeatedly. Then he was put into a cage.

There he lay, nursing his wrath and wounded pride.⁴ He could not understand what it all meant. He felt some coming trouble. Several times during the night he sprang to his feet when the door opened, expecting to see the Judge, or the boys at least. But each time it was the face of the saloon-keeper. And each time the joyful bark that was in Buck’s throat transformed into a savage growl.

In the morning four men entered and picked up the cage. More kidnappers, Buck decided; and he raged at them through the bars. Then he, locked in the cage, began a passage through many hands. After the express office he was put in another wagon; a truck carried him upon a ferry steamer; he was taken off the steamer, and finally he was put in an express car.

For two days and nights in this express car Buck neither ate nor drank. He did not mind the hunger so much, but the lack of water made him suffer. Because of the ill treatment⁵ he had a fever.

He was glad for one thing: the rope was off his neck. Now he would show them. They would never get another rope around his neck. Upon that he was sure. His eyes turned blood-shot,⁶ and he looked like a devil. So changed was he that the Judge himself would not have recognized him; and the express messengers breathed with relief when they carried him off the train at Seattle.

Four men brought the cage in a small, high-walled back yard. A stout man in a red sweater that was too wide at the neck came out and signed the book for the driver. That was, Buck thought, the next kidnapper, and he flung himself savagely against the bars. The man smiled grimly, and brought an axe and a club.