This he had never experienced at Judge Miller's down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley.
With the Judge's sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge's grandsons, a sort of pompous (爱炫耀的) guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately (威严的) and dignified (庄重的) friendship.
But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration (倾慕), that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse.{1}
This man had saved his life, which was something; but, further, he was the ideal master.
Other men saw to the welfare (福利) of their dogs from a sense of duty and business expediency (权宜); he saw to the welfare of his as if they were his own children, because he could not help it.
And he saw further. He never forgot a kindly greeting or a cheering word, and to sit down for a long talk with them ("gas" (空谈，可以理解为“侃大山”) he called it) was as much his delight as theirs.
He had a way of taking Buck's head roughly between his hands, and resting his own head upon Buck's, of shaking him back and forth, the while calling him ill names that to Buck were love names.
Buck knew no greater joy than that rough embrace and the sound of murmured oaths, and at each jerk back and forth it seemed that his heart would be shaken out of his body so great was its ecstasy (狂喜).{2}
And when, released, he sprang to his feet, his mouth laughing, his eyes eloquent (意味深长的), his throat vibrant with unuttered sound, and in that fashion remained without movement, John Thornton would reverently exclaim, "God! you can all but speak!"
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Buck had a trick of love expression that was akin (类似) to hurt. He would often seize Thornton's hand in his mouth and close so fiercely that the flesh bore the impress of his teeth for some time afterward.
And as Buck understood the oaths (咒骂) to be love words, so the man understood this feigned bite for a caress (爱抚).
For the most part, however, Buck's love was expressed in adoration.
While he went wild with happiness when Thornton touched him or spoke to him, he did not seek these tokens (象征).
Unlike Skeet, who was wont (习惯于) to shove her nose under Thornton's hand and nudge (推动) and nudge till petted, or Nig, who would stalk up and rest his great head on Thornton's knee, Buck was content to adore at a distance.
He would lie by the hour, eager, alert, at Thornton's feet, looking up into his face, dwelling upon it, studying it, following with keenest interest each fleeting (转瞬间的) expression, every movement or change of feature.
Or, as chance might have it, he would lie farther away, to the side or rear, watching the outlines of the man and the occasional (偶然的) movements of his body.
And often, such was the communion in which they lived, the strength of Buck’s gaze (注视) would draw John Thornton's head around, and he would return the gaze, without speech, his heart shining out of his eyes as Buck’s heart shone out.
For a long time after his rescue, Buck did not like Thornton to get out of his sight. From the moment he left the tent to when he entered it again, Buck would follow at his heels.
His transient (短暂的) masters since he had come into the Northland had bred (引起) in him a fear that no master could be permanent.
He was afraid that Thornton would pass out of his life as Perrault and Francois and the Scotch half-breed had passed out. Even in the night, in his dreams, he was haunted by this fear.
At such times he would shake off sleep and creep (悄悄移动) through the chill to the flap of the tent, where he would stand and listen to the sound of his master's breathing.
But in spite of this great love he bore John Thornton, which seemed to bespeak (显示) the soft civilizing influence, the strain of the primitive, which the Northland had aroused in him, remained alive and active.
Faithfulness (忠诚) and devotion (奉献), things born of fire and roof, were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness (狡黠).
He was a thing of the wild, come in from the wild to sit by John Thornton's fire, rather than a dog of the soft Southland stamped (盖章) with the marks of generations of civilization.
Because of his very great love, he could not steal from this man, but from any other man, in any other camp, he did not hesitate an instant; while the cunning with which he stole enabled him to escape detection (发现).
His face and body were scored (刻划痕于) by the teeth of many dogs, and he fought as fiercely as ever and more shrewdly.
Skeet and Nig were too good-natured for quarrelling, --besides, they belonged to John Thornton; but the strange dog, no matter what the breed or valor (勇猛), swiftly acknowledged (承认) Buck's supremacy or found himself struggling for life with a terrible antagonist (对手).
And Buck was merciless. He had learned well the law of club and fang, and he never forewent (放弃，forego 的过去式) an advantage or drew back from a foe (敌人) he had started on the way to Death.{3}
He had lessoned from Spitz, and from the chief fighting dogs of the police and mail, and knew there was no middle course.
He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial (原始的) life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.
Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate (法则), down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed.{4}
He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn.
He linked the past with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed.
He sat by John Thornton's fire, a broad-breasted dog, white-fanged and long-furred; but behind him were the shades of all manner of dogs, half-wolves and wild wolves, urgent and prompting, tasting the savor of the meat he ate, thirsting for the water he drank, scenting the wind with him, listening with him and telling him the sounds made by the wild life in the forest, dictating his moods, directing his actions, lying down to sleep with him when he lay down, and dreaming with him and beyond him and becoming themselves the stuff of his dreams.
So peremptorily (断然地) did these shades beckon (召唤) him, that each day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped farther from him.
Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously (神秘地) thrilling (令人激动的) and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously (专制地), deep in the forest.
But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and the green shade, the love for John Thornton drew him back to the fire again.
