The sight of the dog put a wild idea into his head. Heremembered the tale of the man， caught in a blizzard， whokilled a steer and crawled inside the carcass， and so wassaved. He would kill the dog and bury his hands in thewarm body until the numbness went out of them. Thenhe could build another fire. He spoke to the dog， callingit to him； but in his voice was a strange note of fear thatfrightened the animal， who had never known the man tospeak in such way before. Something was the matter， andits suspicious nature sensed danger—it knew not whatdanger， but somewhere， somehow， in its brain arose anapprehension of the man. It flattened its ears down atthe sound of the man’s voice， and its restless， hunchingmovements and the liftings and shiftings of its forefeetbecame more pronounced； but it would not come to theman. He got on his hands and knees and crawled towardthe dog. This unusual posture again excited suspicion， andthe animal sidled mincingly away.
The man sat up in the snow for a moment and struggledfor calmness. Then he pulled on his mittens， by means ofhis teeth， and got upon his feet. He glanced down at firstin order to assure himself that he was really standing up，for the absence of sensation in his feet left him unrelatedto the earth. His erect position in itself started to drivethe webs of suspicion from the dog’s mind； and whenhe spoke peremptorily， with the sound of whip-lashes inhis voice， the dog rendered its customary allegiance andcame to him. As it came within reaching distance， theman lost his control. His arms flashed out to the dog，and he experienced genuine surprise when he discoveredthat his hands could not clutch， that there was neitherbend nor feeling in the fingers. He had forgotten for themoment that they were frozen and that they were freezingmore and more. All this happened quickly， and before theanimal could get away， he encircled its body with his arms.
He sat down in the snow， and in this fashion held the dog，while it snarled and whined and struggled.
But it was all he could do， hold its body encircled in hisarms and sit there. He realized that he could not kill thedog. There was no way to do it. With his helpess hands hecould neither draw nor hold his sheath-knife nor throttlethe animal. He released it， and it plunged wildly away，with tail between its legs， and still snarling. It halted fortyfeet away and surveyed him curiously， with ears sharplypricked forward. The man looked down at his hands inorder to locate them， and found them hanging on theends of his arms. It struck him as curious that one shouldhave to use his eyes in order to find out where his handswere. He began threshing his arms back and forth， beatingthe mittened hands against his sides. He did this for fiveminutes， violently， and his heart pumped enough blood up tothe surface to put a stop to his shivering. But no sensationwas aroused in the hands. He had an impression that theyhung like weights on the ends of his arms， but when hetried to run the impression down， he could not find it.
A certain fear of death， dull and oppressive， came tohim. This fear quickly became poignant as he realizedthat it was no longer a mere matter of freezing his fingersand toes， or of losing his hands and feet， but that it wasa matter of life and death with the chances against him.
This threw him into a panic， and he turned and ran upthe creek-bed along the old， dim trail. The dog joinedin behind and kept up with him. He ran blindly， withoutintention， in fear such as he had never known in his life.