the nose. All the pain he had endured was as nothing compared with the
exquisite agony of this. With a roar that was almost lionlike in its
ferocity, he again hurled himself at the man. But the man, shifting the
club from right to left, coolly caught him by the under jaw, at the
same time wrenching downward and backward. Buck described a complete
circle in the air, and half of another, then crashed to the ground on
his head and chest.
For the last time he rushed. The man struck the shrewd blow he had
purposely withheld for so long, and Buck crumpled up and went down,
knocked utterly senseless.
He s no slouch at dog-breakin , that s wot I say, one of the men on
the wall cried enthusiastically.
Druther break cayuses any day, and twice on Sundays, was the reply of
the driver, as he climbed on the wagon and started the horses.
Buck s senses came back to him, but not his strength. He lay where he
had fallen, and from there he watched the man in the red sweater.
Answers to the name of Buck, the man soliloquized, quoting from the
saloon-keeper s letter which had announced the consignment of the crate
and contents. Well, Buck, my boy, he went on in a genial voice,
we ve had our little ruction, and the best thing we can do is to let
it go at that. You ve learned your place, and I know mine. Be a good
dog and all ll go well and the goose hang high. Be a bad dog, and I ll
whale the stuffin outa you. Understand?
As he spoke he fearlessly patted the head he had so mercilessly
pounded, and though Buck s hair involuntarily bristled at touch of the
hand, he endured it without protest. When the man brought him water he
drank eagerly, and later bolted a generous meal of raw meat, chunk by
chunk, from the man s hand.
He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for
all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned
the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it. That club was
a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law,
and he met the introduction halfway. The facts of life took on a
8