They were utterly helpless; and could do nothing but await the result.

As if to tantalise them, they now beheld for the first time the objects of their far expedition--the animals they had so long desired to come up with--_the buffaloes_! Away to the south-west a multitude of black bodies were seen upon the plain, like crowds of men in dark clothing.

They were moving to and fro, now uniting in masses, and now separating like the squadrons of an irregular army.

Miles of the green prairie were mottled by their huge dark forms, or hidden altogether from the view.

They seemed to be moving northward, along the level meadows that stretched between the butte and the Llano Estacado.