After they had travelled three miles they unloaded the sled, came back for her, and by main strength put her on the sled again.
In the excess of their own misery they were callous to the suffering of their animals.

Hal's theory, which he practised on others, was that one must get hardened.

He had started out preaching it to his sister and brother-in-law.

Failing there, he hammered it into the dogs with a club.
At the Five Fingers the dog-food gave out, and a toothless old squaw offered to trade them a few pounds of frozen horse-hide for the Colt's revolver that kept the big hunting-knife company at Hal's hip.

A poor substitute for food was this hide, just as it had been stripped from the starved horses of the cattlemen six months back.