Kitabı oku: «The Call of the Wild / Зов предков», sayfa 5

Now and again men came, who talked to the man in the red sweater. And at such times money passed between them and the strangers took one or more of the dogs away with them. Buck wondered where they went, for they never came back; but the fear of the future was strong upon him, and he was glad each time when he was not chosen.

Yet his time came, in the end, in the form of a little wizened man who spoke broken English and had many strange exclamations.

“Sacredam!” he cried, when he saw Buck. “That one bully dog! Eh? How much?”

“Three hundred,” answered the man in the red sweater. “And as it’s government money, you can spend it safely, eh, Perrault?”

Perrault smiled. Considering that the price of dogs had been raised high by the demand, it was not an unfair sum for so fine an animal. The Canadian Government would be no loser. Perrault knew dogs, and when he looked at Buck he knew that he was one in ten thousands.

Buck saw money pass between them, and was not surprised when Curly, a good-natured Newfoundland,¹⁰ and he were led away by the little wizened man. That was the last he saw of¹¹ the man in the red sweater. And as Curly and he looked at Seattle from the deck of the ship, it was the last he saw of the warm Southland. Curly and he were taken below by Perrault and given to a black-faced giant called Francois. Perrault was a French-Canadian, and swarthy; but Francois was a French-Canadian half-breed, and twice as swarthy. They were a new kind of men to Buck, and, though he had no affection for them, he honestly respected them. He quickly learnt that Perrault and Francois were fair men, calm and objective, and too wise to be fooled by dogs.

On the ship, Buck and Curly joined two other dogs. One of them was a big, snow-white fellow from Spitzbergen who had been brought away by a whaling captain,¹² and who had later accompanied a Geological Survey into the Barrens. He was friendly, in a treacherous sort of way, smiling into one’s face the while he planned some trick. The other dog showed plainly that all he desired was to be left alone,¹³ and further, that there would be trouble if he were not left alone. “Dave” he was called, and he ate and slept, and took interest in nothing, not even when the ship was caught in a storm. When Buck and Curly were half wild with fear, he raised his head as though annoyed, looked at them, yawned, and went to sleep again.