LIFE IN THEFAR WEST. 201 



" Wagh I" exclaimed Killbuck, all attention. 



*' Old hos," continued the other, " thay's no use caching any- 

 how what a niggur feels — so hyar's to 'put out.' You're good 

 for beaver / know ; at deer or buffler, or darned red Injun either, 

 you're ' some.' Now that's a fact. ' OfF-hand,' or ' with a rest,' 

 you make 'em ' come.' You knows the ' sign' of Injuns slick — 

 Blackfoot or Sioux, Pawnee or Burntwood, Zeton, Rapaho, Shian, 

 or Shoshonee, Yutah, Piyutah, or Yamhareek — their trail's as 

 plain as writin', old hos, to you." 



" Wagh I" grunted Killbuck, blushing bronze at all these com- 

 pliments. 



" Your sight ain't bad. Elks is elk ; black-tail deer ain't white- 

 tails ; and b'ar is b'ar to you, and nothin' else, a long mile off 

 and more." 



" Wa-gh 1" 



*' Thar ain't a track as leaves its mark upon the plains or mount- 

 ains but you can read off-hand ; that I've see'd myself But tell 

 mo, old hos, can you make understand the ' sign' as shows itself in 

 a woman's breast ?" 



Killbuck removed the pipe from his mouth, raised his head, and 

 puffed a rolling cloud of smoke into the air — knocked the ashes 

 from the bowl, likewise made his "medicine" — and answered 

 thus : — 



" From Red River, away up north among the Britishers, to 

 Heely (Gila) in the Spanish country — from old Missoura to the 

 Sea of Californy, I've trapped and hunted. I knows the Injuns 

 and thar * sign,' and they knows me, I'm thinkin'. Thirty winters 

 has snowed on me in these hyar mountains, and a niggur or a 

 Spaniard* would lam 'some' in that time. This old tool" 

 (tapping his rifle) " shoots ' center' slie does ; and if thar's game 

 afoot, this child knows ' bull' from * cow,' and ought to could. 



* Always alluding to Mexicans, who are invariably called Spaniards by the 

 Western Americans. 



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