This is the first part of the famous novel, but I’ll argue that it’s a wonderful, standalone short story unto itself. Henry and Bill, two men almost as stoic as the surrounding Yukon wilderness, are discomfited by the sound of a wolfpack in the near distance. Six dogs haul their sled, which contains the third, already casketed, member of their party. Night after night, a single dog disappears from the camp. The men squabble over various topics: the disappearances, the lack of coffee, the constant, pervasive cold. It’s set up almost like a murder mystery, though the first disappearance is met with derision and irritation rather than concern.
By the time Frog, their strongest dog, disappears, the men realize the problem is serious. A beautiful she-wolf with a reddish tinge to her coat turns out to be the culprit; seducing the sled dogs one by one and leads them into the maws of the hungry pack. With fewer dogs to push the sledge, and only three bullets remaining, Bill and Henry’s chances of survival are slim, and the tension is running high.
“It looked at them in a strangely wistful way, after the manner of a dog; but in its wistfulness there was none of the dog affection. It was a wistfulness bred of hunger, as cruel as its own fangs, as merciless as the frost itself.”
First serialized in Outing Magazine, 1906, and published as White Fang, Macmillan, 1906
A Personal Anthology 