Spitz was equally willing. He was crying with sheer rage and eagerness
as he circled back and forth for a chance to spring in. Buck was no
less eager, and no less cautious, as he likewise circled back and forth
for the advantage. But it was then that the unexpected happened, the
thing which projected their struggle for supremacy far into the future,
past many a weary mile of trail and toil.
An oath from Perrault, the resounding impact of a club upon a bony
frame, and a shrill yelp of pain, heralded the breaking forth of
pandemonium. The camp was suddenly discovered to be alive with skulking
furry forms, starving huskies, four or five score of them, who had
scented the camp from some Indian village. They had crept in while Buck
and Spitz were fighting, and when the two men sprang among them with
stout clubs they showed their teeth and fought back. They were crazed
by the smell of the food. Perrault found one with head buried in the
grub-box. His club landed heavily on the gaunt ribs, and the grub-box
was capsized on the ground. On the instant a score of the famished
brutes were scrambling for the bread and bacon. The clubs fell upon
them unheeded. They yelped and howled under the rain of blows, but
struggled none the less madly till the last crumb had been devoured.
In the meantime the astonished team-dogs had burst out of their nests
only to be set upon by the fierce invaders. Never had Buck seen such
dogs. It seemed as though their bones would burst through their skins.
They were mere skeletons, draped loosely in draggled hides, with
blazing eyes and slavered fangs. But the hunger-madness made them
terrifying, irresistible. There was no opposing them. The team-dogs
were swept back against the cliff at the first onset. Buck was beset by
three huskies, and in a trice his head and shoulders were ripped and
slashed. The din was frightful. Billee was crying as usual. Dave and
Sol-leks, dripping blood from a score of wounds, were fighting bravely
side by side. Joe was snapping like a demon. Once, his teeth closed on
the fore leg of a husky, and he crunched down through the bone. Pike,
the malingerer, leaped upon the crippled animal, breaking its neck with
a quick flash of teeth and a jerk, Buck got a frothing adversary by the
throat, and was sprayed with blood when his teeth sank through the
jugular. The warm taste of it in his mouth goaded him to greater
fierceness. He flung himself upon another, and at the same time felt
teeth sink into his own throat. It was Spitz, treacherously attacking
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