野性的呼唤七（The Call of the Wild ）

4 The new lead-dog
‘Well， what did I say？ Buck’ s a real fighter，all right，’ said Francois the next morning when he discovered that Spitz had disappeared and that Buck was covered in blood．

‘Spitz fought like a wolf，’said Perrault， as he looked at the bites all over Buck．

‘And Buck fought like ten wolves，’ answered Francois．‘And we'll travel faster now． No more Spitz， no more trouble．’

Francois started to harness the dogs． He needed a new lead－dog， and decided that Sol-leks was the best dog that he had．But Buck jumped at Sol－leks and took his place．

‘Look at Buck！’ said Francois， laughing．‘He's killed Spitz， and now he wants to be lead－dog． Go away， Buck！’

He pulled Buck away and tried to harness Sol－leks again．Sol-leks was unhappy too． He was frightened of Buck， and when Francois turned his back， Buck took Sol-leks’ place again． Now Francois was angry．

‘I'll show you！’ he cried， and went to get a heavy club from the sledge．

Buck remembered the man in the red coat， and moved away． This time， when Sol-leks was harnessed as lead-dog，Buck did not try to move in． He kept a few metres away and circled around Francois carefully． But when Francois called him to his old place in front of Dave， Buck refused． He had won his fight with Spitz and he wanted to be lead－dog．

For an hour the two men tried to harness him． Buck did not run away， but he did not let them catch him． Finally，Francois sat down， and Perrault looked at his watch．It was getting late．The two men looked at one another and smiled Francois walked up to Sol-leks， took off his harness， led him back and harnessed him in his old place．Then he called Buck．All the other dogs were harnessed and the only empty place was now the one at the front But Buck did not move．

‘Put down the club，’ said Perrault．

Francois dropped the club， and immediately Buck came up to the front of the team．Francois harnessed him ，and in a minute the sledge was moving．

Buck was an excellent leader． He moved and thought quick－ly and led the other dogs well． A new leader made no differ－ence to Dave and Sol-leks； they continued to pull hard ．But the other dogs had had an easy life when Spitz was leading．They were surprised when Buck made them work hard and punished them for their mistakes Pike， the second dog，was usually lazy； but by the end of the first day he was pulling harder than he had ever pulled in his life． The first night in camp Buck fought Joe， another difficult dog， and after that there were no more problems with him． The team started to pull together， and to move faster and faster．

‘I've never seen a dog like Buck！’cried Francois，‘Never！He's worth a thousand dollars ．What do you think，Perrault？’