The underfed dogs snapped and growled in the passages , glaring at the cold stars , and snuffing into the bitter wind , night after night . When they stopped howling the silence fell down again as solid and heavy as a snowdrift against a door , and men could hear the beating of their blood in the thin passages of the ear , and the thumping of their own hearts , that sounded as loud as the noise of sorcerers ' drums beaten across the snow . One night Kotuko the dog , who had been unusually sullen in harness , leaped up and pushed his head against Kotuko 's knee . Kotuko patted him , but the dog still pushed blindly forward , fawning . Then Kadlu waked , and gripped the heavy wolf-like head , and stared into the glassy eyes . The dog whimpered and shivered between Kadlu 's knees . The hair rose about his neck , and he growled as though a stranger were at the door ; then he barked joyously , and rolled on the ground , and bit at Kotuko 's boot like a puppy . `` What is it ? '' said Kotuko ; for he was beginning to be afraid . `` The sickness , '' Kadlu answered . `` It is the dog sickness . '' Kotuko the dog lifted his nose and howled and howled again . `` I have not seen this before . What will he do ? '' said Kotuko . Kadlu shrugged one shoulder a little , and crossed the hut for his short stabbing-harpoon . The big dog looked at him , howled again , and slunk away down the passage , while the other dogs drew aside right and left to give him ample room . When he was out on the snow he barked furiously , as though on the trail of a musk-ox , and , barking and leaping and frisking , passed out of sight . His trouble was not hydrophobia , but simple , plain madness . The cold and the hunger , and , above all , the dark , had turned his head ; and when the terrible dog-sickness once shows itself in a team , it spreads like wild-fire .
Next hunting-day another dog sickened , and was killed then and there by XXXXX as he bit and struggled among the traces .
Kadlu Kotuko dog-sickness left musk-ox right snowdrift sorcerers stabbing-harpoon wild-fire