Read Online The City Jungle by Felix Salten - Free Book Online

nothing else, he had to lie in wait, to stalk her and shoot her at sight with a dum-dum bullet that would tear fur, lungs and heart to ribbons. The forester was not to blame. And the young wolves, the helpless cubs who perished miserably of hunger because their mother lay shot in the snow—they certainly were not to blame. Though the children of a wolf, they were children, just as the mother wolf was after all a mother.
    With the young wolf in her arms and sucking comfortably at the bottle, Frau Marina gazed out of the window at the forest reposing under its wintry cover.
    â€œThe free life of the forest,” she thought with a bitter smile.
    A sentimental lie! Out there every creature was hunting or hunted. Flight and pursuit, life and death, incessantly, endlessly. Day and night. They were none of them to blame. Those that were killed and those that did the killing. Peace? Was it any different among men? Any better?
    Frau Marina forced herself not to let her thoughts stray any further.
    The young wolf throve and grew strong. He would not leave Marina’s side. If she went out for a few hours, he would whine and howl for a while, then lie down silent with one of her gloves, her wrap or anything else belonging to her that he could steal. They exhaled the scent that quieted him, that lent him patience. He would bury his nose in the bit of leather or wool or cloth, and wait, tense and still. When Marina returned, the wolf would receive her with transports of joy, exulting, flinging himself upon her, doubling up until his head was laughing up at her over his wildly wagging tail, forcing his nose and brow under her hand. At last, proudly and happily, he would fetch her some article in his mouth, an umbrella, a cushion, a book, as a kind of love-offering; and in this way his jubilation regularly ended.
    He was as obedient to the wave of her hand as the best of dogs. He guarded her, growled and barked like a watch-dog, but had never bitten anyone, had never betrayed by the slightest sign the wildness of his blood.
    Frau Marina took him with her to the city. It would have been impossible to leave him on the estate. He could not have borne the separation, and with the best will in the world the people there had not taken very kindly to him; in general the young wolf’s fate would have been changed in no essential.
    When he was a year old that fate was decided.
    A police official appeared at Frau Marina’s in order to confirm the rumor that she was harboring a “savage” animal. Frau Marina received the official politely. He sat in the drawing-room, and even as he asked the question, carelessly stroked the young wolf who wagged his tail and rubbed against the official knees.
    Frau Marina smiled, indicating the wolf. “There you have the ‘savage’ beast.”
    The official drew back his hand in fright. A silence ensued during which the official regarded the wolf with a rather nonplussed expression.
    â€œYou see he is perfectly tame,” said Frau Marina at last.
    â€œTo be sure, quite tame,” the official stammered. “I see he’s quite tame . . . ha ha ha!” He laughed in embarrassment and louder than was necessary. “Ha ha . . . that’s really quite good—I thought he was a dog, just an ordinary shepherd. Comical, isn’t it? So he’s really a wolf?”
    â€œIf you will examine him more closely,” Frau Marina suggested.
    â€œYes. Well . . . I see. Yes, of course. . . .” The official had recovered his assurance. “Well, tame or not,” he said, “the law’s the law, my dear lady.”
    Frau Marina glanced up. “What am I to understand by that?” She was very much disturbed.
    â€œIt’s quite simple,” the official continued, “the animal must be shot, or . . .”
    â€œOr?” She had started violently.
    â€œOr he must be sent to a zoological garden,” was the