[00:01.14]Chapter eight.
[00:03.92]The fighting wolf.
[00:08.74]When White Fang was five years old,
[00:11.79]Gray Beaver set off on the long journey to Fort Yukon to sell furs.
[00:19.28]White Fang was now head of the dog team and was a fast and fearless leader.
[00:27.84]When they arrived, he saw more man animals than he had seen in his life.
[00:35.53]Many of them had pale skin.
[00:40.57]Every few days, a steamship would arrive, and the pale man animals would come ashore with their dogs.
[00:49.82]These were soft, silly creatures that made a lot of noise.
[00:55.79]However, some made the mistake of trying to attack White Fang.
[01:01.69]He enjoyed this game.
[01:05.42]As they rushed at him, he would spring to one side.
[01:12.10]While they stood stupidly wondering where he had gone, he would knock them off their feet.
[01:19.30]He could have killed them with one slash of his teeth.
[01:24.93]But White Fang was cunning.
[01:28.47]He knew that man animals were angry when their dogs were killed, so he slunk away and let other dogs race in for the kill.
[01:41.19]They were the ones who were punished, not him.
[01:48.50]Sometimes, the men who lived at the fort came down to see this wolfish dog, which was never wrong-footed.
[01:58.73]But the man who loved the dog fights more than any other was Beauty Smith.
[02:07.79]He would run down at the first sound of the steamship's whistle.
[02:13.89]No one knew Beauty's real name, but he was far from beautiful, and a cowardly, cruel bully.
[02:29.45]Beauty Smith was thrilled by White Fang's strength and cunning, and he also saw that he could make a lot of money from him.
[02:43.84]Beauty knew that White Fang belonged to Gray Beaver.
[02:51.47]He took to visiting him, offering money.
[02:58.51]But Gray Beaver refused.
[03:03.35]White Fang was the strongest sled dog he had ever owned, and the best leader.
[03:14.06]There was no dog like him anywhere in the country.
[03:19.77]No.
[03:22.95]White Fang was not for sale.
[03:30.18]But Beauty Smith was cunning.
[03:37.41]Every visit he brought whiskey for Gray Beaver, and one day he tricked him into selling his dog.
[03:49.00]White Fang hated this new pale man animal.
[03:57.02]Something told him that Beauty was bad through and through, but he couldn't know that the day Beauty took him away would be the worst in his life.
[04:12.50]Beauty Smith was cruel beyond anything White Fang had ever known, and the worst kind of coward.
[04:22.57]He was too scared to fight a man, but with a heavy club, he felt powerful enough to beat a dog.
[04:35.05]Beauty chained White Fang in a pen, so he could hardly move.
[04:41.96]He teased and taunted him until the dog went into a rage.
[04:49.60]Then he beat him without mercy.
[04:56.44]White Fang learned to hate as he had never hated before.
[05:06.32]Beauty was doing this for a reason.
[05:12.85]One day, some men came to the pen.
[05:18.68]Beauty took the chain from White Fang's neck.
[05:23.74]The dog was mad with spitting, snarling rage, a fighting dog in peak condition.
[05:38.07]The door of the pen opened.
[05:42.80]White Fang stopped for a second, puzzled.
[05:49.93]Then another dog was shoved inside.
[05:55.47]It was huge.
[06:00.92]White Fang leaped at it with a flash of fangs that ripped at the dog's throat.
[06:08.43]The dog lunged at White Fang, but the wolf dog was too clever.
[06:16.56]He leaped in again, slashing with his fangs, and the other dog lunged no more.
[06:27.24]The men cheered and clapped.
[06:32.19]Big as he was, the other dog had had no chance.
[06:41.58]Beauty Smith grinned from ear to ear.
[06:47.56]White Fang began to look forward to these fights.
[06:54.16]This was the only time he was ever free from his chain.
[07:05.16]One day, three dogs were put against him in a row.
[07:12.11]On another day, a full-grown wolf.
[07:20.27]Then two dogs were set on him at once.
[07:27.94]Sometimes White Fang would be injured, but Beauty did not care.
[07:36.14]He was becoming rich betting on his dog.
[07:44.51]Soon, White Fang was famous.
[07:50.60]They called him the fighting wolf.
[08:01.29]When the first snows came, Beauty locked him in a cage and took him up river to Dawson town.
[08:14.40]There, men paid to stare at him and poke him with sticks.
[08:21.73]He raged and snarled at them.
[08:27.81]Hate had become his whole life, and why not?
[08:36.50]Life had become a living hell.
[08:45.85]Dog fighting was against the law in that town, and so Beauty would take him into the woods at night.
[08:57.54]Men brought their most ferocious dogs to challenge the fighting wolf.
[09:06.70]It was a savage land, and the fights were to the death.
[09:14.93]But White Fang was never beaten.
[09:23.71]Soon, dog owners did not want to risk their dogs against him.
[09:29.75]So Beauty set a full-grown lynx on him.
[09:37.71]White Fang fought like a demon and won.
[09:47.87]Then one day, a gambler called Tim Keenan arrived in Dawson.
[09:54.40]He owned the first bulldog that had ever been seen in that country.
[10:04.13]It was clear that White Fang would have to fight this strange, powerful-looking dog, and for days people talked of nothing else.