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03-01-02-野性的呼唤 [5]

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的狗每天只能得到500克鱼吃;他们体型较小,进食少一些仍可以生存。
  巴克学会了快速进食;因为如果他吃的慢了,别的狗就会偷他的食物吃。他见到新来的狗中一只叫派克的狗趁佩诺特没看见时从雪撬上偷肉吃。第二天巴克也偷了嘴,但没有被发觉。佩诺特非常生气,但他还以为是另一条叫达布的狗干的,他教训了它一顿,而巴克得以幸免。
  巴克适应了北方的生存方式。在南方他从未于过偷窃的行当,但在那儿他也从来不用饿肚子。他偷得巧妙又隐蔽,牢牢记着那个拿大棒的男人给他的痛打。巴克正在学会如何对付大棒和牙齿。
  他学会了吃各种食物——吃只要他咬得动的任何一种东西。他学会了用脚破冰取水来解渴。他变得更加强壮、威猛,嗅觉和视觉也比以前更发达了。从某种意义上说,他逐渐地恢复野性,像以前的野狗一样穿梭在丛林中捕食。对他来说,学会像狼一样厮杀易如反掌,因为这是与他血脉相通的本性。晚上,当他仰首望月,凄厉地长嗥时,他记起来他的祖先。


■ 3 The wild animal
  The wild animal was strong in Buck, and as he travelled across the snow, it grew stronger and stronger. And as Buck grew stronger, he hated Spitz more and more, although he was careful never to start a fight.
  But Spitz was always showing his teeth to Buck, trying to start a fight. And Buck knew that if he and Spitz fought, one of them would die.
  The fight almost happened one night when they stopped by Lake Laberge.There was heavy snow and it was very cold.The lake was frozen and Francois, Perrault, and the dogs had to spend the night on the ice, under a big rock. Buck had made a warm hole in the snow and was sorry to leave it to get his piece of fish. But when he had eaten. and returned to his hole, he found Spitz in it. Buck had tried not to fight Spitz be-fore, but this was too much. He attacked him angrily. Spitz was surprised. He knew Buck was big, but he didn’ t know he was so wild. Francois was surprised too, and guessed why Buck was angry. ‘Go on Buck!’ he shouted.‘Fight him, the dirty thief!’
  Spitz was also ready to fight, and the two dogs circled one another, looking for the chance to jump in. But suddenly there was a shout from Perrault, and they saw eighty or a hundred dogs around the sledge. The dogs came from an Indian village,and they were searching for the food that they could smell on the sledge. Perrault and Francois tried to fight them off with their clubs, but the dogs, made crazy by the smell of the food,showed their teeth and fought back.
  Buck had never seed dogs like these. They were all skin and bone, but hunger made them fight like wild things.Three of them attacked Buck and in seconds his head and legs were bad-ly bitten.Dave and Sol-leks stood side by side,covered in blood,fighting bravely. Joe and Pike jumped on one dog,and Pike broke its neck with one bite.Buck caught another dog by the neck and tasted blood. He threw himself on the next one,and then felt teeth in his own neck.It was Spitz,attacking him from the side.
  Perrault and Francois came to help with clubs, but then they had to run back to save the food . It was safer for the nine sledge-dogs to run away across the lake. Several of them were badly hurt, and they spent an unhappy night hiding among the tress.
  At first light they returned to the sledge and found Perrault and Francois tired and angry.Half their food was gone.The Indian dogs had even eaten one of Perrault's shoes.Francois looked at his dogs unhappily.
  ‘Ah, my friends,’he said softly,‘Perhaps those bites will make you ill.What do you think, Perrault?’
  Perrault said nothing. They still had six hundred kilometres to travel, and he hoped very much that his sledge-dogs had not caught rabies from the Indian dogs.
  The harness was torn and damaged and it was two hours be-fore they were moving, travelling slowly and painfully over the most difficult country that they had been in.
  The Thirty Mile River was not frozen. It ran too fast to freeze. They spent six days trying to find a place to cross, and every step was dangerous for dogs and men. Twelve times they found ice bridges across the river, and Perrault walked carefully onto them, holding a long piece of wood. And twelve times he fell through a bridge and was saved by the piece of wood, which caught on the sides of the hole.But the tempera-ture was 45° below zero, and each time Perrault fell into the water, he had to light a fire to dry and warm himself. Once,the sledge fell through the ice, with Dave and Buck, and they were covered in ice by the time Perrault and Francois pulled them out of the river.Again, a fire was needed to save them.Another time, Spitz and the dogs in front fell through the ice
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