The

The Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales, and our kickoff for Jack London January at 1001 classic short stories and tales.

This month we're giving you bunches of classic stories from one of our listeners' all-time

1001 favorites, judging from the listen counts Jack London gets every time we play his stories.

And many of you know from earlier episodes, one of Jack London's first jobs as a young man

was working as a water patrolman for the fish patrol near Oakland, California. And it was

rich ground for stories like this one. In this story, the King of the Greeks, London and his

patrol mate Charlie match wits with a known fish pirate called Big Alec, who pretty much had total control

of the waters and the law on the water through intimidation and bribery. It looked for a long

time like Big Alec was going to own the upper hand, until Fortune came to the fish patrol

in an unexpected way. And now the the King of the Greeks, by Jack London.

Big Alec had never been captured by the Fish Patrol.

It was his boast that no man could take him alive,

and it was his history that of the many men who had tried to take him dead, none had succeeded.

It was also history that at least two patrolmen who had tried to take him dead, none had succeeded. It was also history that at least two patrolmen who had tried to take him dead had died themselves.

Further, no man violated the fish laws more systematically and deliberately than Big Alec.

He was called Big Alec because of his gigantic stature. His height was

six feet three inches, and he was correspondingly broad-shouldered and deep-chested. He was splendidly

muscled and hard as steel, and there were innumerable stories in circulation among the

fisher folk concerning his prodigious strength.

He was as bold and dominant of spirit as he was strong of body, and because of this,

he was widely known by another name, that of, the king of the Greeks.

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