254 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
drawling utterance, and was inordinately long at 
arriving at a moderate pitch of civility. He eyed 
me over and drawled out, ‘ W-a-e-1!’ I handed my 
letter, and quietly awaited its effect; as he was 
long in everything else, he was long in opening 
it. Having made a minute inspection of the ex- 
terior, he slowly took it from its yellow envelope, 
and gradually seemed to understand from its 
contents that he was to be civil. 
‘ So you ain’t bin long in these parts, Cap’en ?” 
said the Judge, without in the smallest degree 
shifting his position. 
I said I was quite a stranger, and should be 
glad if he would give me some information about 
the trails and the Indians, along the route I in- 
tended taking. 
‘Bars and steel traps!’ roared the Judge. 
‘You'll have your har ris, sure as beaver medi- 
cine! Why, thar ain’t worse redskins in all Oregon 
than the Klamaths. Jist three months agone 
come Friday, the darn’d skunks came right slick 
upon Dick Livingstone and his gang. You’ve 
heerd of Dick, I guess?’ (I said I had not.) 
‘Wael, most people has, leastways. They was 
jist a-washing up a tall day’s work, up Rogue 
river, when the Klamaths swarmed ’em just 
as thick as mosquitos ina swamp. Several went 
under, bet your life, for Dick and his boys 
