sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge s daughters, on long
twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the
Judge s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge s
grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their
footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable
yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches.
Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he
utterly ignored, for he was king, king over all creeping, crawling,
flying things of Judge Miller s place, humans included.
His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge s inseparable
companion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father. He was
not so large, he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds, for his
mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Nevertheless, one hundred
and forty pounds, to which was added the dignity that comes of good
living and universal respect, enabled him to carry himself in right
royal fashion. During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived
the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was
even a trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become
because of their insular situation. But he had saved himself by not
becoming a mere pampered house-dog. Hunting and kindred outdoor
delights had kept down the fat and hardened his muscles; and to him, as
to the cold-tubbing races, the love of water had been a tonic and a
health preserver.
And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the
Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North.
But Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel,
one of the gardener s helpers, was an undesirable acquaintance. Manuel
had one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also, in his
gambling, he had one besetting weakness faith in a system; and this
made his damnation certain. For to play a system requires money, while
the wages of a gardener s helper do not lap over the needs of a wife
and numerous progeny.
The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers Association, and the
boys were busy organizing an athletic club, on the memorable night of
Manuel s treachery. No one saw him and Buck go off through the orchard
on what Buck imagined was merely a stroll. And with the exception of a
solitary man, no one saw them arrive at the little flag station known
3