midnight
According to his calculations , he traveled nearly sixteen hours . In his naive way , Joe excused himself for not keeping on farther by stating that his dog finally gave out completely and he had to stop . With no food again , Joe took to eating the leather straps that had bound the grub on the sled . Then the dog suddenly went mad shortly after midnight and Joe was compelled to shoot him in self-defense . By hard work , he got a fire and made a good stew of dog 's meat . A good meal of this also had a very stimulating effect on Howling Wolf , who quieted down and went to sleep . Without waiting for the morning , Joe hurried on , but the snow was deep and he made but very slow progress .