In these and in the following scenes, London is giving us a picture of the ultimate depravity of human nature, and of the indignities that White Fang must endure in order that London can picture the contrast later with the gentle and humane treatment which White Fang will receive from Weedon Scott.
The lowest ebb of White Fang's fortunes are now presented. He is the property of a vicious and cruel master who uses him only for savage and vicious purposes. The reader should be reminded that Beauty Smith bought White Fang because White Fang was a beast which could fulfill Smith's hatred toward his fellow human beings. Thus, he uses the dog cruelly, and he makes much money betting on White Fang to win fights against other dogs; yet whereas earlier White Fang had hated only members of his own kind, now White Fang is imbued with a hatred toward everything that leaves him. Eventually, he develops such a reputation as a fighter that on one occasion a fight promoter even throws a lynx into a cage with him. At another time, two dogs are thrown into the ring at the same time, and White Fang, while victorious, is almost killed in the contest.
After some time, when there are no other people willing to pit a dog against White Fang, there appears a "Faro-dealer," a man named Tim Keenan, who arrives with the first bulldog ever to enter the territory of the North.
In White Fang's encounter between Cherokee, the bulldog, they, at first, do not even want to fight. Neither dog has ever seen anything like the other. Finally, however, Tim Keenan is able to coax the bulldog into stalking White Fang. The contest, then, is between the quickness of White Fang, as opposed to the steadfast determination and mechanical jaws of the bulldog, and White Fang becomes confused because he leaps forward and bites the bulldog, and yet the bulldog seems not to be distracted from his constant and deliberate stalking of White Fang. In spite of White Fang's constant and clever maneuvers, he is unable to reach the tough, loose-skinned, well protected throat of the bulldog, who continues to pursue White Fang. During one attack, White Fang, for the first time in his life, loses his footing, and the bulldog is able to grab the lower part of White Fang's throat. Once the bulldog's jaws have closed upon White Fang's throat, nothing can seemingly loosen the bulldog's vice-like grip. There seems to be no escaping the grip. White Fang, to all appearances, is at the point of death. Beauty Smith, in an attempt to provoke White Fang's wrath, begins to laugh derisively at White Fang, and, once more, White Fang makes a great effort to free himself from the bulldog, but the vice-like jaws of Cherokee are locked too tightly.
