03-01-02-野性的呼唤 [14]
It was only Thornton who stopped him going into the forest．Other men did not interest him．Visitors to the camp tried to make friends with him，but Buck stayed cold．When Thornton's two friends，Hans and Pete，arrived from Dawson，Buck refused to notice them at first．Then he saw that they were friends of Thornton's and after that he accept ed them；but they were not his friends They were，like Thornton，kind men，and they understood that Buck loved Thornton，and him alone．
Thornton，too，understood Buck．One day，Buck and the three men were sitting on some high rocks， a hundred metres above the river．Thornton wondered if Buck would obey any order， even a crazy one．‘Jump，Buck！’he shouted，pointing down to the river．A second later the three men were holding Buck back as he tried to jump．
‘That was very strange，’said Pete， when they had sat down again．
‘Not strange；wonderful，’said Thornton．‘Terrible，too．Sometimes it frightens me．’
‘Yes．I feel sorry for any man who hits you when Buck's near，’said Pete．
‘So do I，’said Hans．
It happened in the autumn in Circle City．A man called Bur ton was starting a fight with another man in a bar．Thornton stepped between them to try to stop them．Buck was，as usual，lying in the corner watching．Burton hit Thornton and he nearly fell，just catching a table．Buck flew through the air at Burton's throat．Burton saved his life by putting up his arm，and was thrown on to the ground，with Buck on top of him．Buck took his teeth out of the man's arm and this time bit into his throat．Then a crowd of people pulled Buck off，and a doctor was called．Everyone agreed that Buck had only attacked because he saw Thornton in danger，and from that day Buck's name became famous all over the north．
Later that year，Buck saved Thornton in a different way．The three men were taking a boat down a fast and rocky river．Thornton was in the boat，while Hans and Pete moved along the river bank，holding the boat with a rope．Buck followed them，keeping a worried eye on Thornton．
They came to a more dangerous part of the river， and the boat started to go too quickly．Hans pulled on the rope to stop it，and pulled too hard．The boat turned over，and Thornton was thrown into the water and carried down river towards rocks where no swimmer could live．
Buck jumped in immediately and swam three hundred me tres until he reached Thornton．Then he turned，and with Thornton holding his tail，Buck swam towards the river bank．But they moved slowly，and all the time the river was carrying them towards the place where the water crashed twenty metres down onto rocks．Thornton knew that they would not get to the bank quickly enough，so he let go of Buck，held on to a rock in the middle of the water，and shouted，‘Go，Buck，go！’
Buck swam as hard as he could to the bank，and Pete and Hans pulled him out．
It was hard for Thornton to hold on to his rock in that wild water，and his friends knew they had only a few minutes to save him．They tied their rope round Buck，who at once jumped into the river and tried to swim to Thornton．The first time，the water took him past the rock，and Pete and Hans had to pull him back The second time，he swam higher up the river，and the water brought him down to Thornton．Thornton held on to Buck，and Hans and Pete pulled the rope as hard as they could．Man and dog disappeared under the water，banging into rocks，turning over and over，sometimes with Buck on top，sometimes Thornton．When Hans and Pete finally pulled them out，both seemed more dead than alive But after a while their eyes opened and life returned
That winter，at Dawson，Buck did something that made him even more famous in the north．It was also very helpful to the three men．They wanted to make a journey to look for gold in the east，and they needed money．They were in a bar one day when some of the men started to talk about dogs．One man said that he had a dog who was strong enough to pull a sledge with two hundred kilos on it．Another said his dog could pull two hundred and fifty．A third man，called Matthewson，said his dog could pull three hundred kilos．
‘That's nothing，’