📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 66
1"Ah, my frien's," he said softly, "mebbe it mek you mad dog, dose many bites. Mebbe all mad dog, sacredam! Wot you
2t'ink, eh, Perrault?" The courier shook his head dubiously. With four hundred miles of trail still between him and
3Dawson, he could ill afford to have madness break out among his dogs. Two hours of cursing and exertion got the
4harnesses into shape, and the wound-stiffened team was under way, struggling painfully over the hardest part of the
5trail they had yet encountered, and for that matter, the hardest between them and Dawson. The Thirty Mile River was wide
6open. Its wild water defied the frost, and it was in the eddies only and in the quiet places that the ice held at all.
7Six days of exhausting toil were required to cover those thirty terrible miles. And terrible they were, for every foot
8of them was accomplished at the risk of life to dog and man. A dozen times, Perrault, nosing the way broke through the
9ice bridges, being saved by the long pole he carried, which he so held that it fell each time across the hole made by
10his body. But a cold snap was on, the thermometer registering fifty below zero, and each time he broke through he was
11compelled for very life to build a fire and dry his garments. Nothing daunted him. It was because nothing daunted him
12that he had been chosen for government courier. He took all manner of risks, resolutely thrusting his little weazened
13face into the frost and struggling on from dim dawn to dark. He skirted the frowning shores on rim ice that bent and
14crackled under foot and upon which they dared not halt. Once, the sled broke through, with Dave and Buck, and they were
15half-frozen and all but drowned by the time they were dragged out. The usual fire was necessary to save them. They were
16coated solidly with ice, and the two men kept them on the run around the fire, sweating and thawing, so close that they
17were singed by the flames. At another time Spitz went through, dragging the whole team after him up to Buck, who
18strained backward with all his strength, his fore paws on the slippery edge and the ice quivering and snapping all
19around. But behind him was Dave, likewise straining backward, and behind the sled was François, pulling till his tendons
20cracked. Again, the rim ice broke away before and behind, and there was no escape except up the cliff. Perrault scaled
21it by a miracle, while François prayed for just that miracle; and with every thong and sled lashing and the last bit of
22harness rove into a long rope, the dogs were hoisted, one by one, to the cliff crest. François came up last, after the
23sled and load. Then came the search for a place to descend, which descent was ultimately made by the aid of the rope,
24and night found them back on the river with a quarter of a mile to the day's credit. By the time they made the
25Hootalinqua and good ice, Buck was played out. The rest of the dogs were in like condition; but Perrault, to make up
26lost time, pushed them late and early. The first day they covered thirty-five miles to the Big Salmon; the next day
27thirty-five more to the Little Salmon; the third day forty miles, which brought them well up toward the Five Fingers.
28Buck's feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of the huskies. His had softened during the many generations since
29the day his last wild ancestor was tamed by a cave-dweller or river man. All day long he limped in agony, and camp once
30made, lay down like a dead dog. Hungry as he was, he would not move to receive his ration of fish, which François had to
31bring to him. Also, the dog-driver rubbed Buck's feet for half an hour each night after supper, and sacrificed the tops
32of his own moccasins to make four moccasins for Buck. This was a great relief, and Buck caused even the weazened face of
33Perrault to twist itself into a grin one morning, when François forgot the moccasins and Buck lay on his back, his four
34feet waving appealingly in the air, and refused to budge without them. Later his feet grew hard to the trail, and the
35worn-out foot-gear was thrown away. At the Pelly one morning, as they were harnessing up, Dolly, who had never been
36conspicuous for anything, went suddenly mad. She announced her condition by a long, heartbreaking wolf howl that sent
37every dog bristling with fear, then sprang straight for Buck. He had never seen a dog go mad, nor did he have any reason
38to fear madness; yet he knew that here was horror, and fled away from it in a panic. Straight away he raced, with Dolly,
39panting and frothing, one leap behind; nor could she gain on him, so great was his terror, nor could he leave her, so
40great was her madness. He plunged through the wooded breast of the island, flew down to the lower end, crossed a back
41channel filled with rough ice to another island, gained a third island, curved back to the main river, and in
42desperation started to cross it. And all the time, though he did not look, he could hear her snarling just one leap
43behind. François called to him a quarter of a mile away and he doubled back, still one leap ahead, gasping painfully for
44air and putting all his faith in that François would save him. The dog-driver held the axe poised in his hand, and as
45Buck shot past him the axe crashed down upon mad Dolly's head. Buck staggered over against the sled, exhausted, sobbing
46for breath, helpless. This was Spitz's opportunity. He sprang upon Buck, and twice his teeth sank into his unresisting
47foe and ripped and tore the flesh to the bone. Then François's lash descended, and Buck had the satisfaction of watching
48Spitz receive the worst whipping as yet administered to any of the teams. "One devil, dat Spitz," remarked Perrault.
49"Some dam day heem keel dat Buck." "Dat Buck two devils," was François's rejoinder. "All de tam I watch dat Buck I know
50for sure. Lissen: some dam fine day heem get mad lak hell an' den heem chew dat Spitz all up an' spit heem out on de
51snow. Sure. I know." From then on it was war between them. Spitz, as lead-dog and acknowledged master of the team, felt
52his supremacy threatened by this strange Southland dog. And strange Buck was to him, for of the many Southland dogs he
53had known, not one had shown up worthily in camp and on trail. They were all too soft, dying under the toil, the frost,
54and starvation. Buck was the exception. He alone endured and prospered, matching the husky in strength, savagery, and
55cunning. Then he was a masterful dog, and what made him dangerous was the fact that the club of the man in the red
56sweater had knocked all blind pluck and rashness out of his desire for mastery. He was preeminently cunning, and could
57bide his time with a patience that was nothing less than primitive. It was inevitable that the clash for leadership
58should come. Buck wanted it. He wanted it because it was his nature, because he had been gripped tight by that nameless,
59incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace--that pride which holds dogs in the toil to the last gasp, which lures
60them to die joyfully in the harness, and breaks their hearts if they are cut out of the harness. This was the pride of
61Dave as wheel-dog, of Sol-leks as he pulled with all his strength; the pride that laid hold of them at break of camp,
62transforming them from sour and sullen brutes into straining, eager, ambitious creatures; the pride that spurred them on
63all day and dropped them at pitch of camp at night, letting them fall back into gloomy unrest and uncontent. This was
64the pride that bore up Spitz and made him thrash the sled-dogs who blundered and shirked in the traces or hid away at
65harness-up time in the morning. Likewise it was this pride that made him fear Buck as a possible lead-dog. And this was
66Buck's pride, too.
🎉 全部完成！共 66 行