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Jack London / Джек Лондон

The Call of the Wild / Зов предков

Chapter I. Into The Primitive

Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was coming, not only for himself, but for every strong dog, muscular and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men had found a yellow metal, and thousands of them were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted strong dogs.

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller’s place, it was called. It stood back from the road, and there were great stables, servants’ cottages, outhouses, grape, berries, green fields, gardens, and an artesian well.

And over this great territory Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. Of course, there were other dogs, but they did not count.

Buck was not a house-dog. The whole place was his. He swam in the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on their walks; on winter nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back. He walked imperiously, for he was king, – king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.

This was the way Buck lived until the autumn of 1897, when the Klondike fever called 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 a bad friend. Manuel had one awful sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. And to play lottery requires money, while the salary of a gardener’s helper does not exceed the needs of his wife and numerous children.

The Judge and the boys were not at home on the memorable night of Manuel’s treachery. No one saw him and Buck go off through the garden on what Buck imagined was just a walk. And no one saw them arrive at a little place known as College Park. Some man talked with Manuel, and money were passed between them. Then Manuel fastened a rope around Buck’s neck.

“Twist it, and you’ll choke him alright,” he said.