White Fangs by Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden Page A

rope with them.
    Once they reached a position upstream from the stranded steamer, the Reverend took up the slack and tied the rope to a thick tree. Raised from the river, the strained rope twanged when Vukovich grabbed at it, hissing spray into the air that gave life to three brief, beautiful rainbows.
    Maurilio and Vukovich retrieved the boat and came across with it. As they nudged against the steamer, Jack, Sabine and Louis climbed down. But when the five of them sat there ready to haul themselves across to the bank, Jack saw the problem, and felt a pang of guilt. He looked up at the deck rail where Callie and several other passengers were gathered, watching them. Callie was frowning, glancing alternately from Jack to the river's surface and back again.
    "One of you needs to come and bring the rowboat back," Jack said. "We'll be on our way as soon as we reach the shore."
    Callie clapped the shoulder of the young man by her side. "Me and Skinny here will come, won't we?"
    "Huh?" He looked surprised, and actually blushed at being noticed.
    "What?" Callie said. "You thought comin' up here to find your fortune in gold would be easy?" She was japing, but Jack could hear the fear beneath her words, and something else as well. He thought she knew much more than she was letting on. He wondered whether it had been her pistols and rifle firing at their attackers the previous night, or whether she had been hiding away somewhere, knowing that bullets would have little effect and praying that she survived the night.
    Callie nudged the man forward, and he grudgingly climbed down into the boat. She followed and then they were away, pulling on the rope and fighting the current all the way across. The Reverend held them steady while they disembarked, all but the young man.
    "Back you go!" Callie said to him. "Go rescue some folks. They might even thank you."
    The man did as he was told, and Jack, Sabine and the others stood on the bank with Callie slightly apart from them. Vukovich was wandering up and down the bank, looking at the muddy ground, and Jack could hear him quietly sniffing.
    "Won't find no tracks," Callie said.
    "How do you know?" Jack asked.
    She shrugged, blustering a little. "Came from the river, didn't they?"
    "Look at the wheelhouse," Sabine said, but Jack did not even need to look.
    "Of course he's there," he said. "Come on. Let's head out."
    With Ghost's eyes on his back, Jack walked away from the river and into the land he knew so well. The others followed, but he walked ahead for a while, alone. He hoped that soon his wolf would appear. He feared that they were all going to need its help, and its protection.
     

 
Chapter Five - Predators All
     
    Jack kept a close eye on the river, one hand clutching his back-pack's shoulder strap and the other resting on the butt of the pistol jutting from his belt. Thirty-five miles across this terrain, lugging even just the supplies they'd agreed were vital, was going to be a hell of a slog. There was no way they were going to make it in a single day. And he had a feeling that nightfall would bring new troubles.
    "You really think we'll be all right now that the sun's up?" asked a gruff, bearded man, as if reading Jack's mind. Tim Underwood wore fancy clothes, newly cut and tailored, but his carriage and manner of speech made it clear he was unaccustomed to wealth. Jack didn't have to ask his history to know that he was one of the few lucky ones — this wasn't his first trip to Dawson, and the last time he'd come, he'd returned home with plenty of gold.
    The question had been addressed to Callie King, and she turned her wide blue eyes toward the man.
    "Whatever came after us last night were gone at sunup, Mr. Underwood. Don't take a lot of imagination to think maybe the sun ain't their friend. But I can't make no promises about what kind of luck we're gonna have when evenin' rolls around again. Just be grateful for the long days this far north."
    Underwood grunted and set about