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Jack looked at the boys now In their frightened eyes he saw Hal again, from months earlier, and yet Hal had been defiant He had never been as scared as these two la up, had defended theh end

"You two should never have come here," he said "You’re far o ho his teeth like a little dog guarding his dinner

Ah Maybe they’ll be all right after all, Jack thought If the wild gets into him, maybe he’ll survive

"These men would enslave you," Merritt said "They’ll beat you and put you to work for theold you find would be theirs They did it to us Most of the lad that Merritt said it The boys were less afraid of him, and from the way they shifted away from Archie and Horse Face, it was obvious they believed him Merritt had always had that honest quality

"Get out of here," Jack told the boys, gesturing with the barrel of his gun

Archie sneered in disgust and fury but did not try to stop them The boys fled back up the street, toward the bar

"You think that makes them safe?" Archie asked

"I think next ti," Jack replied, and in his own voice he heard a fah he knew that if he looked around he would not see it, he felt the wolf nearby

The ould always be nearby, because he carried it within hiun and slipped out of his heavy coat, letting it fall to the street Archie took half a step forward, but Merritt leveled the Colt at hiht better of it With the two slavers watching, Jack unbuckled both gun belts, carried theround

Then he moved toward Archie until they were only about four feet apart Horse Face was forgotten--Merritt would cover hi He reached down and patted his knife where it hung sheathed on his belt

"Noe’re even," Jack said "You have a knife, and I have a knife"

"You could’ve ain "I don’t want you to"

He took a step toward Archie, and the aze uncertain now, as if he sensed sohtened hiave Jack pause He felt the wolf in hiathered its deadly cal with its ferocity and speed Archie had sensed it as well

But Jack didn’t want that The ould kill this man, and Jack would become a murderer Even if they had the same weapons, it would be murder He had left the wilderness behind, and if he meant to return to civilization now, he had to leave the wild as well All along he had been asking himself, Who is Jack London? Now he looked into Archie’s skittish eyes, and he knew

He took a deep breath and let it out, pushing the wolf away It uide, part of his very soul, but it was not hirin vanished frohter

Jack didn’t need the wolf to beat Archie He needed the boy and the young hter and back-alley scrapper

"If you end up witharound your corpse when the sun co to cry for you?" Jack asked

Horse Face looked confused, but Archie flinched

"That’s what I thought," Jack said "So I’et about those kids and pan for your own daet lucky, strike it rich, but you’ll do it yourself"

"Archie--," Horse Face began

Jack shook his head, never taking his eyes off of Archie "Don’t listen He’s a greedy son of a bitch, just like you Your last partner shot you I shouldn’t have to re Anyway, those are your choices Walk away, or fight But if you fight, know that I’ll win And though I don’t want to kill you, we’ve both got knives, and people die in knife fights It’s the way of things"

For several long seconds, Jack wasn’t sure which way it would go

Then Archie seemed to deflate He smiled a little, almost in ad," Horse Face said, striding toward hionna let this--"

Archie punched him so hard that a tooth shot froht as it landed in the dirt Horse Face hit the ground, tried to rise, and then only lay there, dazed

Dragging on his coat, Archie walked aithout so lance

"You had me scared there for a un belts and buckled theave Merritt a reassuring s He had come to the Yukon to conquer the wild, and finally he had done so, though not in a way he ever would have dreamed It had become a part of him, deep inside, and no matter where he wandered in the world, he would carry the ith him, and would always hear its call

Part of him would forever be the wolf, but first and foremost, Jack London was a man A son, a brother, a friend He had responsibilities, a truth that had been lost to hio home