Later, a disheveled Hal returns to town and attacks Jack. He informs us that the ice did crack and the sled did sink. His sister and her husband died, and the dogs “ran off.” This one’s for all the dog lovers in the audience apparently, because in the book, the dogs die with everybody else. In fact, in the book, only three other dogs survive this far with Buck, the rest having died during the trips with Francois and Perrault. In fact, in the book, Hal himself also dies, so this scene never happens.