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This time the heavy sled moved forward , with the dogs pulling desperately under a rain of blows . A hundred yards ahead the path turned and went steeply down into the main street . Hal did not know how to keep a top - heavy sled upright , and on the turn it fell over . Half the load spilled out . The dogs never stopped . They were angry because of the cruel treatment and the unfair load , and Buck was raging . He broke into a run , and the team followed him . Hal fell , and the sled went over him . The dogs raced up the street , scattering luggage everywhere , while the people of Skaguay laughed . Kind people caught the dogs and picked up the scattered things . They also gave advice : if the travellers wanted to reach Dawson , they should take half the load and twice as many dogs . So Hal , his sister and his brother - in - law unpacked everything . The men laughed at the tins of food and at the blankets . “ Enough for a hotel , ” one of them said . “ Throw away that tent and all those dishes . Who’s going to wash them , anyway ? ” Mercedes cried when her bags of clothes were emptied on the ground . She said she would not go an inch further . But at last she dried her eyes and began throwing out things herself , even things she really needed . Then she went through the men’s bags like a storm . That evening Charles and Hal bought six more dogs , so with Teek and Koona and the old team they now had fourteen . But the new dogs were no good . Three were short - haired pointers , one was a Newfoundland , and two were dogs of no particular breed . Buck could teach them what not to do , but he could not teach them what to do . The two men , however , were cheerful and proud . They had never seen a sled with fourteen dogs . They did not know why nobody else used so many : one sled could not carry food for fourteen dogs . Charles and Hal had worked it all out with a pencil , so much food per dog , so many dogs , so many days . Mercedes looked over their shoulders and nodded . It was all so simple . IX . John Thornton Late the next morning Buck led the long team up the street . There was no life in him or in his companions . Four times he had covered the distance between the sea and Dawson , and he felt bitter at the thought of doing it again . He felt that he could not depend on these two men and the woman . They did not know how to do anything , and it soon became clear that they could not learn . It took them half the night to make camp and half the morning to break it . Some days they did not make ten miles . They fed the dogs too much at first , so the food began to run out . Then Hal realised that half the dog food was gone and they had covered only a quarter of the distance . He gave the dogs less food and tried to make them go faster . But it is easy to give dogs less food , and impossible to make starving dogs run faster .
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