He profited by the delay to mature a plan which he intended should put the whole encampment, including both its effects and their proprietors, entirely at his mercy.

The instant he could do so with safety, the indefatigable savage was again in motion.

He took his way towards the slight pen which contained the domestic animals, worming himself along the ground in his former subtle and guarded manner.
The first animal he encountered among the beasts occasioned a long and hazardous delay.

The weary creature, perhaps conscious, through its secret instinct, that in the endless wastes of the prairies its surest protector was to be found in man, was so exceedingly docile as quietly to submit to the close examination it was doomed to undergo.

The hand of the wandering Teton passed over the downy coat, the meek countenance, and the slender limbs of the gentle creature, with untiring curiosity; but he finally abandoned the prize, as useless in his predatory expeditions, and offering too little temptation to the appetite.