Why, worthy father, what have we to lose?
-- The law Protects us not.

Then why should we be tender To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us! Play judge and executioner.
-- Cymbeline.
While the Teton thus enacted his subtle and characteristic part, not a sound broke the stillness of the surrounding prairie.

The whole band lay at their several posts, waiting, with the well-known patience of the natives, for the signal which was to summon them to action.

To the eyes of the anxious spectators who occupied the little eminence, already described as the position of the captives, the scene presented the broad, solemn view of a waste, dimly lighted by the glimmering rays of a clouded moon.

The place of the encampment was marked by a gloom deeper than that which faintly shadowed out the courses of the bottoms, and here and there a brighter streak tinged the rolling summits of the ridges.